The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-13
NO BOOM At DYEA.
Absence Of Town Site Schemes and
Hurry BurlY.

Hurry Burly.
Seattle, Wash, Sept. 12.-The follow
ing special correspondence to the AS
ISOLATED Press was received here today
per steamer City of Seattle;
Skaguay, Alaska. Sept. mot being
able to satisfy myself as TO the relative
merits and condition of the two trails
to the Klondike from the contradictory
reports brought in, 1 determined to
make a personal examination of both,
and in order TO be able to make an intel
hgent report, 1 induced Charles King
Of Tacoma, a railroad contractor, to ac-
company me to secure accurate eleva-
tions and slopes on the respective trails.
At Dyea there is no townsiting or
hurly- burly boom as there is at Ska
quay Near the beach there are a few
tents belonging to recent arrivals who
have not got their goods ashore. and a
little further up about 100 tents oceu-
pied by Indian families who do packing.
There is only one store Healy & VIII
sons, an old trading post and two
saloons. There was no evidence of any
blockade there. Everyone was either
packing or getting ready to start the
next morning. The price that day was
SO cents to Lake Iinderman, a rise of s
cents in one week, and is row 40 cents
Anyone able to pay the price can get
his entire outfit packed up there in the
morning and set down at Lake Under
man the next evening, whether it is
1000 or 5000 pounds.
From Dyea for one and q half miles
there is a good Wagon road to the ferry
over the ChillSoot river, about 100 feet,
the current being very swift and the
charge OF a. quarter of a cent per pound
for goods and SO cents each for pas
aengers is made, or goods can be loaded
on canoes and towed and poled from
DYea for six miles up the river. taking
a full day to tow a loaded boat that
timbered bottoms should be corduroyed,
but it is not bad now. The timber is
spruce, cottonwood, Alaska cedar and
sturted fir. Half a mile after crossing
a shallow arm of the river the trail
takes to the river bed. 1t is gravel and
easy travelling to Finnigan's Point
again crossing to higher ground on the
east side. Less than $1,000 would make
good wagon road from Dyea to the
head Of the canyon. but one bridge
would have to be built at the canvon
and the first perceptible climb and the
first mud is encountered. The trail
from Camp Pleasant to Sheep Camp is
fairly good and averages about 500 feet
elevation with no sharp pitches. Sheep
Camp is IS miles from DYea and the
character of the country suddenly
changes and becomes more rough and
rocky. Mountain torrents keep up
continual music There is scarcely any
soil or timber from there to the sum
init
There were not many people camped
on Lake Bennett, only those who had
come over the Skaguay trail about 20.
and only one complete outfit had got
through on Sept. l, that of Robert Camel
and wife. Detective w. II. Welsh, who
was the first man to break through the
traH only had a part of his outfit, and
it was scattered from there to the sum
nit. What he had got through had
cost him 60 cents a. pound. All the rest
were in the same fix, their stuff being
scattered all along the trail The trail
over the summit is just 1000 feet higher
than had been claimed for it and 200
feet higher than the Chillpoot pass At
the third hill we found 200 people
camped where there was room for only
about 20, and in a distance of n&Ie
and a half over 1000 and as many
horses, mules, burros, bulls and oxen.
Not one packer in so on the Sxaguay
trail knows how to pack an animal,
and half Of them never had anything
u CO WIKI uO4SGS D9LOTe- near the
third bridge we met Mrs. W. Z. Wona-
mack of Seattle, formerly of Butte,
Mont. She started for the Klondike
last March bv way of Dyea and Chill
kcot trail, got her stuff all on Lake Ben
nett and then received word of the sick
ness of her two children in Seattle.
She sold out her outfit and returned
there, arranged to have them cared for
and started again. On her first trip she
was accompanied by another woman
Mrs. Smith, and her two babies. Mr.
Smith had a claim on Bonanza creek.
and sent for his wife and babies but
Mrs. Womnacb helped her to bury both
of them on the trip before they got to
Lake Bennett.
No read over this pass can be made
70 compete With the Chilkoot as a trail
though it may as q railroad proposition,
as the grade is more gradual from this
side. (Signed), j. M. Haggerty