The record-union., 1898-05-29


dinner, consisting of roast moose with
brown potatoes and gravy, stewed
| macaroni, cheece, yeast bread, butter,
| stewed pears, apricot pie, coffee and
| cream.
Sunrise City has about 125 inhab-
itants. They are a nice, contented lot
of people. There are three white wo-
men here The first white child was
born here last winer, and they named
| it Alaska.
There art three stores, two hotels
and two saloons. Prices in most cases
are reasonable Flour is 81 % per
sack, sugar s cents, oat meal > cents,
bacon II to Is cents, dried salmon (for
Dogs , cents. They have laid off
townsite. and a number of new houses
are being built. Anybody can have
lot 30 by 100 feet if he builds within
thirty days of locating.
This may be quite a town, as there IS
considerable mining country all around
| here The greatest drawback is that
one man can get a claim on each creek,
and consequently there is not one claim
out of a dozen being worked Also by
power Of attorney one can locate claims
for his friends This keeps men from
for at least two years.
| All the creeks around here have been
staked. everybody stalking claims, with
view of selling them or getting some
one to work them on shares. One man
can have as many as fifteen claims.
Very few have been developed, but
some have paid well. Colors can be
found almost anywhere, but gold IS
Turn-Again Arm is a body of water
several miles long and two to
seven miles wide All the riv-
ers and creeks flow into this
which is open to navigation five or six
months in a year. 1t is now full of
mass of broken ice, which is tossed
about by the tide and driven back and
forth by the heavy winds, which blow
quite often.
The dangers are many, and but few
people here care to venture on it. II
has next to the highest tide in the
world, reaching as high as forty-fve
| feet in the spring. 1t comes with
rush and roaring sound that can be
heard for a long time ahead of 1t, ana
Ianybody caught on the Arm when the
bore Gas it is called is in has little
chance of coming out alive. The only
safe way to travel on the Arm is to
wait until the tide passes. then launch
your boat and go with the tide.
We are to go back to our log cabin
on Quartz Greek in this way on to-
morrow's tide We will go by rowboat
to Sawmll Creek, then sled the bal
ance of the way. where we will have
our headquarters for quite awhile
We expect to go up the Knik River
the latter part of August, and then
when the river freezes will start for
Copper River 1t is reported here
that no white man has ever been to the
headwaters of Copper River, and they
do not care to undertake the trip.
| We have not had any mail yet. The
mail comes to Sunrise City once
month during the summer.
We heard yesterday that the passen-
gers we left at Valdes are there yet;
that they can never get over the pass
with any provisions, and that party
of twenty-six men were landed at
Portage Bay. What will ever become
OF the people that are rushing to
! Alaska? God only knows. l think there
will be as great rush back next fall
as there was here this spring.
We have learned that we made quite
a mistake in the temperature in my
| last letter. We guessed at it, having
| lost our thermometer 1t registered here
from 20 to 80 degrees below zero at
| that time It has been about II de-
grees above here in the morning, and
l did not need any coat or mittens.
To work dogs and sleds here we lash
a guide-pole on the right front corner
of the sled, to be used the same as
pole in a wagon. By this you keep the
sled from running onto your feet when
coming down the hill. and also to keep
the sled in the trail and from turning
over The dogs are ahead of you. and
pull by a rope which passes through
| between your feet and tied to the sled,
and you have a rope over your shoul-
| ders, passing under your arms. by
which. you help pull. We have four
dogs now, and they are well trained.
When we start for Copper River we
will be shut out from all signs of civ
ilization for at least one year, and per-
| haps two, as there is no way in or
out except during the winter months.
| In my last letter I spoke of party
| that perished in a glacier we crossed
over at Portage Bay. The following is
copy of their memorandum found:
March %, 1897 c. Fl. Blackstone
| George Bottcher and j. w. Molique
| started from Sunrise City with mail
to meet the boat in Portage Bay They
were caught by a terrible storm and
all perished"
George w. Hall and Charles Will
| loughby found the body of Blackstone
! in his tent on the False Arm of Portage
Bay He had pitched his tent about
300 feet from the cliff where his com
panions met death He had rolled HIM
| self up in his blankets. after eating
| all his provisions, and waited the end.
| Bottcher and Molique were never
found, but a number of letters were
picked up and returned to their writer's
Blackstone had notebook in his
pocket, which contained the following
| entry:
Saturday, April 4, 1S97-This is to
certify that George Bottcher froze to
death Tuesday night ]. W. Molique
died Wednesday forenoon being frozen
so bad c. H Blackstone had his nose
ears and forefinger on right hand and
/ two on his left frozen an inch back
! The storm drove us before it. overlook
us within an hour of the summit, drove
us before it, and drove everything we
had over the cliff. except blankets and
moose hides, which we all crawled un-
| der.
Supposed to have been 40 degrees
| below zero. Friday l started for salt
water 1 don't know how 1 got there
without it, Saturday l gathered up
everything. Have enough grub for ten