Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1898-04-22

FROM ALASKA.
Interesting Account of Winter Life
In an Alaskan Mining Camp.
The INTER- OCEAN is permitted to
publish the following letter from John
Powell, brother of A. NJ. Powell, Of
this city, who is now at Rampant City,
Alaska:
Rampant City, Yukon River. Alaska,
November q, 1s97:-We haye been
here since Septembers having stopped
off at this point on our way up. the
Yukon river, believing there were
better chances for us in this new
mining camp than at Dawson City,
besides the fact that our boat could
not get to Dawson. We are as COM
fortably fixed as it is possible to be
where a man has to do everything and
be everything himself. We are living
with George M. Reed, an experienced
mining man from Boston and a very
nice fellow, in our little log cabin 11xl3,
with a cache in the rear we'll filled with
the necessaries of life, the three of us
having 800 pounds of provisions. We
bought the log cabin and lot we live in
for $3.50 few days after We arrived
and since that we have built three
cabins, cutting the logs and doing oil
the work ourselves. We are just CON-
pleting a cabin now on a town lot in
the rear of where we live and we hope
to sell it soon. It is hard work cutting
down trees and fitting the logs and
cutting and skinning the roof poles
and ridge and cave poles, but getting
moss now with three feet of snow
covering it and thawing it and also
thawing out dirt enough to cover the
roof is by far the hardest work of all.
W. have been working hard ever
since we got here and I am now as
hard and tough as an old timer. At
first my muscles would get awful sore
from working hard all day, either
swinging an X or throwing dirt with
pick aud shovel, but now I am accus-
toned to it and come home tired every
night. The days are now quite short
as it is only daylight from 8 until $50,
and we have not seen the u for two
weeks or more and will not see it for
several months. but the moon is in
evidence all the time. The lack of
news from homo is what we miss
terribly, none of us having had a letter
since we left Seattle, neither have we
seen a newspaper since n dated
August 10. A man came down the
river from Circle City, $50 miles on the
ice, last we elk who says that Uncle Sam
has annexed the Hawaiian Islands and
that Japan has commenced to wage
war with the United States. We do
not know whether there is any truth
jim this report or not; some of us be-
lieve it and some do not. I suppose if
this news is true the annexation took
place two months since or more. Soon
after our arrival I wrote you a letter
from here, but if'there was war at that
time possibly the boat carrying the
mail from st. Michaels was stopped
and that you did not get it. However,
I do not believe such could be the case.
We started to locate mining claims
on the various creeks in this vicinity
as soon as we arrived and we now have
twenty. II claims between us. Only
last week w started out for Hiyu
Greek before daylight at seven O'clock
with u sleeping bags and tent on our
sled Zone we made ourselves and one
that will carry 1000 pounds over a
rough trail) and rations for several
days. We walked all day pulling our
sled load through about three feet of
snow cutting a trail not only in the
snow, but also helping three others
with u axes cut a new trail through
the woods and at night we had only
made about twelve miles. We crossed
two lakes, one Il mile wide and the
other not sc large, and when we cut
through the ice to get water for our
tea we found the ice thirty inches
thick. You will think we were crazy
when I tell you it was 20 below zero
when we started out and that we slept
in tents for two nights, and found oul
sleeping bags and furs kept us com
fortably warm together with a little
25 pound sheet iron stove we took. We
were out three days on that trip and
the day we came home we found. the
Thermometer at 30 degrees below zero
My first few days experience out OF
the trail with poor Tucker was severe
but taught the rest of us a lesson
how to take care Of ourselves
One cannot travel fast in this country
unless he owns q good team of dogs
they are the only animals used in this
country-or unless he happens to fine
q smooth stretch of ice without an,
snow for one always has a heavy slec
to draw in winter or a heavy pack on
his back in travelling in summer. TIT
snow is dry and does not pack together
as II. does Mt home. bnt Is like so mucl