The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-23
NEWS FROM ALASKA
Fred cClellan Writes Another Inter-
esting Letter From the Gold
Fields of Alaska.
BY This Time the Boys Have Ar
rived at Their Destina-
ton.

Under date of May 9th, Fred Nc
.Clellan writes the publisher Of the
UNION the following interesting letter
from Glacier City in Alaska-the let
ter is accompanied by a pencil sketch
of the glaciers and benches.
AS we have now reached timber line
on the north side of glacier, and I can
take breathing spell, I will write you
something of our trip, which has been
as tough one as a man cares to run
up against. Still I have rather en-
joyed it. think it does a man rood
to be solving hard problems, and it
has kept me guessing about all the
time. We landed at. Port Valdes the
3lst OF March, after a voyage Of eleven
days from Seattle OF course, the first
thing in order was to get on shore
with our supplies which had to be car
ried on our backs twenty rods, as this
is low fat beach and no wharf, and
when the tide is out you could not land
a bark canoe without wading in water,
so it used up twenty-four hours of hard
work before everything was on dry
land. The next thing in order was To-
eating camp and getting something to
eat. We had not had a square meal
since going on board the boat at Seat
tie. This did not take long, for as you
know the boys were all used to camp
ing, and in a brief space of time we
had the minnesota Kitchen running
and the inner man was soon satisfied.
Everyone on the trail call us the 'tMin-
nesota kitchen,' as we have the only
outfit Of its kind on the trail, and GER
tainly it is the best. Everyone envies
us our camp fire and baker, as the most
of them have nothing but small oil
stoves and they cannot cook enough in
one might to last them the next day.
April lst we were ready for the trail
and started on our first trip for the
great Valdes Glaciers four miles away.
There we found what is called the first
bench, where it raises 100 feet in going
IT'S. I will enclose rough sketch
which will give you very good idea
of the glacier and distance from timber
line to timber line. ! ~.
There are nearly 5000 men and 20
women on the trial, made up Of all
kinds and classes, all struggling get
to the Copper River. It is safe .to, saw.
that not one in ten will get through
this season. In fact, half of them will
not even get over the glaciers. The
greatest trouble with most of them is
that they have never had any expert
ence of the kind and they take the
hardest way OF doing every thing.
You can Judge from this: When we
landed there were 2, 500 men ahead Of
us on the trail, and now there are only
800, and if we had had no sickness we
would have been very close to the
leaders by this time. I think we will
overtake them in about a week, if the
trail does not get too soft.
There are about 80 doctors, some
lawyers and a few BARRIERS. In fact,
we have men of all classes of business
but editors. But, suppose, they are
all busy licking Spain and keeping the
political pot boiling. There are six
teen men in our party and I think they
make about the best crew on the line.
Three small parties joined us on the
boat, in order that we might all assist
each other in getting over the glaciers.
This turned out to be a good thing, as
it gave US 1880 feet of line and plenty
of good men on the end of it, so that
the benches that had been killing
every one to get over were the easiest
part of it for us
You would have thought that every
man was working for me, as they have
appointed me their leader-rather a
poor choice, don't you think? We
have gotten along nicely and have
made the quickest trip ever made
across the glacier, with the amount of
supplies we carry, which averages
about 200 pounds to the man. We
have not paid cent for packing. We
would have to pay $500 per ton from
shore to summit. So you see we have
been making pretty fair wages. It
took us just % days to go from the
beach to the summit. There is a
heavy up grade all the way, and as
near as I can make it land I am not
more than 200 feet out Of the way) the
altitude of the summit is 1880 feet in
stead Of LOO, as has always been re-
ported. Take it on good going, a
tough able man can haul 200 pounds
anywhere on the trail, except up the
benches, and the average man $50 lbs.
This is from the waters edge to the
summit; from summit to timber line
on north side a man can take down
from 800 to 1000 pounds.
We reached timber line on north