The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1898-01-20
Attorney Bruce MilrOy writes a Graphic
Story Of the Trip to Dawson.
CHAS. THOMPSON DIES OF EXPOSURE
Latest News from McDanieis, sim.
mons and MorfOrd rs taken from
Letters Received from them with.
In the Past few Days.

/
be glad to hear direct from him for the
first time since his departure. On two
former occasions he has sent out letters
to Mrs. Milroy, but neither Of them ever
arrived. and so the present letter is the
| first that has been received from him
since his departure. The letter is dated
at Dawson December 4 and says:
am In Dawson safe and sound, and as
a party is going out in few days, take
this opportunity of getting word to you.
There has been no mail in here for three
months, but We are expecting one any
day now. 1t has been difficult to send
letters back from the TRAIL because oppor-
tunities occurred so unexpectedly, and
lack of time, as well as writing materials,
prevented. However, wrote you at
Lake Bennett and also at Tagish.
We had terrible time with our freight
at Skagway. 1t took us three days with
600 or 800 pass engers working to get the
Willamett's freight ashore and checked
off. l had charge of unloading 800 horses
and had to be in the hold, which was the
hottest place imaginable, and afterwards
worked on the lighters and finally as
sisted in checking up. The work was all
in the hands of committee, and we had
much opposition and had to go we'll
armed, but we succeeded in enforcing
the rules and preventing much stealing
that would otherwise have occurred
While on guard duty one night | lost
tense out of my gold-rimmed spectacles
and have had to use the little glasses
ever since, which has been great in
convenience.
On August II we started up the trail
with five horses and 80 tons of goods,
including horse feed, and consumed
three days in reaching Liarsville, seven
miles up the trail. The thousands of
horses on the trail made progress slow.
From here the real start over the trail is
made, the "trair' being simply a way
over the mountains, where men and
horses had to climb, scramble and wade
through mud, water and snow in order
to reach Lake Bennett, provided they
lived long enough. There were thou
sands of men and horses on the trail,
and 1t was only in places that horses
going in opposite directions could pass,
and once in one of these places to let
others by we never knew how long it
would be before We could get started
again. On one such occasion | counted
1884 horses that passed while we waited.
Thousands of dead horses lined the trail,
but we took good care Of ours and had no
serious accidents with them. | saw one
horse belonging to the Simmons Thomp-
son party actually commit suicide by
jumping over precipice.
From Liarsville our next move was
about nine miles, and don't know how
long it took to make it. Getting up be-
fore daylight and climbing over rocks,
wading through mud all day long and
getting back to camp after dark wet,
black with mud, tired and hungry, some
times too tired to eat lost all track of
the day of the week and month. Our
next move was about five miles, over
what is called the turtle-back, which is
one OF the worst parts of that horrible
trail.
l started on my first trip over the sum.
NIT late one afternoon, and crossed the
summit in driving snow storm and got
to our camp after midnight wet to the
skin. not dry thread on me, and the
snow an inch deep at camp. / got
kicked on the knee-cap by one OF the
horses, which famed me before / got to
the summit. but kept pushing ahead as
fast rs the horses could 90. One horse
got down twice before got to the sum-
init and had to unpsck him to get him
up. This is nice job, especially if the
mud is deep and it is raining or showing
hard. 1t was dark before / got to the
summit and rained all the way from
camp. You may imagine, but can't at
oil realize the hardship of travelling over
such rough mountain trail with pack
horses in the dark, in the rain and snow
and with mud at TIRES hip deep. TIVE
horses got down on this side OF the sum
NIT and one OF them twice. / had t,
turn one Of them clear over, pack an,
all, in deep mud-hole among the rock
in order to get him up, and it was abou
as hard a job lifting as ever did.
never had harder nights work, or day
either, or saw worse night or a worse
plsce 10 work in. unpacked one hor sc