The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-22
BACK FROM "TRA|L OF DEATH. y
JOHN w. BURTON RETURNS
FROM ALASKA.
Says Klondike Is Fake and More
Men Die Than Make Fortunes
Few Mines Paying.
fspeeial Correspondence.,

Kaysvile Sept 2l.-After a year and a
half of hardships such as few men would
| care to endure, 5ohn w. Burton returned
to his wife and family here yesterday
from Alaska. Since he left here on March
i, 1898, he has made a circuit of the Can
adam northwest territory, going overland
from Lethbridge. Canada. TO MeDaHe' S
landing on the Black river on the slope
or the Rocky mountains that leads to the
Alaskan Eldorado. He spent last winter
on the CHASTITY trail that leads from Ed
mondton to the Klondike country, and
he witnessed many narrowing scenes of
sickness, restitution and death. The hor-
rorS of the Edmondton trail have been
made known to the world through the
press, and Mr.. Burton is able TO say from
personal experience that the terrible tales
are true. He blames the Hudson Bay
Trading company for many of the cas-
ualties, that perfidious concern having,
according to the gentleman, circulated
falsehoods concerning the: chances for
reaching the gold fields by this overland
route The company he says. has profit
ed enormously from sales of provisions
and from the gathering up of abandoned
packs left by disheartened traveisr on
Mr.. Burton was accompanied on his
trip by Heber Burton, his brother. Both
are strong, hardy men, accustomed to
exposure and mountain life by reason OF
having been engaged for years in sheep
raising. They went by rail to Lethbridge,
Canada and the $50 miles from there to
were COVeT6u during AprIl,
1898. At Edmonton they fitted out a
pack of ten fine horses and took with
them more than ton of provisions. 1t
was not possible to reach Klondike before
winter set in, so they spent the winter on
the Black river, and some destitute pros
pectors from Dakota and Montana
shared their provisions. There was
enough to last them all until April. but
even then there was no chance to go
down the Black river, because of the ice.
Fortunately, just as their provisions
failed they we're able to kill a number of
caribou, and thus starvation was averted.
Many others on the same trail were not
so fortunate, however. In some camps
scurvy broke out, and when supplies from
the coast settlements reached the Black
river camps fifty men were in a helpless
condition from the effects of disease and
insufficient food. Mr.. Burton has no way
OF knowing the number of deaths that
title the Edmonton route to che name
of the trail of DEATH by which it is
now known.
The Burton party was able to start down
the Black river on June 10, 1895. They
crossed over onto the Francis river and
some little gold was found in the bars
on the creek. but such discouraging re-
ports were continually reaching them of
came discouraged and none of them
reached Dawson. Mr.. Burton was the
last to turn back. but he finally did so,
when he saw hundreds of men coming
out of Dawson City, who were pennilesS
and whom the Canadian government was
assisting out of the country. that. they
Mr.. Burton sums up the Klondike coun-
try, so far as he is able to judge it, in a
few words. 1t is a fake, he says, and
more men die there than become rich.
Few if any mines are paying. The Cop
per river country is no good, and the
stories of enormous fortunes are fabricat-
ed by transportation and supply COM
panies in order to work UP trade.
The gentleman came down the Stikeen
river on the Strathcona, a Hudson Bay
company steamboat, arriving al Wrangel.
Alaska, Sept. TO- Some of the passengers
were nearly starving when they reached
Wrangel, and they were kindly treated
by Lieutenant jerks of the Twenty-fourth
infantry, formerly stationed at Salt Lake,
who provided the destitute ones with
food and transportation to Seattle.
Heber Burton is still somewhere in
Alaska working, it is supposed, at some
Of the fisheries near Fort Wrangel.. He
is expected home seon.