The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-24
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KOTzEBUE SOUND PIONEER.
w. p. Stanley, who Carried the Mail
In Tint District Two Years Ago,
Here ON Way tn Name.

One of the most interesting of the many
;aiaska pioneers now at Seattle is Will
lam Penn Stanley, whose experiences as
a mail carrier and miner IN Northern
Alaska have been many and varied. Mr.
Stanley brought the first gold dust out
from Cape York, and though as he saws
he has not made fortune, he has been
Alaska.
1t was during the winter Of 1885, 90 that
Stanley carried the mail in the Kotzebue
country, the route over which he trav-
eied extending from St Michael to the
head of kowak river, a total distance of
over 500 miles. Stanley went over a por-
tion OF this route, extending from Kotze-
bue sound to the headwaters of Kowak
river, distance of $50 miles. three times
between November 3. 1898. and April 26,
1899 On his last trip down he continued
his Journey from Kotzebue sound TO St
Mlchael, going in southeasterly direc-
tlon up auckland river to headwaters,
thence over the divide TO the headwaters
OF kotzebue river. thence down that river
TO Norton bay. then skirting the eastern
shore of that bay, often going overland
across the small capes that make out into
that bay. He skirted the eastern coast
OF Norton sound, past Shucktolick. Egar-
wick and Uniloclick, Indian villages along
the route, the last-named being a rein
deer station, where he saw several herds
OF reineeer. He arrived at Point Kicka-
land to st. Michael island. and from
there went over the ice to st. Michael.
Arriving at 81. Michael. he heard OF
mail contract and went to the new gold
fields; During this journey Stanley, in
addition to his other mail, carried 200
pounds, which he got from the schooner
Gen. MCPHERSON at Escholts bay, an arm
of Kotzebue sound, and distributed to
the miners along the Kowak river.
Stanley says that It was on a spit that
divides kotzebue sound from Escholts
bay that all of the miners for the Kotze-
bue district were landed, and that in max
ing their way to the mainland in small
boats in the SUMMER of 1898, many lost
their outfits and several their lives
About thirty vessels, landed there during
the summer, carrying about 2000 per-
sons, who distributed themselves between
the three rivers emptying into Kotzebue
sound. namely, the Noatak, which is the
most northern; the Kowak and the Sela-
WIKI, the most southern. While coming
down the kowak river, he took a census
and on the river and its tributaries there
We're 100 persons. including twenty wom-
en-. During the winter there were two
births and one marriage on the river
while many died from exposure and ac-
cidents
As TO the country, he says there is no
gold. The coast is barren as 1t Is at Cane
Nome. but farther inland the timber
commences to grow up and the farther
up the river you go, the larger the trees
are and especially on Pick river, a trib-
utary to the kowak. there is good tim
Der for saving lumber.
ON this trip ~ degrees below zero was
the coolest weather he encountered and
during the three months consumed in his
journey he had neither tent nor stove
and yet he says he "fattened on It," He
had the equation of being the most
rugged man In that district.
Stanley leaves soon for Cape Nome He
has Just returned from trip to the New
England states, where he met many
whom he had known on the Kowak river.