Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-02-27
FROM TANANA DAVE.
An Interesting Letter From Our
Friend in the Klondyke.

DAWSON, N. w. T., Jan. %, 1900
Friend Eugene -
On this cold winters evening,
thought it would be well to relieve my
mind of few thoughts, which might
interest you and others of my friends in
Wausau. The Wood County Reporter,
of Nov. %, 1899, came into my posses
sion the other day, and l noticed that
one, Rohn, a topographer, for the Q. S.
under Abercrombie, had discovered the
head of the Great Tanana River This
is all very well and good. He also says
that he was the first white man to be-
hold the mighty glacier at the source
of this river This is where he is ''off. !"
In April 1898, four white men left
Dawson, for the head waters of the
Tanana river, with dog teams and out
fit, for the American Transportation
Company; their names were Dick EN-
mons, of Portland, Oregon; Richard
Journey, of Silverton, California; Cash
Chiltick, of Indiana, and d. w. Parcher,
of Wausau, Wis. We made the trip, in
and out, in ninety days, and the esti-
mated distance travelled was 200 miles.
We started for home from the head of
the river on the 18th day of June, 1898,
which was before Mr.. Rohn left the
Valdese. So, you see, there was some
one there before him.
The Tanana river flows out from
under an immense glacier from the
mountain top. We could see at least
fifty miles of solid ice, which was about
one mile wide where the river comes
boiling out from in under. 1t was one
of the most awe-inspiring sites ever
witnessed. The glacier is breaking off
from the face and falling down into the
water, aad as it raises perpendiculary to
the height of about 800 feet, you can
imagine the terrible roar it makes (equal
to Cap. Womer's when the old Light
Guards did not toe the mark). This
immense glacier is fast disappearing;
at least twenty miles has melted
away in the past two years, prior to
1897 1t is now melted back to and
above timber line about 1900 feet or
more.
The river is spoken of in Rohn's COM
munication as the Lone River.n 1t
has many names. About eight years
ago, Lieutenent Allen, of the q. S.
Geodetic Survey, named it 'Tako,'' or
something sounding very much like it..
Our party camped at the mouth for
seven days and we named it Blaine. !"
("Blaine of Maine" You have prob
ably heard of the gentleman, mas
much as you dabble in politics).
On the river we found good prospects
of gold, in shallow diggings. But we
were after different metal and what
we found will scare the natives when
the time comes to divulge. Gene, the
next stampede of any account will be
into that section, as it is, without doubt,
the coming quartz country. If the U.
S. Government builds a railroad from
Valdese to Eagle it will pass through
an old lake bed 100 miles wide by $50
long, of as fine farming land as lays out
under the blue sky. From this valley
to Cooks Inlet, according to Lieutenant
Kesler, is not over l75 miles, so you see
the valley gets the benefit of the coast
currents In 1898 there was no frost af-
ter the 18th of May, so the country real
ly gets larger season than old Wiscon-
sin, on account of the twenty-three out
of twenty-four hours of daylight.
There is a range of mountains extend
ing from Lake Labarge, northwest
across the country to Yucon river, pass
ing along the southwest side of this
great valley. During June and
July there are plenty of thunder show
ers coming over these mountains which
makes all kinds of crops grow in abun-
dance. There are thousands of acres
of finest grasses growing, red top
and wild timothy. If | could see you
could talk you blind over the great
and only Tanana country. All of the
Wausau boys are o. K. as far as health
| is concerned. My kindest regards to
ali inquiring friends.
Yours truly,
rANANA DAVE (PARCHER).