The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1903-03-20
ALASKA
l.. r.. Famous Gives an Inter.
cstin2 Account of his Four
Years Travels and Expcr.
fences in the Gold
Fields Of Alaska

owing 10 SO many questions Delng
asked me in regard to the frozen
regions Of the north | will give a
brief description of the country j
have travelled through in Alaska.
| left Milbank, ). d., for Alaska
february %, 1898, joined a party OF
II men at Revillo, reached Seattle
March 4th, procured our outfit and on
the 9th shipped on the steamer
F., Valincia for Valdez, Alaska. Land
! ed at Valdez March II. We had a
rough voyage, all the live stock
aboard was shot and thrown over
board to save the ship from going
down. Valdez is located at the head
of Prince William Sound and about
, 80 miles from the entrance or main
ocean and 1900 miles from Seattle.
The weather is quite mild at this
point, seldom colder than zero but
with a large snowfall. There were
about six feet of snow here when we
landed. This is a fine harbor and |
believe is quite a fourishing little
town nov The United States govern
ment has built soldiers quarters
here and | believe will establish a
pack trail through to Eagle City on the
Yukon river, a distance of about
$50 miles. The distance from Valdez
to the foot of Valdez glacier is about
five miles and about % miles across
it, with mountains on either side.
The summit of the glacier is 1860 feet
above sea level. This we crossed
with our outfit, hauling it on sleds,
which was quite a hard propo ition,
for we had no horses nor dogs.
We sledded until May 10th when the
now played out. We were then at a
point on what we called Glacier creek
about 10 miles from Valdez. There
we found some very good timber and
set to work whip saving lumber for
boats. June 18th we had completed
seven boats and began packing our
outfit for a trip by water. Glacier
creek had, by this time, grown to be
quite a large river and very rapid
and dangerous.
On June 18th we started down the
river for Klutena lake a distance of
about fifteen miles. We made a very
successful trip: got through to the
lake without getting any of our outfit
wet. This we considered lucky for a
great many had lost their outfits and
some people we're drowned making
this trip. We camped at the head of
the lake until June 10Th, then continued
our journey. We encountered a
storm on the lake which drove us
ashore for a time, but we reached
the foot of the lake June 10Th. Here
we remained about two weeks and put
in III time fishing, hunting and pros
pecting. The Klutena is quite a
pretty lake, about % miles long.
surrounded by mountains and skirted
with timber. Here we got our first
salmon and they were fine. There is
plenty of fish in this lake. Bear are
also quite numerous, they come. here
to catch fish which is their principal
food until berries get ripe.
June 10Th we moved camp to five
miles down the Klutena river to the
head of the rapids. where we established
head quarters and put in the balance
of the summer specting. The
klutena river is about 30 miles long
and very rapid: many lost their outfits
shooting the rapids. This is the out
let of the klutena lake and flows
into the Copper river about $50 miles
from its mouth. On July 18th we
took two months outfit and started
again on a prospecting trip, boated
to the mouth of the Klutena. from
here we packed our supplies, made a
trip up Copper and Salana rivers
l2o miles, passed along at foot of
Mount Drum and Mount Sanford.
Mount Wrangle. farther east has an
active volcano, the smoke from which
can be seen for many miles. Mount
Drum has an old crater but is not
active now.
August Both we reached a point on
tho Cn1nnn fyo hoo, GFaN~.
from Lake Mantaska. Here a creek
flows into the Salana, which we
named, Dakota creek. Salmon were
running thickly in this stream. We
caught about $50 with a small gill
net, built a cabin and smoke house.
dryed and smoked 200 salmon and
cached them with other things we did
not want to take back to camp, with
a view of returning to this camp later
on and perhaps spending part of the
winter here: we then built a raft COM
posed of four dry logs 30 feet long
with rope stretched from one end to
the other to hang on t o going over
the rapids. We made the acquaint-
ance OF a man who was coming down
the river with a boat, who took our
outfit. Stewart and myself were in
the boat, the other four boys took the
raft, there being six in the party.
We started down the Salana to
Copper river, thence down the Copper
river to Copper Center or the mouth oil
the klutena river, a distance of $50
miles. We made the run in twelve
hours running time, and landed a
number of times on the way. The
Copper river has a current of about
twelve miles an hour and some places
over the rapids % miles an hour. It
is a large body of water, one-qnarter
to n mile in width and about 1926
miles in length, with many streams
flowing in from either side.
Soon after returning to camp the
boys began to get cold feet. and they
decided to start for their happy
homes, some going down the Copper
river and p%ortaging across to Orca,
where they would get a steamer for
the outside, while others crossed the
glacier to Valdez. A Mr.. Gorsuch
from Yankton, S. D., was drowned
going ver the rapids on Copper
river and his body was never found.
| decided to stay and cross the divide
RI tho Eo~<, ILL .AA