The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-09
TERRIBLE STORY
Of DEATH CITY
deserted Town in the Heart
of the Canadian
Barrens.


SEATTLE, August 24-Tba ;,+ansa
interest created in everything pertain
ing to Alaska and Yukon by the aa-
vent of the Alaska Yukon-P Pacific ex-
posltion, which win be held at Seattle
Ia isOs' has caused old pioneers of the
Nortniand to recall many stories and
incidents of the stirring days of the
rush or the gold seekers.
NO tragedy of ancient or modern
tlmes, no dream of Ammegeddon could
De more horrible than the story of
Death City and the brave band that
Quilt 1t as the terrible winter of 1897
% was falling. 1t is a tale of a citv
tnat sprang up in few hours. lasted
a season and then was abandoned
forever. The remains of this deserted
city are situated near the camp head
quarters of a tribe of Yukon Indians
on the Mackenzie river in somewhat
the same latitude as Dawson and
Fairbanks.
When the news of the Klondike dis
covery reached the outside world, sew
eral hundred thousand men and sever
al hundred women at once resolved TO
go to this land of gold. But at that
time the best route to reach the coun-
try was matter of fierce debate. The
Nome, the Skaguay, the Dyea, the
Wrangell, the Valdez, the AtIin, the
edmonton and the Prince Albert
routes were fiercely championed by
their respective supporters. And as a
result thousands started in to the
Yukon by what is now known as the
terrible Prince Albert and Edmonton
routes.
Many turned back, many died by the
wayside and the remainder scurvy rid
den, dirty, hungry, hoarse with that
laughter that is worse than tears or
Mysteries. struggled along till winter
began to fall. Most of them followed
the Mackenzie, and before they start
ed it was understood that they would
meet for company's sake, to spend the
winter at the highest point on the
a traveller would touch, the
point at which he turned westward to
reach the Yukon. There party after
party struggled in, frost bitten, starv-
ing and hopeless, and those who had |
arrived before and were somewhat |
rested built the cabins and tended |
them till their strength came slowly |
back
But the food was scarce. The cold |
had driven the game away. The lack |
Of fresh vegetables made the scurvy |
worse as the winter deepened. Day |
after day the steady ring of the picks /
On the frozen ground told that one
more grave was being dug for some |
resident of Death city who
had given up the struggle.
When spring came only few white
haired, gaunt, old looking, stopped
and twisted men were left. Food and
supplies were long since gone, and the
logs had all been eaten. But the lure
If the gold still beckoned, and on they
staggered day by day eating roots and
occasionally managing to shoot some
game or to snare a rabbit. They fin
lily reached the gold land-only to find
hat the others who had gone by the
oyea and Skaguay routes had arrived
months before and had staked all the
rood grounds in the camp.
Some day, some survivor of Death
ity will write the story of that ter
ible winter, and viii tell the dark
tories that are only now whispered,
f men turning old in single week.
f women refined and gentle who d1ed
" their own hands rather than live
marked by the terrible scurvy, OF
eroic sacrifices and of panic-stricken
owards whose breaches of discipline
yere suddenly ended by the crack OF
rife. And in the meantime the de-
erted tents and decaying cabins and
he heaped mounds which cover the
,sers is all that remains of an ex-
erience that few occasions In this
,orld's history have equaled.