Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-10-25
HUNT FOR NoAH'S ARK.
Expedition Going to Yukon to See If
II Is There.

L
Noah's Ark on 1t, Discovered In Yu-
kon" was the headline that appeared
In a Dawson newspaper some few
years ago. And, while a controversy
| may we'll be waged as to the meaning
| and original purpose of the great
ruin that Indians declare exists on
the top Of a mountain far in the in
terror Of northern Yukon, the man.
agement of the Alaska -Yukon-Pa-
cific exposition which will be held at
Seattle in 1909 intends to sift the sto-
ry and II there Is any ruin to have
photos and plans Of 1t at the Pacific
worlds fair in order that archaeol-
| ogists may be able to give an intelli-
gent opinion. says a Seattle (Wash.)
correspondent Of the st. Louis Post
Dispatch.
The story Of the first discovery Of
the alleged Noah's Ark is of itself
! classic in the north. In the early
days of the Klondike rush a brilliant
coterie Of writer's gathered in the new
camp. OF those who have since CIV
en- to the world their impressions
were Jack London. Rex Beach, Jack
Corbett, ex-senator Jerry Lynch Of
California and others. But in the
newspaper world OFF Dawson-then
particularly bright-the particular
star was one Bernard H. Moran. or
as he was known from Point Barrow
to Atlin, Casey Moran.
AS a reporter Casey was unexcell-
ed anywhere. There are whole weeks
in Dawson when telegraphic wires
are down and no news whatever ar
rives from the outside world, when
| the trails are showed up completely
and no one either leaves or enters the
city and when the most recent news
paper Of the outside world Is some
two or three months old and every
one has read it twice at that. Get
ting out daily under these circum-
stances is no joke. But the inevita-
BILE, ubiquitous Casey was always
there with the item, the speculation,
the suggestion. A man that has sue
cessfuly been street preacher, whis-
ky smuggler. walking delegate, min
ing broker, ice trust magnate and
boat builder could always evolve
enough news. whether or not the real
article was in evidence.
1t was one of these times, and the
editor was troubled. Casey" said
he, "the paper is going to the dogs.
People blame us for the wires being
down and the roads being impossible.
Go out and get an article that will
make 'em sit up, that will be talked
of from the aurora borealis' north
ern limit to the southern cross"
This was an order such as Casey
loved. He grabbed a pad, pulled on
his parka, and in a minute the 65 be-
low zero fog had closed about him.
The story appeared the next morn
ing That night a tribe Of interior
Indians had arrived in Dawson, and
Casey caught them within an hour
after starting on his search. They
told him Of a trip that winter after
food far into the heart Of a country
no Indian had ever penetrated before,
away past the circle and east of the
Mackenzie. 1t was country sup
posed to be haunted. At any rate,
the Indians and Eskimos gave 1t
wide berth, and only necessity OF food
drove them into 1t this time. And
fAl1 reached
great mountain on whose top were
the remains Of a vast building like
a hundred villages built on a great
canoe" as one of the chiefs describ-
ed it in the vernacular. The build
ing had been turned to stone, but was
once wood. so the tribesmen declar-
ed And when Casey had found a
family Bible-one of the old kind
with pictures Of the scenes in the Old
Testament-and turned up the draw
ing of Noah's ark one and all Of the
tribesmen grunted with satisfaction
and declared the boat on the noun
tain was very much like the picture.
Moran got affidavits from the In
the world. The noble red men stuck
to their story Notwithstanding the
most jealous questioning of newspa-
per rivals who had been scooped
And, while many will call Moran's
getting the story luck, it is the sort
of luck that Moran always can be de-
pended upon to dig up. He never
waited for it to come to him, but al
ways went to it, and by 1909 the great
, exposition which will demonstrate
so many things concerning Alaska
and Yukon may depended upon tc
have investigated and put the seal OF
truth or the mark Of falsity on this
the finest newspaper story that the
north has ever produced.
IA Old age insurance is compulsor!