Smyrna times., 1909-10-13
DR., DRIGGS ESTABLISHES A
COLONY IN ARCTIC REGION
FORMER SMVRNIAN 90 MILES
FROM NEAREST WHITE MAN
Locates With a Number of Eskimos
Ten Miles From Camp Lisbourne
Where Nothing But Moss Grows.


Smyrnian, brother of Mrs. Mary E.
Turner, near town, has established a
colony in the Artic regions, nearly
ninety miles from the nearest white
man. He was formerly an Episcopal
missionary at Point Hope, Alaska, to
which place the members of St.
Peters Church, Smyrna, and other
residents of this town sent him large
quantities of supplies. The place
where he and number of Eskimos
are now located is barren valley,
ten miles above Cape Lisbourne
where neither cereals nor vegetables
will grow. The following article from
Point Hope published in the Whining
ton Sunday Star of this week:
Home-bound Artic whaling ships
will take to the south with them this
fall the story of one of the strangest
Utopias that the world has ever heard
of. The founder of this colony is DR..
John B. briggs, formerly Episcopal
missionary at Point Hope, Alaska.
the other members of the colony are
all Eskimos, while the soil occupied
is miles above the Artic Cicrle,
where it is utterly impossible to pro-
duce cereals or even vegetables. In
a barren little valley, ten miles
above Cape Lisbourne and nearly nine
ty miles from the nearest white man,
the Utopian dream of a kindly old
man is shaping itself into something
that resembles reality. AS the ships
came past they found new houses
where no one had ever dared to build
before. On the bleak shore there
were men and women and children
and dogs and everything that indi-
Gates life in the Artic world. Behind
them rose the blush gray sleeps Of
the last range of the Rocky noun
tains, which here rises with precipi-
tous grandeur above the sea, leaving
only here and there a little shelf of
beach upon which buildings may be
erected or boats landed. Trees there
are none and the only vegetation
worth mentioning is moss. 1t would
be difficult to conceive a more un-
promising place on earth for such a
venture as DR.. briggs is now MAX
ing.
DR.. briggs Spent 20 Years in Arctic
Twenty years ago John B. briggs
came to the Arctic. He was not 9
young man for he had practised med.
icine for some years before coming
north. Twenty years above the Arctic
Circle will make the youngest Of
tenderfeet prematurely old. The
hair turns gray sometimes within
few months and the white mans form
becomes bent from weary marche:
across an unmeasured wilderness,
Although DR.. briggs is not yet 60 ht
has all the appearance of man mucl
older, and men shake their heads anC
say that the old man came back tt
die. During the score of years tha
he spent as missionary DIR. Drigg
has come to love an alien race. Thei
whole souled sincerity, their devotion
to each other and th9ir unimpeachabl
honesty appealed to him strongly
But years of association with these
people has a way of changing vel
groomed doctors into something tina
resembles an Eskimo. DIR. briggs ha
come to dress like an Eskimo, t.
speak like a Eskimo and to eat tn
Eskimo fare when other fare was t.
be had. He learned the myths ant
folklore of the race and its simpl
imagery pleased him
Dr.Driggs Removed from Point Hop
"Last year for some reason tn,
Episcopal authorities removed DR.
briggs and sent missionary to TAX
his place, but the process of a6apta
tion to savage environment hat
gone further than its victim had sus
pected Down in the States DR.
briggs was a man without country
He had changed and the world ha
changed during his long sojourn i
the north. Old friends had long sine
passed away. Old associations wer
broken up. Coming from a simpl
society, the ways of civilized societ
Jared on him. So he spent the yea
writing book and dreaming of a
Eskimo Utopia in which he and hi
people might start all over again an
in which the primitive communist
of those kindly people could fiouris
again. With the opening of tn
northern navigation DR.. briggs we
once more on his way to the Arctic
He had with him lumber and too
and provisions, all that his scant
savings of many years could buy
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