Valdez daily prospector., 1909-01-15
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northern territory on the American continent by right of discovery that was participated in by Russia, Eng land, France and Spain. The Copper river was first discovered by the Span- ish explorer, Cuadra, second under . command of Arteaga. The Spanish 1also discovered Cordova, Fidalgo and 1 Valdez bays in the year of 179O. Nothing was known of the source of the Ahtna, which is now known as Copper river, until a lone Russian eX- plorer ascended the Susitna river from Cook Inlet in the fore part of inc next century. He crossed over 4om the headwaters of the Susitna to those of the Copper river, and buried some copper kettles at the edge of a lake, on the summit of the divide. It cannot be determined if it was Tayone lake or one of the Gulkana lakes, but he descended the Gulkana river to the Copper and evidently lost his life near the Tazlina river, as his diary, which was brought out to the Mission. ended in that vicinity.
 The next invasion of the Copper river was made by 24 Russians in the spring of lS4S. It is probable they were stimulated to the effort because of the gold that then had recently been discovered in California. They were very abusive to the natives. and because of their cagerness to reach the hcadwaters before the ice broke, they coerccd the Taral Indians to as- sist in pulling their slcds. They dis charged the Indians on the flat where now is Copper Center, and although they well knew the Indians were eX- hausted for want of food, they refused to give them a thing for their work After the Russians had retired for the night, the Indians slipped back under meath the bank of the river, and with stones massacrcd all but two that they allowed to escape to inform other Russians and to avoid further annoy ance from them. One of the Russians that escaped recently died at Iratet- lik. There are some small discrcpan- cies in the relation of the incident be- tween the Indians and Russians. The Russians reported having been at tackled with hatchets, but the Indians claim they committed the act with stones, and they seem positive that the number of the Russians was 2l.
 The Indian War
 But few years after this incident, the Panama Indians invaded the peace of the Ahma" and at a daybrcak kill cd 70 of them. The Indians scattered to the woods, and under the leader ship of Taral Nicoli they waylaid the Tananas on their return through the Alaska range, and succeeded in kill ing thirty of their number.
 Captain Vests Explorations
 Prospecting forgold seems to be the, greatest incentive of daring men to explore unknown regions. There were no more inVasiOns of the Copper river country by white men until between 1880 and 1890. It is probable that I. N. West was the next man to pros pcct those wilds. He was daring fellow of strong physique and he had gone from the Black Hills to South America where he spent three years prospecting, and failing to find rich placers, he spent one summer in the Cook Inlet country, Alaska, and the / next in that of the Copper river
 / He employed nine Yakutat Indians u to assist him, and among them was one who could talk English and also had been up the Copper river and could understand those Indians. They left Yakutat in bidarkics, and skirted the coast to a point between Malas- pena and Bering glaciers, and from there, near Yagtag, they asccndcd the mountain by q way that had been known by Indians who had invaded the interior for native copper. wrote verbatim statement from West be- fore l saw Alaska, and before he re- turned there his last time. This de- scriptiOn was given before the rush of '9S, and is conclusive evidence that he had been in the country, in contra diction of many expressed opinions to the opposite by noted Valdczians l will quote few lines ag wrote them down while he talked. He said:
 Ut was very impressive sight, as sat and rested on the summit of the coast range, and looked afar down on the Pacific. We were several days packing our outfit up there. We then crossed some glaciers and descended stream the Indians called trana riv- CT, which in their language, means trail river. The Indians said we could cross behind smoking mountain, which we could sec, and they were afraid of the tribe of NicOi Indian instructed them to pack to that pass they mentioned, while the interpreter and ] prospected two weeks at the headwaters of the Chittina, or Copper river in the Indian language. On q glacier stream there l found some nugget gold, but owing to the high water l could not sec how it could be mined prolitably.
 "We crossed small glacier in the pass, which was at the head of q riv- CT they called Chittystone, and on the head of thel Tanana l sent back the last Indians, except my interpreter. l had been sending them back, two at