Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-02-26
IRONToN. MO. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 1914 NUMBER 8

Ihls man belonged to the same order
that did. The boats crew brought
material along for making a metallic
casket, and during the winter had
made one. After this solemn GER
emony we were off again.
Our next stop was about three hun
dred miles down the river at an Indian
village where we had to wait again
for the ice to get ahead, and on the
way we could see the great havoc and
destruction that the ice had made in
its breaking up. The A. @. company
had post at this place, and here we
sold all of our surplus provisions at
enormous prices. | will mention
few: tobacco, $500 a pound; coffee,
$500; sugar. $3.50; tea, $3.50; -four,
$1,000 per hundred; meat, $3.50; and
honey $780, If we had had enough
to sell it would have made us all rich.
Our next stop was at the Russian
Mission, short distance below the
mouth of the Koyukuk, where we
managed to secure peck of frozen
potatoes. These we fed to our scurvy
crowd, and they began to mend from
the first ones eaten. We we're now in
a crowd of seven other steamboats,
which hung together pretty well until
we reached the mouth of the river,
and now we began to encounter again
the great fiocks of water fowls which
would hardly get out of the way of
the steamer, and we kept our table
well supplied with fresh meat, which
was great treat to all of us after
eating canned goods and smoked
meat for eight long months.
One other incident happened before
we reached the mouth of the river,
which viii now mention. We took
on board two U. s. soldiers who had a
prisoner who had murdered a man
also the body Of the man he had
murdered. This man was taken to
Juneau, afterwards, tried and hung.
We all arrived at the mouth of the
river in safety, and here we en-
countered the ice again in Behring
sea, as far as the eye could reach.
Here we laid for five days. At last an
off shore wind came and blew the ice
out to sea. Our boat and a govern
ment boat were sent out to see if the
way was clear to st. MichaePs. We
went about thirty miles and found the
ice coming back again. We turned
tail and struck for the mouth of the
river with all the power we had,
blowing our whistles as warning to
the other boats of the danger. We
had to run up the river about twelve
miles before we were entirely out of
danger. At the end of another twenty
four hours the wind blew the ice out
to sea again, when all the boats
started for st. Michael's and made the
trip in safety. Thirty miles from st.
Michael's our boat took the Canal
route, which is some distance shorter
the the sea route, and, as the spring
before, we were the first boat in the
harbor. We cast anchor and our
steamboat trip was over, and here let
me state that piloted the Sunfower,
which was the name of our boat, two
thousand miles up the river and back
again without sticking on a sand bar
so hard but what we could get off
easily, which now feel proud Of, as
there we're hundreds of boats that got
aground and never did get off.
l had told the rest of the company
up in winter quarters that I would
bring the boat back to st. Miehael's
and would then leave them, which I
now did. got job with the N. A.
Transportation Co., running the en-
gines on one of their steamers they
called The Yukon. This steamer at
first was used in the bay for unload
ing their ships. Within ten days after
our arrival there were about fifty
ships from across the ocean, and
steamboats from up the river, in the
harbor, and it was lively scene un-
loading and reloading. The rest of
our company that we're able to work
all got jobs running engines, carpen-
tering and cooks at fancy wages
some as high as $500 day; but
but board was $500 day and other
things in proportion.
Abont this time was the discovery
Of the gold fields at Cape Nome, which
was eighty miles across Behring sea
from st. Michael's, and now occurred
one of the greatest stampedes that /
had ever seen. Whole ship and steam
boat crews deserted their boats, from
the captain down, and stampeded to
the gold discovery. In day ylor two
after, the company managed to get
crews for two steamers, and these
were loaded with the stampeders at
$25 800 head, and we took them across
to Cape Nome, unloaded them and
were back again for another load. On
our second trip over went ashore
and actually found mon making
twenty dollars day. The gold was
being mined from the sand beach, and
was all fine gold and had to be washed