Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-01-27


who had some wonderful spruce timber He
framed up the wing for US, built ribs and spars
for the stabilzer and the aileron. @f course each
one of us had piece of linen for patching; we
pooled our supply and covered the wing The
dope Lieutenant Kirkpatrick, the only chemist we
had in the party, was able to concoct from cellu-
lose nitrate, unre1ned banana Oil, and several
quarts Of amyl acetate, proved not very eth-
cacious the linen about fiabby when it
dried as it had been before wetting. But we took
a chance on the new wing anyhow. Still another
delay held US at Prince George, however, for al
most ten days in all, and we got our first ac-
Quaintance of a real frontier town. We got ac-
quainted with hard-boiled miners of the old type
with lumberjacks-great, tall Scotchmen and little
French Canadians, who came in about twice
week for the fun Of spending their money.
sour next stop was to be at Hazelton, at the
head of navigation the Skina river, and at one
time the main point of distribution for the region
beyond. Hazelton is right in the mountains and
these are covered with high timber Due to the
frost, when the timber is removed and the
land plowed level and cultivated during the sum-
mer, when it thaws out again next spring, 1t is
as rolling and rough as the waves Of the sea.
Knowing of these conditions, went on by train
to inspect the landing field before making the
jump in planes. Finding it's dimensions in
adequate, Captain Street arranged to have the
grain cut from a field adjoining to make room
for us to alight with safety
"Our next jump was to land US in United States
territory again. but to reach Wrangell, we had to
jump over the Coast Range mountains at least,
that is what thought we had to do from our
maps, which showed the trend Of river or of a
mountain system, and depicted everything else as
perfectly smooth level country. In point of fact,
the region has never been explored or surveyed.
Fortunately, we had clear day for our take-off.
When began to ascend for our hop over the
mountains, we found that the mountains rose too,
Ii bod T1~& mn
and 1900 feet as shown on our map, when we
reached a height of 1000, we found we needed
5000 more to get over the top, and when tried
to skirt the range, found it wasn't really a
range at all with valley the other side but
just close packed mountain peaks filled with snow
and ice between. These glaciers looked like level
of dark green water. At Wrangell, the only
landing field available, a little island in
the Stickne river, which, at high tide, wasn't an
island at all. We landed in about six inches of
water which had grown to foot before we took
off.
'From WrangeIl we went by way Of Chilkoot
Pass and Skagway to Whitehorse This is the re-
gion made so famous In the early days of the
gold discovery. Formerly 1t took about three
months to make the trip; In winter, travel was
by dog-sleds: in summer, on foot or by pack-train
The once famous mines Of this region are now in
active Their surface veins have been stripped
and high-grade mining in this country is too ex-
penS1ve because OF lnaQeQuate transportation IA
cilities.
"From Whitehorse to Dawson we few over the
route patrolled by the Canadian mounted police
The trail runs in almost an airline that shows I'D
practically all of the way, dotted with the neat
little road houses at intervals of 40 to so miles
apart. The police in full regalia-bright-red
jackets and blue trousers-are snappy looking
fellows well disciplined and giving wonderful
service to the country They were Of tremendous
assistance to wherever encountered them
We crossed Lake La Barge, so well known to read
ers of Services poems which breathe the very
soul and spirit Of this far northern region. This
lake is at once the basin of the White river and
the source of the Yukon unless, indeed it be
one and the river with different names in
different localities
"Crumrine had blown out tire at Whitehorse
but, filling his casing with rope packed tightly he
wrapped the outside with rope taking off with
US to Dawson, and landing safely despite the hard
jolt from his mended tire. We arrived at Daw-
son, by chance, on August IT, the gala day Of the
country. Discovery Day" it is called, for just
% years before the first Alaskan gold dis
covered on Bonanza creek. The people made us