The Nome nugget., 1924-04-26
(By Key Fittman) (C. $. senator from Nevada and a former NOmefte.)

well as if it were yesterday, re call the excitement with which We i.. Skagit County. Washington, re ceived the news of the arrival of the treasure ship Portland at Selr..e. l Anything that spoiled gold in those ilays was prone to excite all of us iaLnormally and when the Seattle Times in it's reports of the new hlon ldike field and of the "pokes" brot 'down by the Portland's passengers, talked of gold in terms Of tons in stead of ounces and dollars--we!.
 we simply went crazy.
 You see. times were hard with us i,n Skagit County, A young lawyer. tjust out of cohtege in Tennessee. had gone to Puget Sound in 1890 to grow up with the country. My faith in the region was untouched Mount Vernon attracted my atten- lticn as lively and progressive lit tie town. There l hung out my
 shingle-about the cheapest thing that co1ud be hung out in that shfngle couniry--and began to sink my roots into the soil But present. Ily hard times came and the roots began to wther. The panic of 1893 hit us hard. I. along with others
 who had faith in the country, hung on and scraped along somehow Poverty was gallins. but it had some
 compensations. Being broke isn't so bad when everybody else in your community is also broke. There
 were no class lines in Mount Vernon in those days: everybody was on the
 VIC managed to have a preaty good time even if We did have to cinch up our belts to the last holes on oc- casions
 Then came the Portland with hel
 load of gold and the news that set
 us all afire. My faith in the Puget
 Sound counry's future was moi
 weakened, but felt that in this new
 klondike lay the opportunity of . II lifetime
 Il Just as fast as l could I sold of
 cd into cash everything that wa.
 convertible and headed for Seattle
 considered myself fortunate in get
 ting passage on one of the frs
 steamers for SkaGway. loaded witt
 mere of an outfit than perhaps
 should have taken, but still alckins lin many things that should have
 been included It was a journey ol
 wild excitement on ship so over
 crowded that comfort was impossi-
 ble, but who thought of comfort.
 We were dumped down on the beach at Skagway to join those
 other thousands who had preceded , Us. Then came those strenuous { weeks of packing our stuff little i at time over the mountalnous and s rniin-klling Skagway trail. Yes, went through it all and packed my 5 little load of 100 pounds trip, al- though l had never before attempted J anytMng SO strenuous. I thought ii was going 10 kill me at first, but II only seemed to do me good and to improve my physique. At the lower end of Lake Linde- man and the upper end Of Fake Ben ,,-ni iah n1n ,.r built our beats. To do this we went into the woods. whipsstwed blanks out of logs and packed the blanks to the waters edge. The Whipsa w. ing of the logs was accomplished iE this way: A frame ras erecte1 about seven feet abov9 the ground On this frame the log was roEled. One man would stand on the frame above the log, while his partner would take hold of the lower .erd of the saw under tine frame. Thn saw was thus lifted up and pulled down until the blanks were sawed off The man underneath was SEp- p"sec; to direct the saw and at the
 sanse time dodge the sawdust remember distinctly that was ur de rMcath.
 Some of these boats were fra.l
 craft to brave the waves of four pig
 lakes and the numerous rapids of
 the river. We sailed down through
 lakes Bennett, Tagish. Marsh and
 Lebarge into the Yukon. Each of