Seward daily gateway., 1924-05-24
JOE ULMER TELLS OF WINTER TRIP TO FAR
 REGIONS OF KOBUK

Road Commission, arrived in Seward Wednesday from a trip through the district from BettleS to the mouth of the Kobuk river on Kotzebue Sound. MT. Ulmer came to Seward for the purpose of securing a team of horses and will return to Nenana from which kwim with the team to take charge of road work in the TCkotna district.
 NIT. Ulmer stated that the recent trip was one of the hardest he had ever made, no roadhouses exist ing in the district travelled, and the party composed of MT. Ulmer and an Indian guide being compelled to camp out in bitterly cold weather. At Shangnuk MT. Ulmer ran into weather registering 70 degrees below zero and was compelled to lay up ten days with MT. and Mrs. Frank Ferguson, before the weather moderated suffi- ciently to travel.
 He returned to the railroad section in time to attend the meeting of the grand igloo of Pioneers, and later mapped some country along the rail- road The account of his trip as given to the Gateway, follows:
 With Tokotna as a base camp, the road commission have quite an elab- crate road program mapped out for this season, Joe said. Under the SUD- ervision of Ross Kenney, of the road commission, the roads in the Kusko- kwim district will be joined with one another and a few new trails con- structed.
 Ulmer left Wiseman in the Koyukuk district March 10 and mushed into Ne mana with dogs in sixteen days. The going was pretty rough, he says, for the trail was beginning to break up in many places and in spots the snow had completely disappeared .
 At Kobuk Ulmer ran across a num- Der of oldtimers well known in Alas ka. Among those were MT. and Mrs. Louis Llody, who are placer mining on Dan Creek. Frank Ferguson is in- stalling hydraulic plant on Califor- mia creek and will operate this sum- mer. Lots of work is under way on Squirrel creek on the old diggings.
 There appears to be more activity in the Koyukuk than has been for many years past. What the country needs, says Joe, is more prospectors, for it is big mineralized belt extend ing for a distance of 800 miles from Squirrel river to the Chandlar.
 The first snow of the winter fell at Alatna January 1, and shortly after, Ulmer and Kobuk guide went up the Alatna for 40 miles then cut across on an Indian trail to the Kobuk river, crossing Lake Gotwals. In blazing this trail, Ulmer had to work with a com pass on account of the driving snow which fell every day while he was in that section. When he reached the Ko- bulk he was forced to double back to Alatna, 63 miles in order to replenish the supply of dog feed and food sup plies. At Kobuk it was 55 below and when he reached Alatna it was 63 be- low Going straight down the Kobuk river to Shungnak village he ran into still colder weather for here it regis tered n degrees blow.
 "It was so darn cold" Joe said, "the Indians told me after I arrived at the village that they could hear the bells on the dog team while was over two miles away on the trail" Napoleon, the native guide who accompanied Joe froze his face.
 Ulmer said that there were rive dog teams behind him on this trail and not one of the drivers reached the In- dian village with dog for wave of was rampant throughout the district and dogs by the scores died from the scourge. Two dogs in Joe's outfit died of distemper while on that trip.
 Ulmer met the Arctic geodetic sur vey party in charge of Dr. Smith at Alatna. They were all in fine health and anxious to reach their destination. Upon their departure from Alatna they followed Ulmer's trail, which he had broken, for forty miles. From AL atna Joe went to Bettles then to Wise man and then to Nolan. Here he met few miners all fwhom are getting along alright. Most of them have been busy all winter taking out win ter dumps.
 On the Kobuk he met quite num- Der of friends. c. R. Patterson pros pected and trapped all last winter. H. Brown is running a store there and Fred Johnson is prospecting in the dis trict. At Wisewan he met Pingle, Sam Dow, John Wooll, Jack Holzer, Carl Frank, Fred Swift, Ben Sirr, Jim Stew ems and Joe Mathews. All of these men are mining and prospecting on the old placer grounds and doing fair. No new ground is being worked anyplace.
 The last winter was a poor winter for trappers throughout the entire dis trict and very few good catches are re- ported. No reason is given for the scarcity of fur excepting that it just happened to be one of the lean years.
 A splendid specimen of green jade
 was picked up in the Colville River