The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-12-09
OLD 'NIkR0D' FREEZES ON EAGLE TRAIL
Mechanical Genius, Maker of Bear Dental Plate,
 Dies Prospecting

Deatn at Ea5le O1 A. k. RODerJ- son, known throughout the Yukon Valley as "Nimrod," was reported in a letter to M. S. Whittier, As sistant Collector of Customs here, from Jack Hillard, veteran Deputy Collector at Eagle.
 Nimrod, who was believed to be between 80. and 90 years of age, went to Eagle in the early days of the gold rush and had tinkered and prospected in that vicinity ever since.
 He died while making trip alone from his cabin on Chicken Creek to Eagle, about 25 miles away. When the temperature dropped to 23 be- low while Nimrod was caught out in the open, the old man leaned his rifle against tree, lay. down, pulled his parka over his head. crossed his arms and legs and died.
 IS oends, at least on this earth, the life of most lovable and a most impracticable genius Hillard writes
 { Mechanical Wizard Nimrod was said to be able to make anything except living" His mechanical ability was consid- cred remarkable He could work with expert precision on any piece of mechanism from watch on up. His particular duty, and one which he fulfilled with almost unbeliev- able capacity, was keeping the wind- mill water pump at Eagle in re- pail.
 Nimrod had developed a process i for hardening steel and with 1t manufactured hunting knives which were said to have blades so keen l that they could shave bars of steel without turning their edges. Orders for such knives came to Nimrod from all over the world but he would work i on them only when the notion struck ] him, spending almost all his time in prospecting. No one else knew his steel hardening process and the secret died with him. Bear Teeth The aged prospector is famed as the man who shot a bear, made himself a en t a l plate with the bears teeth and then, according to ! legend, ate the bear i He wore the bear teeth for many years and finally traded them to Seattle dentist, who had heard oi their ingenius manufacture and sought Nimrod out for set Of mod- modern plates. Nimrod's Lear teeth are still on exhibit in Seattle.
 In his early days Nimrod was a guide in the Maine woods. He was at one time Captain in the Maine National Guard and liked 10 tell cronies at Robert Steele's roadhouse, where he ate lunch of his military career.
 The crew on the Yukon River steamer tell of overtaking Nimrod "necking" a small boat up the river last year. Invited to put his skiff aboard and ride up the river, the octogenarian spurned the offer, | saying: No, this is good exercise
 Road Worker
 Frank Willard of the Alaska Road i Commission recalled that Nimrod, then a man of more than 70. had worked under him on road gangs at Eagle. The old man. when sent out to repair a bridge, would ne- glect tc take along axe or shovel and would proceed on the spot to whittle workable tools with his jacknife.
 In an argument with Willard who was then 60 himself, Nimrod once said indignantly: young man, I'm not in the habit of being disputed by man of your age.'
 He resigned at one time. Willard recalled. because his conscience bothered him to be taking pay for building a road, which he thought | should go across swamp instead of along ridge, as decided by en- gineers.