Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1942-09-03
EDWARD ERWIN WRITES
FROM ALASKA
August 23, 1912.

August %, 1912.
Mr.. Raymond Durbin,
McConnelsville, Ohio.
Dear Sir:-I will try and write
you that letter l promised you I
would, prior to my leaving Morgan
county to work On the Alaskan
highway. | am located in the north
ern part of British Columbia, about
SO miles south of the Yukon terri
tory, and not SO far from the Alas
kan border. A more definite loca-
ton would be latitude SO degrees
and longitude 124 degrees.
| left Morgan county June 23rd
and had over 5000 miles of very
pleasant and interesting travel. l
arrived in Edmonton, Alberta, on
June 27, and from there l travelled
by plane to the northern part of
British Columbia, and from the air
port l reached my final location by
means of an army truck and pack
train.
This part of Canada is known as
the bush country, although ]
think it would be more appropriate
to call it the forest section. Trees
native to this section, include
spruce, jackpine, baleam, white
popular and birch If there were
transportation available there is a
lot of spruce timber here that
would be of commercial value
Among other vegetation we have
very wide variety of wild berries
and several different kinds of wild
grass. Part of the country through
here is known as Muskey, this be.
ing poorly drained sections having
a thick growth of scrubby pines
and also the home of the very un.
popular mosquito.
From a geological standpoint this
is very interesting country. The
exposed rock formations in the
illustrate very we'll the
structural formations which make
up the earth's outer surface. 1t is
easy to find gold in the sand bars
along the streams, however, it is
not in paying quantities. From
what | can learn this country has
it certainly would be a real para.
disc for some of the wildcat drill
ers from Morgan county l was UT
on some mountain peaks yesterday |
which were made of almost pure
limestone with no top-soil or veg
citation. Thousands of years OF |
erosion have reduced some of the |
limestone so fine that it could be |
used for agricultural purposes.
Big game is very abundant |
throughout this section, having
both the black bear and in the /
the grizzley bear, moose |
deer and caribou along with var
ious fur-bearing animals including |
beaver and marten
The fur trappers are allotted sec
tions for their trap-lines, each sec |
ton comprising an area about the |
size of Morgan county. They eth
er buy or inherit the rights to each |
particular section and their annual |
take of furs average about $4,000 |
The only inhabitants of this country
are the occasional trappers. We have
excellent fishing here, the most
common fish being trout and gray |
ling. We use fish as supplement
to our regular rations. About the
only bird life we have is the well |
known raven and birds of prey.
The weather here has been very
pleasant, although in the past two
weeks it has become quite cool at
nights with ice forming in expos.
ed places. We have had but little |
rain since I've been here and only
recently have we had snow up on
the mountain slopes.
At present the camp where I'm
located is in the Rocky Mountain
pass, the altitude of the camp site |
being about 1000 feet. We are liv |
ing in tents and the army furnishes |
our rations. Due to restrictions Of |
about all of, all ra
tiOns are dehydrated foods and are
not very appetizing but containing !
all the necessary food elements |
Our daily routine is closely related |
TO that of the army and our work
Is also cO-ordinated with the army.
We do not have access to either
or radio, so it is rather
hard to realize war is going on.
rhe camp is well over 100 miles
rom the postoffice, which makes
our mail services difficult. / might
add that in my opinion this is .