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From: "Mary Beth Michaels" <>
Subject: Re: Klondike Letter -- Ed. NASH -- Apr 1898
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:09:17 -0900
References: <20030212.143940.3764.5.cymcity@juno.com>


I am really enjoying these letters from the Klondike. I live in Alaska and
have been to Dawson twice, and seen many of the places Ed wrote about in his
letters. From reading some history and visiting museums and the towns he
describes, I can say that his experiences were pretty typical of the the
people who came up here in 1898. There were a lot of Californians here in
the gold rush years, but most of them went home poor. Most of them went
over the Chilkoot Pass, and it was every bit as dangerous and difficult as
Ed said. I enjoyed his description of the wind blowing his sled across Lake
Bennett. And the sourdough bread he made. Of course the men who went up in
those days were called "Soudoughs." The old (very old) joke is that they
were sour on the land and didn't have the dough to get home. Actually for
some it wasn't such a joke, and there were lots of Californians among them.
--Mary Beth






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