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From: Virginia <>
Subject: [OLD-MISSOURI-NEWS] KLONDIDE ADVENTURE SERIES
Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 13:28:39 -0500


THE NEWTON COUNTY NEWS
NEWTONIA, MISSOURI, THURSDAY,MARCH 24, 1898

COMMUNICATION FROM J. A. PEARSON
SHEEP CAM, ALASKA, FEBRUARY 25, 98
Publishers News, Kind Friends:
We are now located temporarily at Sheep Camp, 14 miles up from Dyea and
within four and three-fourths miles of the summit of Chilkoot Pass. I
can't tell why this is called Sheep Camp unless it is because there are no
sheep here nor never were. This is the beginning of the steep part of the
pass and the town is made up of the tents of thousands of Argonauts who are
checked at this point at all seasons of the year by the mighty barrier
which blocks their pathway. As much as has been said of the terrors of
Chilkoot Pass one finds it worse than the most fertile imagination can
picture. The snow is five feet deep here and increased in depth to the
summit, where it is sixty feet deep. Many who failed to get over the
summit last Fall have supplies caught there which are buried under all that
snow.

At this season of the year the wind blows a gale from the north over
Chilkoot Pass almost constantly and it is intensely cold. At The Scales, a
point three-fourths of a mile this side of the summit, the thermometer has
registered from 30 to 40 degrees below zero for the past four days. But
this extreme temperature is nothing compared with the fierce, keen wind
that rushes down this canon with explosive force, penetrating to the marrow
and stinging like the touch of frosted metal. Kansas and some other remote
sections have acquired an unenviable reputation for wind, but it pales to
insignificance compared with the icy air that sweeps down from beneath the
Northern Lights of the Arctic Circle and concentrates its force at the
summit of the Chilkoot gorge, in its mad rush to fill the vacuum in the
warmer strata below. For four days this wind has been such that no man
could face it for an hour above the altitude of Stone House and live. Many
persons have frozen their feet and faces in an attempt to move their goods
up the trail and seven are known to have frozen to death in the past two
weeks in coming out over the summit from Klondike. Only yesterday a dog
team of 7 huskies came trotting down the trail with two men on their sled
wrapped in furs and frozen to death and two sacks of gold dust one
containing ten thousand dollars and the other twenty-five thousand. A
party of Indians undertook to cross the pass and a woman and two children
nearly grown, becoming separated from the others were frozen to death. The
woman was found shortly afterward with her baby, alive, clasped in her
frozen embrace. She had taken off her own clothes and wrapped them around
the child thus saving its life.

I went up the trail Monday and the air was so full of drifting snow I could
not see at times and the wind would sift such showers of snow over me that
I could hardly breathe. The trail is solid snow or ice all the way up. The
steepest place is at an angle of 65 degrees, about the pitch of the Baptist
church roof. At this point the trail is worn down in the ice about a foot.
Niches are cut in the ice to step in, and steel ice creepers are worn on
the feet to guard against slipping. If a person should fall at this point
of the trail it would be about equivalent to falling off the face of the
earth, so suddenly would they glide into space from this precipitous icy
incline.

>From Dyea to Stone House we moved our goods on Yukon hand sleds, moving
them by degrees from point to point, hauling from 150 to 300 pounds at a
trip according to condition of the trail. From Stone House to the summit
it is too steep for sledding, grade 800 to 1500 feet elevation to the mile,
so we must patiently carry them. We use pack straps and carry fifty to
one-hundred pounds at a load. Our outfit weight 3600, and we will have to
make over twenty-five round trips to carry it to the summit. On days that
it is possible to make the ascent the trail is lined with men as thick as
the streets of a busy Missouri town. This fact need surprise no one as the
ships have been landing them here at the rate of 500 per day for a month
and in smaller numbers all winter and not a man has succeeded in getting
his outfit to the summit. They are all camped along the trail gradually
moving their goods forward when the weather permits. Most of us are camped
in the last belt of timber on this side of the mountains. It is 13 miles
to Lake Linderman on the other side where the next timber is to be found.
Some who came early, pitched their tents further up the trail where there
was no protection or wood except scrubby timber. They are now literally
snowed in, so also is the timber. The only evidence you will see of life
is stove pipes sticking up out of the snow. They have tunnels to get in
and out to the trail which is on top the snow. They also run tunnels in
various directions in search of logs, stumps or anything that will make
firewood.

Every party has a sheet steel Yukon camp stove and tent to live in. No
person can camp out in open air in Alaska in winter. Working between this
and the summit you can recognize no one. Every man wears a mask to protect
his face from the icy wind and blinding snow which is always drifting with
the breezes. These masks have small holes for the eyes and mouth. Under
the eye holes glasses are worn. A prominent nose is the Klondikers mark of
distinction as we all have to part with our mustaches her to avoid glaciers
forming about our mouths and shutting off respiration. Speaking of
glaciers they are as numerous along these mountain ranges as rabbits along
Uncle Dave Weem's hedges. Some of them appear to be many miles in extent
and perhaps a thousand feet in depth and as rugged as a mass of church
steeples. The ice is as clear and deep that gazing up from the trail it
looks like pinnacle of indigo wedged between the rocky canons, forever
moving on their ceaseless pilgrimage to the waters of the North Pacific
Ocean.

The difficulties of travel through this country are so great that
Klondikers have but little time or inclination to admire their natural
surroundings, particularly as these rugged and lofty declivities are the
icy and wind swept barriers that are now impeding their progress and
defying the most determined men; but every one who can for a moment divert
his thoughts and observation must admit that Alaska surpasses the world for
the magnificence and grandeur of her marine and mountain scenery. On our
way up the coast, at the head of Wrangle narrows, our steamer for ours at a
time, seemed to be sailing right up into the heart of the most lofty
mountains I ever saw; whose base, clothed in a dark mantle of evergreens
rested on the bosom of the waters and whose needle like peaks, white as
Parian marble, pierced the sky for thousands of feet. Alaska for scenery
and gold, she outranks the work for both, but her gold is not on trees or
in convenient places. The natural and climatic obstacles surrounding it
here, guard it from the approach of man as obstinately as the crown jewels
of Great Britain are guard by English bayonets. Every ounce of it that is
wrenched from Alaska's frozen grasp costs some man long and excruciating
pain and agony; but it is here, gold dust, coarse as wheat, seems to be in
every man's pocket who returns from the interior.

Our tents are pitched on top the snow and we have them carpeted with fine
hemlock boughs about 8 inches deep. On these boughs we cook, eat, and
sleep, and get along very comfortably. We have a wind break of long
hemlock boughs stuck in the snow around our tent. We require an abundance
of bedding and have to use heavy knit wool hoods over our heads at night to
protect our ears and face from freezing.

All kinds of beasts of burden are used to transport outfits from Dyea to
Sheep Camp, but the ox seems to be the most practical. They are worked
single, using common plow harness with the collar and hames upside down.
Every variety of the canine species is in evidence here, from all the kinds
we have at home to wolves and coyotes from the lower Yukon basin and
Esquimau dogs or huskies from the Arctic. Dog teams are usually worked
tandem from one to seven in a team. You will frequently see a man and dog
harnessed together patiently pulling a loaded sled up the trail. It is
reported that the mounted police have placed a tax of $20.00 per head on
dogs entering Klondike. This places another obstacle in the way of the dog
owner but we who own them not are exultant, hoping to be relieved of the
dog nuisance which the present influx threatened to precipitate on Klondike.

The Mounted Police now requires that every person entering Klondike must
have a year's supply of provisions estimating 3 pounds per day. Many have
been turned back who have been camping on the lakes since last fall and
expected to go down the river in the Spring but were short on provisions.
The ships running between the U. S. and Alaska are meeting with many
casualties. The Cleveland and Corona were wrecked. The Clara Nevada was
blown up with 80 passengers on her return trip. Many of her passengers
were Klondikers returning to their families. The Rosalie and the Humbolt
are now lying helpless on a reef off Douglas Island. The City of Seattle
on her way up had a passenger killed by a falling tackle block and all her
deck cargo washed overboard and lost. The Queen of the pacific ran on a
reef and at ebb tide rolled over on her side and killed a large number of
horses and mules that were stored in her hold. The ship Noys which brought
us up had a very rough and stormy passage. I never heard a song sound so
pathetic, as after a storm on Queen Charlotte Sound, of six hours duration,
every moment of which we all doubted if the ship would survive, her
passengers gathered amid-ship, sturdy men whose only thought a few hours
before was gold, and sang, feelingly and earnestly "Nearer My God to Thee."

Vessels on the Alaska rout are all overloaded. People are crowded on them
like sardines in a box. They cannot navigate the Dyea Inlet so freight for
Dyea is discharged at Skaguay where there is anchorage and a good wharf.
Passengers are transferred to a steam launch and taken within three miles
of Dyea they are then transferred to a row boat which takes them a mile
further when they wade ashore and walk two miles across the tide flat,
facing the every prevailing Arctic gale to Dyea, where they arrive about
frozen. In about a week their goods arrive on a lighter which if it is not
storming will anchor in about three miles of town and when the tide goes
out they must hire teams at $2.50 per ton to haul their goods up town where
they are deposited on a vacant lot and must remain until the Inspector goes
through them in search of whiskey. If he finds whiskey in any of the goods
the whiskey and good will both be confiscated. Its a violation of the law
to bring whiskey to Alaska but it gets here some way as there are many
saloons in Dyea and Skaguay selling it. When they finally get possession
of their goods they frequently find several packages missing or damaged but
they have no remedy but to patiently submit, as there is neither law nor
time to recover damages here. You pay advance freight in Seattle covering
all anticipated charges for landing you good above high tide in Dyea, but
before you get hold of them you will find that charges have been accrued
for various unexpected transfers etc. that amount to about $6.00 per ton
and in the absence of the parties in Seattle who agreed to pay all those
charges you have no other recourse but pay them yourself and avoid further
delay. Those who have preceded you will laugh and tell you of worse
experience so you must learn to grin when you are hurt and take consolation
from the reflection that you don't expect to repeat the experience. Many
become discouraged by the time they reach Sheep Camp and sell out and
return. All reports from the interior are good, but they become disgusted
at the overwhelming difficulties of getting there.

Don't marvel when you hear of provision selling in Dawson at $1.50 per
pound. They will be worth it by the time you get them there. If we
succeed in getting our goods to lake Linerman in a month we will have to
meet with good luck and better weather than we can reasonably expect.
Still we are here none too soon. Those who follow us will meet with worse
experience. Bad as this trail is, it is unquestionably better than the
Skaguay trail. Of the thousands who attempted to cross by the Skaguay
trail last season only five per cent succeeded. At one point on that trail
lie the remains of 700 dead horses, killed by accident or exhaustion
arising from the terrible condition of the trail. A few women, respectable
and otherwise, are noticeable on this trail. Most of them dress in men's
clothing. Considering the climate it is not hard for us to excuse this
breech of decorum. Could more appropriately excuse the ladies abscense.
This is not the place for them. Some of them are equipped like the rest of
us argonauts and intend to prospect with pick, shovel, and pan. They have
men hired to move their outfits and look after their comfort. Everybody
have more or less provisions scattered along the trail, which is literally
lined with sacks and boxes from Dyea to the scales. It is practically
impossible to keep our goods together and we sometimes have them piled out
in different places for weeks at a time with no other protection than the
canvas sacks in which they are packed. Without law or order we are all at
the mercy of thieves.

Last week two men were detected stealing a miners provisions and they were
promptly arrested, tried before Judge Lynch and condemned to be hung the
following day. They were placed under guard but that night one of them
succeeded in getting hold of a revolver and shot himself through the brain.
This touched a tender spot in the heart of the committee and they commuted
the other fellow's sentence to flogging. At noon he was stripped to the
waist and tied to a tree and a strong man with a piece of new one inch rope
five feet in length doubled and tied to a stick in the middle laid on
hashes with all the vigor he could command. Fifty lashes were to have been
administered but after the 19th the fellow was so near dead he was released
and under escort started down the trail to Dyea, bearing placards fore and
aft with the inscription, "Thief, pass him along." I trust there will be
no further examples necessary to promote honesty along the trail. A lady,
who runs a restaurant here, publicly denounced the proceedings in very
strong terms. That night she lost a carcass of mutton which cost her
$15.00. She now has no sympathy for thieves.

The Government Relief Expedition has reached Alaska and is now camped at
Dyea. They will probably get as far as the lower end of Lake Lebarge, but
it will be absolutely impossible for them to proceed down 30 miles river
until it is clear of ice. Our time here is three hours later than Newtonia
time, being about 1600 miles west and 1800 miles north of Newtonia. On
clear days we have about ten hours of daylight but the sun does not rise
until half past ten and sets at half past two. It is shut out to some
extent by the high mountains that surround us. I am well and have every
reason to feel hopeful of success in Klondike. Wishing the NEWS success, I
remain, you friend,
John A. Pearson.

Submitted by Virginia Brown

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