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Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields - A.C.Harris

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 02 February 2022

Hits: 1253

- Practical Instructions for Fortune Seekers etc 1897 -

Of course, following my read of Pierre Burton's "Trails of '98" I had to go and pick up one of the many sources. 

This - at 525+ pages - a weighty tome filled with information on the Klondike - what to pack, bring, expect, with abundant first-hand accounts.

As the cover states - it was originally written to "advise & inform" treasure hunters.

You can read or peruse it online here: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4702533W/Alaska_and_the_Klondike_Gold_Fields

I love this. And already - fuck work, I need a proper jeep, metal detector - and be headed Northwards for the brief Yukon summer to discover my own treasures. 

So - fortune is calling - although I will need to somehow arrange a fortune to go looking for it - but - I'm getting religious in my mania - "The Lord is My Shepherd...".

Anyways - still a few months to pass raising my fortune before I squander it trying to raise another.

Back to the book:

Noteworthy:

"There  was  a  young woman  back  in  Fresno  who had  promised  to  be  his  wife. Berry  came  from  the  hidden world  without  injury  and  Miss  D.  Bush  kept  her pledge.  They  were  married.

Berry  told  his  bride  about the  possibilities  of  Alaska.  She was  a  girl  of  the  mountains. She  said  she  had  not  married him  to  be  a  drawback,  but  a companion.  If  he  intended or  wanted  to  go  back  to  the Eldorado,  she  proposed  to  go with  him.  She  reasoned  that he  would  do  better  to  have her  at  his  side.  His  pictures of  the  dangers  and  hardships  had  no  effect  upon  her.  It was  her  duty  to  face  as  much  as  he  was  willing  to  face. They  both  decided  it  was  worth  the  try — success  at  a  bound rather  than  years  of  common  toil.  Berry  declared  he  knew exactly  where  he  could  find  a  fortune.  Mrs.  Berry  convinced him  that  she  would  be  worth  more  to  him  in  his  venture  than any  man  that  ever  lived.  Furthermore,  the  trip  would  be  a  bridal tour  which  would  certainly  be  new  and  far  from  the  beaten  tracks of  sighing  lovers."

There is reference to Montana Bar & Confederate Gulch, just a few hundred short miles south of Alberta, as well as descriptions of any number of other gold rushes - or, as I would call them - "Leads...". 

The book is a veritable treasure map that elaborately describes the treasures but inadequately describes the hazards. There is no fair description of the trials and ordeals that await - or - those fair accounts are overlooked by the enthusiastic reader in his hopes of garnering some share of the riches for him/herself.

There is note of Wall Street:

"  Tell  Henry  that  we  will  have  to  change  our  politics,  because the  Klondike  will  kill  Bryan  and  the  silver  question  and  the money  power  of  Wall  Street  will  try  to  demonetize  gold.  The gold  that  will  come  out  of  here  inside  of  two  or  three  years will  make  Wall  Street  more  anxious  to  demonetize  gold  than  it ever  was  to  demonetize  silver."

and this gem:

"Even  with  the  thermometer  at  eighty  or  ninety  degrees  below zero  at  Dawson  City,  Circle  City  or  any  of  the  other  mining camps,  the  intense  cold  is  really  not  noticed.  It  would  seem very  strange  to  a  person  used  to  southern  weather  to  hear  a native  or  a  person  who  had  lived  for  a  series  of  years  in  Alaska, talking  about  to  being  a  warm  day  or  a  mild  day,  with  the  thermometer at  sixty-five  below.  Yet,  this  peculiar  characteristic  of the  weather,  extreme  dryness  with  extreme  cold,  makes  this  a common  saying  among  the  people.

No  chapter  on  the  Land  of  Wonders,  as  we  have  called Alaska,  would be  complete  without  reference  to  the  mosquitos, which  arc  one  of  the  greatest  nuisances  of  the  country.  The Yukon  mosquito  is  a  giant  among  insects  and  is  king  of  his tribe.  It  may  seem  like  a  yarn,  but  it  is  said  to  be  an  actual fact  that  the  mosquito  actually  hunts  and  kills  bears  along  the Yukon  River."

On Women in the Klondike: 

"The  poet  Campbell,  years  ago wrote  the  couplet :

'The  world  was  sad  ;  the  garden  was  a  wild  : And  man,  the  hermit,  sigh'd — till  woman  smiled'

Some  Klondike  Campbell  sighed,  and  women  all  over  the  United States  smiled.  At  least  they  were  among  the  first  to  catch  the gold  fever  and  brave  the  dangers  and  the  hardships  of  the  Alaskan wilds.

What  is  more,  they  contracted  the  craze  just  as  badly  as  the men,  and  many  of  their  enterprises  and  their  hobbies  were  no whit  less  out-of-the-way  and  outlandish  than  those  of  their brethren.  From  Maine  to  California  women  of  enterprise  and courage,  many  of  them  of  education  and  gentle  birth,  flocked  to the  North  in  the  wild  rush  to  secure  wealth  by  a  lucky  stroke.

Women  who  had  never  known  hardship  in  any  form,  did  not hesitate  to  leave  comfortable  homes  and  brave  the  unknown. From  the  very  outset  the  officers  of  the  great  transportation companies  received  a  numerous  mail  from  the  women  of  the country,  making  inquiries  as  to  the  outfits  necessary  for  them, and  the  cost  of  transportation,  and  what  they  would  likely  have to  undergo  in  carrying  out  their  projects  to  penetrate  to  the  interior of  the  gold  region."

 

Reading this, often laughing out loud in delight, the boring camp costs, inventories of the wealth of Alaska, the grand plans to develop both Alaska and the Yukon - all of which fell to naught, the rude poetry of the author and various contributors as they enthuse about the region. It is hard to believe that this is but a 125 years ago!

A mere 125 pages left, but I'll be searching for more on this topic.