The WPA Guide to Alaska by Federal Writers' Project

Author:Federal Writers' Project
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781595342003
Publisher: Trinity University Press

DAWSON TO NENANA BY RIVER STEAMER

The White Pass and Yukon Route operates steamers from Dawson to Nenana where connection is made with the Alaska Railroad. (See Part II, 5.) The Alaska Railroad operates steamers on the lower Yukon from Nenana to Marshall. Transfer from the upper river to the lower river steamer may be made at Tanana.

FORT RELIANCE is seven miles below Dawson. This was once the chief post of the Alaska Commercial Company and the center from which distances were reckoned before the days of Dawson. It was established in 1874 by McQuesten, and in 1875 Harper and Mayo were put in charge. In 1882 twelve miners who had crossed Dyea Pass spent the winter here. One of them was Joe Ladue, who followed the example of McQuesten, Harper, and Mayo and financed his search for gold by becoming an agent of the Alaska Commercial Company. He was soon in charge of the post at Ogilvie. These four men, more than any others, are responsible for the development of the northwest. For twenty years they prospected the entire territory, accumulating the small evidences that brought more and more men to the headwaters of the Yukon until George Carmack’s strike in 1886 brought the area to the attention of the whole world.

Roughly between Dawson and Fortymile, but west of the international boundary, are several ghost towns that were important centers in gold rush days: CHICKEN (p.o., 20 pop.), FRANKLIN (p.o., 19 pop.), JACK WADE (p.o., 40 pop. est. 1938), STEEL CREEK (p.o.). Chicken was so named because gold was found here the size of cracked corn or chicken feed. There is a general store and roadhouse at Steel Creek.

FORTYMILE (p.o., 317 pop.), so called because it is forty miles below Fort Reliance, is on the west bank of the Yukon at the mouth of Fortymile River. It is a mining camp and the last settlement in Canadian territory before crossing the international boundary. A customs office and a detachment of mounted police are stationed here. A dozen or more scattered log cabins, some red-roofed white houses, a few stores, a roadhouse and an Episcopal chapel comprise the settlement today.

Harper found gold along the Fortymile in 1886 and established a trading post at the mouth of the river that year. In the early winter of 1887 George McCue and Dick Poplin found gold at Discovery Bar, nine miles above Moose Creek on the Fortymile. This precipitated a gold rush. During the summers immediately following, about five hundred men were working in the district, though not more than a hundred are thought to have remained through the winters. Fortymile was soon a town of two hundred log cabins and several saloons which did a roaring business. There was also a variety show brought up from California. Some of the girls are said to have been excellent dancers. One of the greatest attractions of the show, for men who slept in unplastered cabins and on bar room floors, was the stage sets. They

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