HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE UPPER YUKON VALLEY.
The sources of the Yukon are just within the northern boundary of British Columbia (Lat. 62 deg.) among a mass of mountains forming a part of the great uplift of the Coast range, continuous with the Sierras of California and the Puget Sound coast. Here spring the sources of the Stikeen, flowing southwest to the Pacific, of the Fraser, flowing south through British Columbia, and of the Liard flowing northeasterly to the Mackenzie. Headwaters of the Stikeen and Liard interlock, indeed, along an extensive or sinuous watershed having an elevation of 3,000 feet or less and extending east and west. There are, however, many wide and comparatively level bottom lands scattered throughout this region and numerous lakes. The coast ranges here have an average width of about eighty miles and border the continent as far north as Lynn Canal, where they trend inland behind the St. Elias Alps. Many of their peaks exceed 8,000 feet in height, but few districts have been explored west. Eastward of this mountain axis, and separated from it by the valleys of the Fraser and Columbia in the south and the Yukon northward, is the Continental Divide, or Rocky Mountains proper, which is broken through (as noted above) by the Laird, but north of that cañon-bound river forms the watershed between the Liard and Yukon and between the Yukon and Mackenzie. These summits attain a height of 7,000 to 9,000 feet, and rise from a very complicated series of ranges extending northward to the Arctic Ocean, and very little explored. The valley of the Yukon, then, lies between the Rocky Mountains, separating its drainage basin from that of the Mackenzie, and the Coast range and St. Elias Alps separating it from the sea. Granite is the principal rock in both these great lines of watershed-uplift, and all the mountains show the effects of an extensive glaciation, and all the higher peaks still bear local remnants of the ancient ice-sheet.
The headwaters of the great river are gathered into three principal streams. First, the Lewes, easternmost, with its large tributaries, the Teslintoo and Big Salmon; second, the Pelly, with its great western tributary, the MacMillon.
The Lewes River has been described. It was known to the fur traders as early as 1840, and the Chilkat and Chilkoot passes were occasionally used by their Indian couriers from that time on. The gold fields in British Columbia from 1863 onwards stimulated prospecting in the northern and coastal parts of that province, and in 1872 prospectors reached the actual headwaters of the Lewes from the south, but were probably not aware of it; and that country was not scientifically examined until the reconnaissance of Dr. G. M. Dawson in 1887. In 1866 Ketchum and La Barge, of the Western Union Telegraph survey, ascended the Lewes as far as the lakes still called Ketchum and La Barge. In 1883 Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, U. S. A., and an assistant named Hayes, and several Indians, made their way across from Taka inlet to the head of Tahgish (a Tako) Lake, and descended the Lewes on a raft to Fort Selkirk, studying and naming the valley. From Fort Selkirk an entirely new route was followed toward the mountains forming the divide between the Yukon and the White and Copper rivers, which flow to the Gulf of Alaska, north of Mt. St. Elias. After discovering a pass little more than 5,000 feet high, they struck the Chityna River and followed that to the Copper River and thence to the coast. The Copper River Valley was thoroughly explored somewhat later by Lieuts. Abercrombie and Allen, U. S. A., who added greatly to knowledge of that large river, which, however, seems to have no good harbor at its mouth. The miners began to use the Chilkoot Pass and the Lewes River route to the Yukon district in 1884. Some additions were made to geography in this region by an exploring expedition despatched to Alaska in 1890 by Frank Leslie's Weekly, under Messrs. A. J. Wells, E. J. Glave and A. B. Schanz. They entered by way of Chilkat pass and came to a large lake at the head of the Tah-keena tributary of the Lewes, which they named Lake Arkell, though it was probably the same earlier described by the Drs. Krause. Here Mr. Glave left the party and striking across the coast range southward discovered the headwaters of the Alsekh and descended to Dry Bay. At Forty-mile creek Mr. Wells and a party crossed over into the basin of the Tanana and increased the knowledge of that river. Mr. Schanz went down the Yukon and explored the lower region. In 1892 Mr. Glave again went to Alaska, demonstrated the possibility of taking pack horses over the Chilkat trail, and with an aid named Dalton made an extensive journey southward along the crest of the watershed between the Yukon valley and the coast.
Turning now to the Pelly, we find that this was the earliest avenue of discovery. The Pelly rises in lakes under the 62nd parallel, just over a divide from the Finlayson and Frances Lake, the head of the Frances River, the northern source of the Liard, and this region was entered by the Hudson Bay Company as early as 1834, and gradually exploring the Laird River and its tributaries, in 1840 Robert Campbell crossed over the divide north of Lake Finlayson (at the head of the Frances), and discovered (at a place called Pelly Banks) a large river flowing northwest which he named Pelly. In 1843 he descended the river to its confluence with the Lewes (which he then named), and in 1848 he built a post for the H. B. Company at that point, calling it Fort Selkirk. This done, in 1850, Campbell floated down the river as far as the mouth of the Porcupine, where three years previously (1847) Fort Yukon had been established by Mr. Murray, who (founded by James Bell in 1842) crossed over from the mouth of the Mackenzie. The Yukon may thus be said to have been "discovered" at several points independently. The Russians, who knew it only at the mouth, called it Kwikhpak, after an Eskimo name. The English at Fort Yukon, learned that name from the Indians there, and the upper river was the Pelly. The English and Russian traders soon met, and when Campbell came down in 1850 the identity of the whole stream was established. The name Yukon gradually took the place of all others on English maps and is now recognized for the whole stream from the junction of the Lewes and Pelly to the delta.
The Yukon basin, east of the Alaskan boundary, is known in Canada as the Yukon district, and contains about 150,000 square miles. This is nearly equal to the area of France, is greater than that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by 71,000 square miles, and nearly three times bigger than that of the New England states. To this must be added an area of about 180,000 square miles, west of the boundary, drained by the Yukon upon its way to the sea through Alaska. Nevertheless, Dr. G. M. Dawson and other students of the matter are of the opinion that the river does not discharge as much water as does the Mackenzie—nor could it be expected to do so, since the drainage area of the Mackenzie is more than double that of the Yukon, while the average annual precipitation of rain over the two areas seems to be substantially similar. Remembering these figures and that the basin of the Mississippi has no less than 1,225,000 square miles as compared with the 330,000 square miles of the Yukon basin, it is plain that the statement often heard that the Yukon is next to the Mississippi in size, is greatly exaggerated. In fact, its proportions, from all points of view, are exceeded by those of the Nile, Ganges, St. Lawrence and several other rivers of considerably less importance than the Mississippi.
Resuming the historical outline, a short paragraph will suffice to complete the simple story down to the year 1896.
Robert Campbell had scarcely returned from his river voyage to his duties at Fort Selkirk, when he discovered that its location in the angle between the rivers was untenable, owing to ice-jams and floods. The station was therefore moved, in the season of 1852 across to the west bank of the Yukon, a short distance below the confluence, and new buildings were erected. These had scarcely been completed, when, on August 1st, a band of Chilkat Indians from the coast came down the river and early in the morning seized upon the post, surprising Mr. Campbell in bed, and ordered him to take his departure before night. They were not at all rough with him or his few men, but simply insisted that they depart, which they did, taking such personal luggage as they could put into a boat and starting down stream. The Indians then pillaged the place, and after feasting on all they could eat and appropriating what they could carry away, set fire to the remainder and burned the whole place to the ground. One chimney still stands to mark the spot, and others lie where they fell. This act was not dictated by wanton destructiveness on the part of the Chilkats—bad as they undoubtedly were and are; but was in pursuance of a theory. The establishment of the post there interfered with the monopoly of trade that they had enjoyed theretofore, with all the Indians of the interior, to whom they brought salable goods from the coast, taking in exchange furs, copper, etc., at an exorbitant profit, which they enforced by their superior brutality. The Hudson Bay Company was robbing them of this, hence the demolition of the post, which was too remote to be profitably sustained against such opposition.
A little way down the river, Mr. Campbell met a fleet of boats bringing up his season's goods, and many friendly Indians. These were eager to pursue the robbers, but Campbell thought it best not to do so. He turned the supply-boats back to Fort Yukon and led his own men up the Pelly and over the pass to the Frances and so down the Liard to Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie. Such is the story of the ruins of Fort Selkirk. Fort Yukon flourished as the only trading post until the purchase of Alaska by the United States, when Captain Raymond, an army officer, was sent to inform the factor there that his post was on United States territory, and require him to leave. He did so as soon as Rampart House could be built to take its place up the Porcupine. Old Fort Yukon then fell into ruins, and Rampart House itself was soon abandoned. In 1873 an opposition appeared in the independent trading house of Harper & McQuestion, men who had come into the country from the south, after long experience in the fur trade. They had posts at various points, occupied Fort Reliance for several years, and in 1886 established a post at the mouth of the Stewart River for the miners who had begun to gather there two years before. Many maps mark "Reed's House" as a point on the upper Stewart, but no such a trading-post ever existed there, although there was a fishing station and shelter-hut on one of its upper branches at an early day. This firm became the representatives of the Alaska Commercial Company (a San Francisco corporation) and opened a store in 1887 at Forty Mile, where they still do business.
Gold Discoveries.—The presence of fine float gold in river sands was early discovered by the Hudson Bay Company men, but in accordance with the former policy of that company, no mining was done and as little said about it as possible. The richness of the Cassiar mines led to some prospecting northward as early as 1872, and by 1880 wandering gold hunters had penetrated to the Testintos, where for several years $8 to $10 a day of fine gold was sluiced out during the season by the small colony. In 1886 Cassiar Bar, on the Lewes, below there, was opened, and a party of four took out $6,000 in 30 days, while other neighboring bars yielded fair wages. By that time Stewart River was becoming attractive, and many miners worked placers there profitably in 1885, '86 and '87. During the fall of 1886 three or four men took the engines out of the little steamboat "New Racket," which was laid up for the winter there, and used them to drive a set of pumps lifting water into sluice-boxes; and with this crude machinery each man cleared $1,000 in less than a month. A judicious estimate is, that the Stewart River placers yielded $100,000 in 1885 and '86.
Prospecting went on unremittingly, but nothing else was found of promise until 1886, when coarse gold was reported upon Forty Mile Creek, or the Shitando River, as it was known to the Indians, and a local rush took place to its cañons, the principal attraction being Franklin Gulch, named after its discoverer. Three or four hundred men gathered there by the season of 1887, and all did well. This stream is a "bed-rock" creek,—that is, one in the bed of which there is very little drift; and in many places the bed-rock was scraped with knives to get the little loose stuff out of crannies. Some nuggets were found. At its mouth are extensive bars along the Yukon, which carry gold throughout their depth. During 1888 the season was very unfavorable and not much accomplished. Sixty Mile Creek was brought to notice, and Miller Gulch proved richer than usual. It is one of the headwaters of Sixty Mile, and some 70 miles from the mouth of the river where, in 1892, a trading store, saw-mill and little wintering-town was begun. Miller Creek is about 7 miles long, and its valley is filled with vast deposits of auriferous drift. In 1892 rich strikes were made and 125 miners gathered there, paying $10 a day for help, and many making fortunes. One clean-up of 1,100 ounces was reported. Glacier Creek, a neighboring stream, exhibited equal chances and drew many claimants, some of whom migrated thither in mid-winter, drawing their sleds through the woods and rocks with the mercury 30 degrees below zero. All of these gulches and other golden headwaters on both Forty Mile and Sixty Mile Creek, are west of the boundary in Alaska; but the mouths of the main streams and supply points are in Canadian territory. In all, the great obstacle is the difficulty of getting water up on the bars without expensive machinery; and the same is true of the rich gravel along the banks of the Yukon itself. Birch Creek was the next find of importance, and was promising enough to draw the larger part of the local population, which by this time had been considerably increased, for the news of the richness of the Forty Mile gulches had reached the outside world and attracted adventurous men and not a few women from the coast not only, but from British Columbia and the United States. A rival to Harper & McQuestion, agents of the Alaska Commercial Company, appeared in the North American Transportation and Trading Company, which increased the transportation service on the Yukon River, by which most of the new arrivals entered, and by establishing large competitive stores at Fort Cudahy (Forty Mile) and elsewhere reduced the price of food and other necessaries. About this time, also, the Canadian government sent law officers and a detachment of mounted police, so that the Yukon District began to take a recognized place in the world.
Birch Creek is really a large river rising in the Iauana Hills, just west of the boundary and flowing northwest, parallel with the Yukon, to a debouchment some 20 miles west of Fort Yukon. Between the two rivers lie the "Yukon Flats," and at one point they are separated by only six miles. Here, at the Yukon end of the road arose Circle City, so-called from its proximity to the Arctic Circle. This is an orderly little town of regular streets, and has a recorder of claims, a store, etc.
Birch Creek has been thoroughly explored, and in 1894 yielded good results. The gold was in coarse flakes and nuggets, so that $40 a day was made by some men, while all did well. The drift is not as deep here as in most other streams, and water can be applied more easily and copiously,—a vast advantage. Molymute, Crooked, Independence, Mastadon and Preacher creeks are the most noteworthy tributaries of this rich field.
The Koyukuk River, which flows from the borders of the Arctic Ocean, gathering many mountain tributaries, to enter the Yukon at Nulato, was also prospected in 1892, '93 and '94, and indications of good placers have been discovered there, but the northerly, exposed and remote situation has caused them to receive little attention thus far.