For many years no attempt was made to form a territorial government in Alaska, and the country remained in charge of the military forces of the United States. In 1883, Lieutenant Schwatka determined to conduct an exploring expedition into the interior, for the purpose of gaining such information of the country and its wild inhabitants as would be of assistance to the soldiers stationed there. This expedition did not have the support of Congress and was kept as secret as possible. Lieutenant Schwatka feared that, if attention were attracted to the expedition, Congress would forbid its departure.
All Schwatka’s plans worked well. With six companions he left Portland, Oregon, at midnight, May 22, and sailed northward, taking the inland route to Alaska. The inland route consists of a channel which lies between the coast of Washington and British Columbia and southeastern Alaska and the line of islands which lie off that coast.
Sitka, then the capital of Alaska, was reached in a little more than a week, and two days later the ship dropped anchor in a pretty port called Pyramid harbor, near the mouth of the Chilkat river. The villages of the Chilkat Indians, consisting of from fifteen to fifty houses each, are built along this river. At these villages Lieutenant Schwatka secured the services of about sixty Indians to go with him on his journey.
Sitka, Alaska, in 1880.
The party started over a good trail and soon reached Haines’s mission on Chilkoot inlet. Here more Indians were added to the number already employed, and the tramp began over the mountains to the head waters of the Yukon. At first the party traveled through a riverlike channel between high, steep mountains, which were covered nearly to the top with pine, cedar, and spruce trees. The summits were covered with snow and ice, which melted and formed cascades and torrents, and rushed down the slopes, dashing over precipices and flinging spray in all directions.
This journey brought them to the mouth of a river called the Dayay, where they camped. Schwatka now explained his plan to his Indian guides. He told them that when he should reach the Yukon, he intended to build a raft and float down the great river to its mouth. The Indians were astonished at this bold project. They ridiculed the idea, saying that no raft could make such a journey. There were lakes to pass through, they said, and miles of raging rapids, which would twist and tear any raft to pieces. But Schwatka paid no attention to their opinions. He kept steadily on his way, and the journey continued pleasant and easy through the Dayay river.
On June 10, the course lay over the spurs of the mountains, and travel became difficult. The trail was up and down hill, over huge trunks of fallen trees, and through boggy swamps. Each man carried one hundred pounds of luggage on his back, and when he sank into a bog up to his knees, it was far from easy to get out.
The snow line reached, the ascent of the pass over the Coast range was begun. Behind one another, in single file, the men scrambled up precipices and through valleys. Sometimes they crawled along on their hands and knees, often using their teeth to grasp a dwarf bush. In many places a single misstep would have resulted in death, but they persevered and at length succeeded in crossing the mountains without accident.