Alaska and the Panama canal . After leaving the Yukon Territory and spending some timein Alaska, the difference in the character of government fur-nished the people was very marked, and in talking with many ALASKA 77 Alaskans the unanimous expression was in favor of the enforce-ment of our laws with the same rapidity and fairness thatprevails in the Yukon Territory. Dawson should remain thebest interior town in either the Yukon Territory or Alaska. In 1898, one of my newspapers, The Saturday Blade,financed an expedition to dredge for gold on the Yukon Riverand its side streams. The Dawson boom
Alaska and the Panama canal . After leaving the Yukon Territory and spending some timein Alaska, the difference in the character of government fur-nished the people was very marked, and in talking with many ALASKA 77 Alaskans the unanimous expression was in favor of the enforce-ment of our laws with the same rapidity and fairness thatprevails in the Yukon Territory. Dawson should remain thebest interior town in either the Yukon Territory or Alaska. In 1898, one of my newspapers, The Saturday Blade,financed an expedition to dredge for gold on the Yukon Riverand its side streams. The Dawson boom was then at feverheat. Ildo Ramsdell, for years in charge of the art depart-ment of The Saturday Blade, was made captain of the expedi-tion. A specially constructed boat and dredging outfit wasshipped, in the knock-down, to St. Michael, where it was puttogether, and proudly steamed for the mouth of the YukonRiver. As this river has probably one hundred mouths, itapparently took the expedition all summer to decide which one. FRONT STREET, DAWSON. 78 ALASKA to go through. By that time the prunes and rice had beenconsumed and the river was frozen up, and all but three of thefourteen in the party deserted and cold-footed it back acrossthe country to St. Michael. Captain Ramsdell and two others,however, stuck to the ship, or rather, the ship froze to them,and they remained until the next summer, when they traded themachinery of the ship for moose meat and also walked years later I heard from Captain Ramsdell in in Alaska his feet had been frozen. My newspaper hadpromised its readers many thrilling stories and wonderfulphotographs of the gold fields. The fall down was so dis-tinct we still hear echoes of it. This is the first time the storyhas ever been told, and, I have to confess, not a photographor even a camera ever reached us from Alaska. CaptainRamsdell said it was so cold that when he shot the 50-100Winchester rifle I gave him, so much ice congealed insi
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Keywords: ., bookauthorboycewilliamdickson18, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
