Alaskan History
“We of the flannel shirt and unblacked boot.” L to R: Frank C. Schrader, J. Edward Spurr, and Harold B. Goodrich, in San Francisco, California, 1896.
Through the Birch Creek Gold Mining District with Josiah E. Spurr in 1896 In 1896 Josiah Edward Spurr led the first expedition to map and chart the interior of Alaska for the United States Geological Survey. It was the first of two expeditions of historic importance, the second being his 1898 exploration down the length of the Kuskokwim River, naming mountains, mountain ranges, creeks, rivers, lakes and glaciers. At the end of the Kuskokwim expedition he made the first scientific observations of the Mount Katmai volcano, and what later became known as the "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.” After charting these regions, Spurr became the world's leading geological consultant, and was generally regarded as one of the world's foremost geologists. During the gold rush era his books were considered the definitive work on Alaskan minerals. Mt. Spurr, an active volcano 80 miles southwest of Anchorage, is named for him. In this excerpt from Spurr’s account of his first expedition in 1896, he and his men have traveled over Chilkoot Pass and down the Yukon River, arriving in Circle City. We reached that part of the river where Circle City was put down on the map we carried, but not finding it, camped on a gravelly beach beneath a timbered bluff. When we went up the bluff to get wood for our fire the mosquitoes fairly drove us back and continued bothering us all night, biting through our blankets and giving us very little peace, though we slept with our hats, veils, and gloves on. We afterwards found that Circle City had at first been actually started at about this point, but was soon afterwards moved further down, to where we found it the next day. We had been looking forward to our arrival in this place for several reasons, one of which was that we had had no fresh meat for over a month, and hoped to find moose or caribou for sale. As
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