Alaskan History Magazine Jan-Feb, 2021

January-February, 2021

alaskan-history.com

!1

Alaskan History

!2

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 This issue’s cover image is a vintage postcard of Rampart, on the south bank of the Yukon River, approximately 75 miles upstream from its junction with the Tanana River, 100 miles northwest of Fairbanks. Rampart City was established in 1897 as a river supply point for gold placer mines in the hills and creek valleys south of the Yukon. In 1898 the population swelled to as high as 10,000 by some estimates.

During its heyday, Rampart had a newspaper, hotels, s a l o o n s , l i b r a r y, f i r e department, hospital, and a host of stores and businesses that were typical of the mining towns of that time.

Inside this issue: • CR&NWRR Steamboats on the Copper River

Between 1907 and 1911 the Copper River and Northwestern Railway operated a fleet of steamboats on the Copper and Chitina Rivers in support of railroad construction and mining operations at Kennicott.

• Along the Trail from Eagle to Valdez, 1901

This 1901 report includes a discussion of the Copper River region, interesting notes and observations on the Native and non-Native residents and visitors.

• Glacial Lake Ahtna

During the last major glaciation the Copper River and its tributaries were dammed by glacial advances, and the lake that formed in the Copper River Basin was named glacial Lake Ahtna.

• Dr. Joseph Romig, The Dog Team Doctor

To the people he served in the southwestern Alaska region of the Kuskokwim delta, Dr. Joseph H. Romig was known as “Yung-Cha-wista,” person working for others, or “Remaker of People.”

• Patsy Ann the Bull Terrier

Deaf since birth, the friendly white bull terrier named Patsy Ann became Juneau’s official greeter in 1934, and is honored today with a bronze statue on the dock near her favorite spot.

• ‘‘Anything You Know Regarding the Natives:” Dr. James Taylor White’s 1901 Yukon River Ethnographic Questionnaire” • Gary C. Stein

Dr. James Taylor White wrote to six missions along a 500-mile stretch of the Yukon River. All of these were Athabascan Indian missions with the exception of Russian Mission, which was Central Yup’ik Eskimo.

www.alaskan-history.com Alaskan History Magazine is published bimonthly by Northern Light Media

alaskan-history.com

!3

Alaskan History Jan-Feb, 2021 VOLUME 3, NO. 1 ISBN 9798581021347

Published bimonthly

by Northern Light Media

MEMORABLE PHOTOGRAPHS IN ALASKAN HISTORY CAPTURING ALASKA’S HISTORY ON GLASS PLATES AND FILM - 6

ALASKAN HISTORY

‘‘Anything You Know Regarding the Natives” Dr. James Taylor White’s 1901 Yukon River Ethnographic Questionnaire” • Gary C. Stein Dr. White wrote to six missions along a 500-mile stretch of the river: Russian Mission at the village of Ikogmiut; the missions of Holy Cross at Koserefsky and St. Peter Claver at Nulato; and the missions of Christ Church at Anvik, St. James at Tanana, and St. Andrews at Rampart.

All of these were Athabascan Indian missions with the exception of Russian Mission, which was Central Yup’ik Eskimo. Article begins on page 38

!4

alaskan-history.com

The village of Anvik 1901, Hegg Photograph

January-February, 2021 CR&NW RAILROAD STEAMSHIPS

8

THE CHITINA, TONSINA, GULKANA AND NIZINA Between 1907 and 1911 the Copper River and Northwestern Railway operated a small fleet of steamboats on the Copper and Chitina Rivers.

ALONG THE TRAIL FROM EAGLE TO VALDEZ, 1901

14

ISAAC JONE’S RECONNAISSANCE REPORT This 1901 report includes a discussion of the Copper River region, interesting notes and observations on the Native and non-Native residents and visitors.

LAKE AHTNA

26

FLOODING THE COPPER RIVER BASIN During the last major glaciation the Copper River and its tributaries were dammed by glacial advances, and a lake formed in the Copper River Basin.

DR. JOSEPH HERMAN ROMIG

30

THE DOG-TEAM DOCTOR To the people of the Kuskokwim area Dr. Romig was known as “Yung-Chawista,” person working for others, or “Remaker of People.”

PATSY ANN THE BULL TERRIER

36

JUNEAU’S OFFICIAL GREETER Deaf since birth, the white bull terrier named Patsy Ann became Juneau’s official greeter in 1934, and is honored today with a bronze statue on the dock.

Copper River Steamboats . . . . . . . page 8 Cover Notes, In this Issue . . . . . . . 1

Memorable Photographs . . . . . 6 - 7

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 3

Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 to 37

Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Special Feature . . . . . . . . . . . 38 - 47

Magazine Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Resources used in this issue . . . . 48

alaskan-history.com

!5

Alaskan History

Alaskan History

Publisher’s Note

M•A•G•A•Z•I•N•E

A New Year

Jan-Feb, 2021

The Roads Ahead, the Trails Behind

Volume 3, Number 1

As we settle into a new year, many are already planning summer road trips to favorite places and and explorations to new sites of interest, some even beyond the roads, over trails forged by the pioneer travelers, or by native peoples before them. Some, of course, will strike out beyond the trails, perhaps following rivers or streams, quiet valleys and canyons, or maybe the rugged shoreline of a lake, an island, or an arm of the sea.

Published by Northern Light Media Post Office Box 870515 Wasilla, Alaska 99687 (907) 521-5245 www.Alaskan-History.com Email AlaskanHistory@gmail.com Newsletter alaskanhistory.substack.com Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ AlaskanHistory/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelenHegener Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ akhistorymagazine/

ISBN 9798581021347

!6

Wherever we wander, whenever we go—for many love exploring icebound, snow-covered lands—we can be assured that someone was there before us. Perhaps not many, but there are few places in Alaska which have not been trod at some point, whether by the moccasined feet of indigenous people, the heavy boots of a prospector, or the hiking shoes of an avid outdoorsman.

Some will disike the idea of not being the first to gaze on some scenic vista, but I think there is a certain comfort in knowing that our fellow travelers have, at some point, been there too. They may have left some residue of their passing; a crumbling cabin, a fire ring, the stumps of trees, or a misplaced tool which says “someone came this way….”

Alaska is blessed with an incredible landscape, often all one needs to enjoy an outing. But it is also fortunate to have a wonderful history, relatively short as world histories go, but full of adventures, characters, joys, hardships, discoveries, unimaginable privations, and so much more. Pause to consider what may have happened, who might have come that way in years past, as you make your own discoveries this year.

Helen Helen Hegener, Publisher • Northern Light Media ~ http://www.northernlightmedia.com • Alaskan History Magazine ~ http://www.alaskan-history.com • Digital magazine ~ https://issuu.com/alaskanhistorymagazine

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 • Newsletter Alaskan History Magazine’s free newsletter includes news, articles, photos, videos, quotes, excerpts, links to great resources, and much more! Check it out here: alaskanhistory.substack.com

Inspiring Alaskans

• Online The Alaskan History Magazine website features excerpts of articles which appear in the pages of this magazine, with additional information, photos, maps, and links to resources. www.alaskan-history.com • Digital Editions The first two years of Alaskan History Magazine are available to read free online at issuu.com, the premier digitial publication website.

• Resources used in researching the articles for each issue are shared on page 48, with links to the websites, PDFs and video and digital media.

• Alaskan History Books Many of the historic books featured in every issue are available to purchase at the Northern Light Media website, publisher of this magazine. Sales help support the continued publication of this magazine.

• Social Media Alaskan History Magazine is active on SubStack, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For information visit the website: www.alaskan-history.com • Back Issues Print back issues of Alaskan History Magazine are always available, see the Northern Light Media website for information about ordering issues you may be missing. Every issue is 48 pages, full color, and contains no advertising. Independently published in Alaska by Northern Light Media. www.northernlightmedia.com

Jack McQuesten Leroy Napoleon “Jack” McQuesten was a pioneer explorer, prospector, and trader. With partners Arthur Harper and riverboat Captain Al Mayo, he founded a wide network of trading posts across Alaska and the Yukon.

In 1894 McQuesten founded Circle City, on the bank of the Yukon River. He set up the Alaska Commercial Company in Circle City, and grubstaked miners in the Birch Creek Mining District. When the Klondike gold rush began in 1897 he left Alaska, bought claims on Bonanza and Eldorado creeks in the Klondike district, and retired a multi-millionaire to Berkeley, California in 1898.

The pioneering spirit of Jack McQuesten inspires every issue of Alaskan History Magazine!

For information visit:

AlaskanHistory.substack.com facebook.com/groups/AlaskanHistory/ twitter.com/HelenHegener instagram.com/akhistorymagazine/

alaskan-history.com

www.alaskan-history.com or SubStack, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

!7

Alaskan History

Memorable Photographs Capturing Alaska’s History on Glass Plates and Film

Right: Wreck of the sailing vessel Harriet on the beach at Nome, September 17, 1900. An anchor cable broke in a storm two miles west of Nome and the schooner was driven ashore. The crew of nine survived, but the ship was a total loss.

She was carrying a cargo of dogs, deer, and skins, half of which was also lost. [photographer Eric A. Hegg] Below: Postcard of the lumber company, woodworkers, and dog sled builders Brosius & Noon, at Seward. [No date or photographer] Page 7: Top: Fresno scrapers digging the Miocene Ditch, Nome, ca. 1900. The Miocene Ditch was one of three canals which provided water for early placer gold mining operations near Nome. [photographer Eric A. Hegg] Bottom: Postcard of passengers landing at Nome. [Photographer Otto Daniel Goetze, date before 1908]

!8

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

Alaska’s Digital Archives: https://vilda.alaska.edu

alaskan-history.com

!9

Alaskan History

!10

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

Left: CR&NWRR blueprints [Library of Congress]. Above: 1913 postcard.

The Copper River & Northwestern Railway Steamboats 1907-1911 Chittyna, Tonsina, Gulkana, and Nizina “The real workhorses of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway” The discovery of the world's richest commercial copper deposit near Kennicott Glacier in 1899 prompted the Alaska Syndicate to build a 196-mile railroad from tidewater at Cordova up the Copper and Chitina rivers to the rich copper mines in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains.

Construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW), begun in 1905 and completed in 1911, involved fierce battles against the natural obstacles, gunfights over rights-ofway, and extraordinary feats of construction under the most grueling conditions.

In his Foreword to Lone E. Janson’s book, The Copper Spike (Todd Communications, Anchorage, Ak 1975), Alaskan Senator E. L. ‘Bob’ Bartlett wrote, “It is an eventful tale, full of the vagaries of Alaska weather, the crags and glaciers of Alaska mountains, the daring and resourcefulness of Alaska pioneers. In the background are the legal and political battles reaching all the way to Washington, D. C., the financial struggles and schemes involving the giants of Wall Street, and all the colorful scenes of America in the years when the Gay Nineties closed in a whirl of boom or bust philosophy, and the new century began with a surge of excitement and high endeavor.”

alaskan-history.com

!11

Alaskan History

Chever Hazelet, freighter George Meals, and the firebox for Chittyna, leaving Valdez, March, 1907. [P. S. Hunt, LOC]

In the middle of this unparalleled project, between 1907 and 1911, the Copper River and Northwestern Railway operated a fleet of steamboats on the Copper and Chitina Rivers in support of railroad construction and the mining operations at Kennicott. This was no easy feat, as the Copper River is wide, fast, and dangerous, with shifting gravelbars, rapidly changing channels, and treacherous rapids, and the Chitina River is no less daunting. Winds tearing down the canyons at up to 95 miles an hour can be as formidable as the currents, as author Lone E. Janson describes in The Copper Spike: “The Copper was everything that ornery rivers are noted for, and then some. Besides icebergs, rapids, and shifting sandbars there was the ‘Copper River wind,’ a force to be reckoned with as it coated everything in its path with sheaths of solid ice. Railroad legend holds that the force of this wind was so great that when the railroad was running, a chain was fastened to the entrance to the Flag Point Bridge (mile 27), and if the chain stuck straight out in the wind, the trains didn’t cross.”

The Copper River was not navigable below the point where the Childs and Miles Glaciers faced each other across its waters, approximately 45 miles north of Cordova. The CR&NW Railroad would cross it twice, at Flag Point (mile 27), and at Miles Glacier (mile 49). At the foot of Miles Glacier, the river broadened out into Miles Lake, and just above the lake was the infamous Abercrombie Canyon, where the Copper River roared through the most dangerous rapids in its course. Before the railroad was built the only access to the upper part of the river was overland, and that is how the first steamship arrived.

The first river steamer was the sternwheeler Chittyna, christened with the original spelling of the river and town of the same name. The 70-ton, 110-foot-long, double-decked steamboat was hauled eighty miles overland in March of 1907 by the A. J. Meals Co., carried piece-bypiece from Valdez on huge horse-drawn double-ender freight sleds, up Keystone Canyon, over Marshall Pass, and 31 miles down the Tasnuna River to its confluence with the Copper

!12

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 River, where it was re-assembled in the spring. In Lone E. Janson’s The Copper Spike, one of the freighters, George Meals, shares details of the trip, and the author explains: “That was a 79 mile journey over trackless wilderness with a huge sled carrying a nearly three ton boiler, through Keystone Canyon on the frozen river and up to the summit of Marshal Pass, 1,700 feet high, in the dead of winter! Here the climb to the summit was a series of sharp turns or ‘switchbacks’ because of the steep grade involved. There was no road other than the trail established by the freighters themselves in hauling freight to the gold ‘diggings’ in the Interior.”

Quoting George Meals: “Going up the switch(back) I used a block and tackle in order for the horses to stay on the trail, chain to a tree and as they made a turn, throw the cable off the block. That would give them a straight pull. Used six horses on the cable and one in the staves. Took three or four days to reach the summit. Going down the river in places had to rough-lock (hitch ropes to the trees, hauling back on the sled) to keep it from breaking loose and running over the horses pulling it.”

Reassembly was completed in July, and by July 27 the Chittyna had made a successful trip to Copper Center. The tough little sternwheeler navigated 170 miles of the Copper and Chitina rivers, providing construction support and transport of materials for the railroad.

When the river and the town of Chitina changed to the newer spelling of the name, the steamboat’s name was changed as well.

River steamer Chitana [sp] on Tasnuna Divide.’ March, 1907. [P. S. Hunt, photographer]

alaskan-history.com

!13

Alaskan History

Camp 55, Copper River, Rapids Landing. [P. S. Hunt, photographer]

With the Chittyna’s arrival on the upper part of the river, supplies for the building of the necessary facilities could be brought in by steamer. In 1908 the construction of a three-mile, 4,000-foot aerial tram was begun to carry the copper ore from the mine to the concentrator and ore bins. The tram, completed in 1909, could carry 100 tons of ore per day.

Two other steamers were built in 1909 by the Moran Shipyards of Seattle: the 120 foot Tonsina and the 80 foot Gulkana; the Nizina was the last to be constructed. The boats were patterned after Columbia River sternwheelers, designed for shallow waters and shifting channels. They were knocked down and crated to Alaska for reassembly, and they proved to be the railroad's real workhorses.

The Gulkana shuttled freight across Miles Lake, cautiously skirting the mighty Miles Glacier as it provided a link from the eastside camp at mile 49 to the rails on the west side. A 1911 newspaper article in the Chitina Leader noted, “When the railroad reached mile 54 a steamboat landing was established and until the end of last season three steamers, the Tonsina, Chitina and Nizina, were used to transport freight and supplies for the railroad up the river. The cost was $1.07 per ton per mile. The cost of building these steamers was $215,000.”

The largest steamboat, the Tonsina, had originally been built to carry passengers, with 14 staterooms having double berths and featuring electric lights and steam heat throughout the

!14

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 vessel, but an attempt to operate the upriver fleet as a passenger and freight line proved unfeasible because of the short three month season.

The dangers were real and constant. In The Iron Spike Lone Janson tells of one unusual incident: “The heaviest rock work was in Woods Canyon just below Taral. Here it was necessary to blast off thousands of yards of solid rock. All of this heavy blasting had farreaching consequences. One time during exceptionally high water a blast sent tens of thousands of tons of rock into the deep, narrow river channel. The rock and debris sent a wave raging down the canyon with such force that the river’s three sternwheelers, which had tied up to avoid the swift waters, were picked up and slammed down with such force that several holes were knocked in the hulls requiring extensive repairs.”

Hardships aside, the four Copper River steamboats worked steadily each summer hauling freight, supplies, and passengers up and down the big rivers. Their participation was essential to finishing the railroad in the federally allotted construction years.

Following the completion of the railroad in 1911, the steamboats were dismantled, and their lumber and parts were reused in buildings in the town of Chitina. The wreck of the Gulkana met an even more ignoble end, dismantled at Miles Lake, where its derelict hull collapsed and its machinery was scattered along southern edges of the lakeshore. But if one listens carefully to the winds howling down the river, one can easily imagine the far-off sounds of a steamboat engine humming across the roiling waters, delivering much-needed supplies to the hardworking men. ~•~ Sternwheelers Chitina, Nizina, and Tonsina, on the Copper River, 1909. [P. S. Hunt, photographer]

alaskan-history.com

!15

Alaskan History

Office of Agricultural Experiment Stations

Report of Isaac Jones on the Reconnoissance of the Interior Along the Trail from Eagle to Valdez, 1901

Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for the year 1901; Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. This 1901 annual report contains a section from Isaac Jones on the reconnaissance of Alaska’s interior along the trail from Eagle to Valdez. It includes a discussion of the Copper River region, interesting notes and observations on the Native and non-Native residents and visitors to the area, including tensions between the miners and proposals for bringing agriculture into the area.

These are selected excerpts from the original, the entire report can be read online, see page 48.

The following report on that portion of Alaska bordering on the mail and Government trails between Eagle and Valdez is respectfully submitted: I started from Eagle on the morning of September 10 in company with Mr. Oscar Fish, the mail contractor, and one of his carriers, Mr. Al Paxton. The trail, which is simply a more or less well-marked footpath along which pack animals may be taken, leads off in a southwesterly direction from Eagle to the ridge, which on one side is drained by the Fortymile system, and on the other by tributaries of American and Mission creeks.

The trail here is very good as Alaskan trails are considered. On the lowlands and through the timber the soil is somewhat sandy in character and fairly well-drained. Trees that would have interfered in using pack animals have been removed, and it is only where there is a very considerable depth of moss that the trail is wet and at all trying on horses. On the higher ground the trail has very much the appearance of the buffalo paths that used to be so common in the prairie States. It is beaten well below the general level, and has the characteristic windings where there seems to be no good reason why it should not have continued in a straight course.

For 25 miles from Eagle the entire country is broken by small creeks, separated from one another by steep ridges. These streams have, as a rule, very narrow valleys. The hillsides are steep, and in nearly all cases the foot of the incline is close to the stream. In places, the higher ground spreads out in a sort of table-land half or three-fourths of a mile wide; but generally

!16

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 the distance across is no nearly so great, and in some places the ridges are sharp and stony.

The hill country is said to have an elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. The soil in places is a clay loam, usually wet, but more often it is made up of disintegrated granite or slate, and in this section good-sized pieces of the rock are much in evidence.

This portion of Alaska has little to recommend it to the agriculturist except perhaps as a grazing country. In general, there is a heavy coat of moss on the surface, but in some places a native grass (commonly called redtop) has asserted itself and would furnish considerable feed for stock.

Throughout this section trees of spruce, birch, alder, poplar, and several varieties of willow constitute the timber growth, spruce and birch being more common than the other kinds. Spruce and alder make rather dense growths on the lower lands, and a spruce tree 14 inches in diameter at the butt it not uncommon. Specimens of alder 25 feet high, and with a 4-inch diameter at the ground can be found all along the streams.

At a point 25 miles from Eagle the trail leads downward, and for several miles passes over a gradual slope which extends from the high ground of Liberty Creek and as far up and down stream as one can see from the trail. The land rises quickly on the south side of Liberty Creek, and after about five hours’ travel over hill country we pass to the left of a landmark of note called “The Dome.” This elevation is hemispherical in form, with a very regular outline, considering that the rock belongs to the slate family. It rises high above the surrounding country, and has an altitude of 4,600 feet. “The Dome” is used as a sort of official guide for travelers through this portion of Alaska, and trails to different sections intersect close to its base. Our camp on the evening of September 11 was close to “The Dome,” and some 35 miles from Eagle.

On the morning of September 12 two of our horses were missing. Several hours’ search failed to find them, and Mr. Paxson remained to continue the search, which Mr. Fish and myself proceeded on toward Fortymile. The trail led over a hill country, but the slopes were in general less steep than the hillsides north and east of “The Dome.”

On the evening of the 12th we crossed the Fortymile and stopped at “Pete’s Place,” at the mouth of Steele Creek. We are now in the gold-bearing section of the Fortymile system. The mail trail runs somewhat parallel to and above “Jack Wade Creek” for some distance, the creek being on our left and the trail going toward its source.

Jack Wade Creek and Franklin Gulch are both gold producing, the output each year being considerable. There is no land through this section that would appeal to the agriculturist. The hilltops are stony, the sides are somewhat boggy, and as far as I could judge, the timber is not good. Mr. Fish has a relay station (a place where horses are changed and provisions secured) at Franklin Gulch, and the carrier who handles the mail between Franklin Gulch and the Tanana station was our companion until we reached the latter place, some several days later.

The mail is welcomed in all portions of Alaska, and Franklin Gulch is no exception to the rule. Men from the lower claims come to the mouth of the creek in hope of receiving mail or to hear the latest news from the “outside,” the mail to be delivered en route being carried

alaskan-history.com

!17

Alaskan History outside the sack. Here I met Mr. John Martin, a pioneer of Franklin Gulch, who is noted throughout the Fortymile country for his hospitality.

The South Fork at Steele Creek is neither as deep nor as swift as the main stream of the Fortymile. At Steele Creek we and our goods were ferried across, the horses swimming the stream; but here the horses could wade without difficulty.

Leaving Franklin Gulch the morning of September 14, we traveled in a southwest direction toward the Upper South Fork. The change in direction of the South Fork, from a northeast to a straight north course, occurs several miles above Franklin Gulch at a point where Walkers Fork comes into the South Fork.

On the evening of the 14th we crossed a small stream called Gold Creek, and stopped for the night at the mail cabin at this place. Next morning, the 15th, we traveled for several miles over a somewhat heavily timbered country, mostly spruce, and having a limestone soil. Our stop for lunch was at the Indian village of Ketchumstock. The Indians in this tribe are somewhat lighter in complexion than the Yukon Indians, and some of the older men wear long, rather heavy beards. The chief takes great pride in the American flag, which floats from a very respectable pole while visitors are at the village. These Indians do not appear to be particularly resourceful, though cabins recently built are a decided improvement over the older buildings in the village. They cross the stream that flows through the village by means of a rude raft. The stream is neither wide nor deep, and could be easily bridged.

In the timber that skirts this grass land the Indians have built a fence that represents considerable time and labor. I have been told that there is over 60 miles of this fence, which is about 6 feet high, and which somewhat resembles the worm fence of certain sections in the States. The fence is built by first laying a row of poles on the ground and then driving stakes on both sides in a slanting position, so that they will rest on and cross above the pole used as the bedpiece for the fence. The forks thus formed are tied with willow withes; the second pole rests in the forks. Other stakes are driven in a more upright position, so that they cross above the second pole, and so on until the fence is finished. Between the forks, if the poles are long, stays are placed in the ground in a perpendicular position, and each pole is tied to the stay. Snares are set in the openings in the fence, and many caribou are taken in this way.

There are about 50 Indians in Ketchumstock. This village is located about 110 miles from Eagle and 320 miles from Valdez.

Our camp on the evening of the 15th was the Indian Creek cabin. The cabins between relay stations have been repeatedly robbed of provisions during the summer months, and for this reason we carried our supplies from one relay station to the next, no supplies have been placed in the intervening cabins for the summer season. In some way the sack containing our flour, oatmeal, etc. was left outside with the saddles, at the Indian Creek cabin, and the next morning we found that the horses had made a clean sweep. For two days now, or until reaching the relay station at Tanana, bread and mush were omitted from our bill of fare.

The surveying party had marked the distance from Valdez on at intervals of 5 miles wherever a tree could be found a mile post, and these posts are looked for with interest, though it sometimes happens that one is passed without being noticed.

When we reached the cabin at Wolf Creek on the evening of the 16th we had practically crossed the Ketchumstock Flats. I estimate that there are at least 750,000 acres of excellent

!18

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

Captain William R. Abercrombie, U. S. Army

Northern section of the Eagle-Valdez Trail.

grazing country in the valley of the Upper South Fork and its tributaries. About half of this area is sparsely timbered, but still good grazing land.

Horses have lived through the winter in this grass section on more than one occasion. A Mr. A Anderson, of Steele Creek, has a black horse that was taken up last spring after having spent the winter on the Ketchumstuck Flats. The Indians told of two horses that were turned loose by a Mr. Holeman in the fall of 1899. These animals have passed two winters in this section, and were seen a few miles from the trail two days before we passed the village.

On the morning of September 17 our path was one of ups and downs, each succeeding grade taking us to greater heights. Just before noon we reached the summit of the divide between the Fortymile and the Tanana Rivers, and we ate lunch some distance down on the Tanana side.

There are two large log buildings at the Tanana, both belonging to Fish Brothers. One is used as a warehouse and general store, and the other, which was not finished when we passed, will be used as a road house. At present there are no other buildings at this point. The goods for the store are hauled from Fortymile Post on the Yukon during the winter. Next season an attempt will be made to get a small steamer to this point, some 350 miles from its junction with the Yukon. At the Tanana station we are 265 miles from Valdez, and about 170 miles from Eagle. There is a free ferry at this point, which is looked after by the man in charge at the station. This ferry is a great convenience to prospectors or others that pass this way during the summer months. Of course the horses have to swim the stream, which is said

alaskan-history.com

!19

Alaskan History to be 500 feet wide at this point, but the boat enables the traveler to keep himself and his outfit dry while making the crossing.

Captain Abercrombie’s force of trail makers had reached the Tanana, and turned back a few days before we reached this point. Trail building across the valley of the Tanana is compatively easy, as all one need do is to remove the windfalls that may lie across the proposed road, and in some places standing timber has to be removed also in order to get the required width, 12 feet, for the trail. Before reaching the Tanana Valley the task of the trail makers was not an easy one, but the capable manner in which the difficulties that presented themselves were surmounted showed that the men understood their work.

Leaving the Tanana Valley, our course is up the valley of the Tok, in the direction of Mentasta Pass. In crossing the Tok at a point where it seemed necessary to unpack the horses, the water being swift and deep, another member of our party had reason to know that Indian rafts are not a safe means of transportation for one unskilled in handling them. When we reached Mantasta cabin on the evening of the 19th, we had crossed, or were then at the summit of, the pass. The lake which lies just south of the cabin is stocked with fish from the Slana River, a tributary of the Copper River. The grade from the valley of the Tanana to this point has been so gradual that it is difficult for one to believe that he has reached the highest point on the trail, between the Tanana and Copper River valleys. Sharp-pointed peaks that rise to a great elevation on each side of the pass convince one that the trail from the coast to the Yukon would have been a difficult one had not nature provided this pass. At Mantasta cabin we found the trail builders; they were camped here for the night. They had no grain for their horses, and were compelled to travel by short stages so that the horses might have more time to feed.

On the morning of the 20th our trail was rocky, in the literal sense, taking us over several miles of cobblestones of granite. Early in the afternoon of the 20th, we reached a point from which the broad valley of the Copper River could be seen, and towards the evening of the First Avenue at Forty Mile in 1898. Eric A. Hegg photograph.

!20

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 same day we saw the stream itself off to the left. We camped outdoors on the bare ground, not having a tent, on the night of the 20th. The mail cabin is some two miles from the Government trail. During the afternoon of the 20th, and all day until the evening of the 21st, we traveled over a slightly rolling country, which was deeply covered with moss, and upon which the timber, mostly spruce, was of small size except close to the streams, and not of dense growth anywhere.

The Chestochena River near the mouth spreads out in several channels, over a very wide bed. These shallow channels are constantly changing, as are also the channels of the Copper, which spread over a wide river bed at this point. The relay mail station is on the south side of the Chestochina River, close to the bank of the Copper, and at the junction of these two rivers.

This point is on the route from Valdez to the gold diggings at the headwaters of the Chestochena, some 60 miles to the northwest, and the mail contractors maintain a trading post in connection with the relay station, with Mr. Harry Fane, who also acts as mail carrier between the Tanana station and this point, in charge. This station is 160 miles from Valdez.

South of the Chestochena station the soil has a depth greater than that on the north side of the pass, and here the valley of the Copper is largely made up of broad level benches, that rise one above another as one goes back from the river. Some of these benches are somewhat sandy and probably would be rather dry during the summer months; others would retain moisture for a long period. Prospectors speak with enthusiasm of fine farming lands toward the headwaters of the Gakona and Tazlena rivers, and there is good land near the mouth of each of these streams.

The Gakona is some 200 feet wide, and is crossed by a ferry for men and goods, while horses have to swim. This is a difficult stream to cross, on account of rocks and rapid water.

People have been drowned in attempting the crossing.

The Tazlena, the next stream of importance, is easy to ford except in time of high water.

From this stream into Copper Center, a distance of 12 miles, there is an especially favorable Trail stable, Valdez-Fairbanks Wagon Road, P. S. Hunt, circa 1906.

alaskan-history.com

!21

Alaskan History

The middle and southern sections of the Eagle-Valdez Trail, showing significent points mentioned in the text.

section from an agricultural standpoint. The land stretches back from the river in level benches, and the soil is a dark rich-looking loam. From my hurried trip I have no definite knowledge of the land except that along the trail, but from what I saw, and from the opinions of others that I met and talked to, there is certainly a very large area in the Copper River Valley that is all one could wish for in soil and exposure from the standpoint of the agriculturalist. People throughout this section quite generally believe there is an agricultural future for the Copper River Valley.

At Chestochena station agriculture in Alaska was being discussed, when two old miners who formerly worked in the upper Sacramento district in California entered the cabin. One of them immediately expressed the opinion that the first man who came into the country to farm should be hanged. He blamed the farmers of the Sacramento Valley for the closing of the hydraulic mines on the upper part of that river, and he seemed to imagine that farming in Alaska would be detrimental to the mining interests of the Territory. The same man spoke highly of the upper valley of the Gakona River as a farming country.

About half a mile northwest of Copper Center, near the Government trail, is the southeast corner of a tract of land a mile square that I staked and reserved for an agricultural experiment station by postingh a notice on this corner stake.

At Copper Center Mr. Davis, the proprietor of the hotel, showed me some grain that had been grown in the garden of a Mr. Holeman, who formerly was in the hotel business here, and who has settled on 80 acres of land upon which the town is now built.

!22

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 I spent the 23rd day of September looking over the surroundings of Copper Center, and I am satisfied that in many respects it is one of the best locations for an experiment station that I have seen. There are difficulties in the way of establishing an agricultural experiment station at Copper Center. The settlement is 103 miles from Valdez, and supplies would have to be taken in overland from the coast in the early spring when prospectors are going into the diggings. The trail would then be good most of the way; but on the summit and on the Valdez side storms are apt to occur at any time, and they sometimes block travel for days.

Farm implements would of necessity have to be hauled to the station before the snow goes off. Provisions, of course, can be packed in at any time; but this is expensive. During the past summer season 50 cents a pound was paid for packing goods from Valdez to Copper Center.

Early on the morning of the 24th we again started toward Valdez, 103 miles distant as the Government trail runs. We crossed the Klutena River near Copper Center, over a bridge built by the trailmakers. This bridge is similar in construction to other bridges which span the streams between here and Valdez. Cribs are put in place lengthwise of the stream, one in the center and one of each side of the stream. Bed pieces are placed on these cribs and the bridge is well braced above. The floor is made of poles about 4 inches in diameter. After crossing the Klutena bridge, we turned to the left and followed the bank of the Copper for several miles.

A new trail was being opened when we passed along. It joins the original trail above Tonsena Lake, and is built to avoid the swampy land between Copper Center and this lake. Leaving the Copper River bank, we passed over some 5 or 6 miles of heavily timbered country; the moss was not deep here and the soil was well drained and rich-looking, dark in color, with just enough sand to work up easily.

U.S. Telegraph Station at Copper Center. P. S. Hunt, Photographer.

alaskan-history.com

!23

Alaskan History It was dark and raining heavily when we reached Tonsena road house. This was the only rain we had during the trip. There is a Government bridge across the river at this place.

From Tonsena the trail leads through Kimballs Pass. For several miles from the river the trail rises gradually over a slightly rolling country having a rather light, poor-looking, and somehwat stony soil. Early in the forenoon we reached a point where snow had fallen the night before, and we had a depth of 2 inches in the pass proper. The grade on each side of the pass is gradual and the elevation is probably not more than a thousand feet above the trail.

After leaving Kimballs Pass the trail is muddy, there being a black muck or boggy soil across the Ernestine Divide, which is really a large, elevated, almost level, and mossy section, from which flow the South Fork of the Tonsena on one side and the Ernestine Creek on the other. We stopped at “The Barns” on the evening of the 25th. At this point the Government has a large barn to shelter horses which it may be desirable to keep at this place during the winter months. A member of the signal corps is in charge of the station. The telegraph line is in operation between Valdez and Copper Center and men are stationed about 25 miles apart along the line. After leaving “The Barns” our course is along the North Fork of the Tiekell River. In places this stream has a valley 2 or 3 miles wide; in other places it is closely shut in by mountains on either side. There are evidences of snow slides at various places along the trail, chiefly in the form of great bowlders that have come down with the snow during the winter season. Soon after crossing the bridge over Stewart Creek we passed up and over a considerable elevation, where the trail was steep, muddy, and somewhat stony. We were now following a mountain pass up the Chena River. Timber here was rather sparse and the trees

Tiekhell Roadhouse, Valdez-Fairbanks Wagon Road, P. S. Hunt, circa 1906.

!24

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

Looking down south side of Thomson Pass showing Dutch Flats and Wagon Road. P. S. Hunt, 1906.

somewhat stunted in growth. The Chena is bridged at a point where it flows in a narrow bed between perpendicular rocky banks. About a mile and a half from the bridge is station “Number Three,” put up by the trail builders, and which consists of two Government buildings. One is used for a storehouse for supplies, the other is a dwelling for the signal corps man who is stationed here. We remained at this station over night. Next morning our horses were missing, but they were finally found some 4 miles up the trail, near an old mail station, where grazing was good. At this place I saw timothy grass that stood 3 feet high. The seed had evidently been scattered from hay that had been fed to the mail horses. The elevation here is about 3,000 feet, and glaciers may be seen in a number of different directions. I counted 6, none of them distant. We had intended to make it into Valdez on the 27th, but the action of our horses delayed our start. The grade to the summit is a gradual one and the climb is not at all difficult. Near the head of Ptarmigan Creek, well up toward the summit, the land stretches with a gentle upgrade in all directions from the creek bed, and here the ground is grass-covered, the land is somewhat marshy, and the vegetation is like swamp grass in appearance. We had a fine day for crossing the summit, and the scenery, as the trail led over low elevations, each of which we had considered would take us to the summit of the pass, was most interesting.

There is so much sameness here and such a lack of definite landmarks that it is difficult to follow the trail after snow has fallen. One is much impressed with the danger and difficulty that a traveler would encounter in crossing the summit during a storm. The summit is some 2

alaskan-history.com

!25

Alaskan History

Wortmans road house 19 miles from Valdez. On Valdez-Fairbanks Wagon Road. P.S. Hunt photograph.

miles wide and is about 25 miles from Valdez. The trail down into Dutch Valley, which is a sort of basin to which the mountain sides slope in the direction of Keystone Canyon, takes a somewhat winding course, but the grade is gradual. A portion of the trail had caved off, in one place leaving a narrow ledge close to the bank from the side of which the trail had been cut. There was room on this ledge for a horse without a pack, but an animal with a large pack would likely be crowded over the bank, which is about 15 feet high. Two horses with large loads had been crowded over the bank the day before we passed. Our horses had very small packs now, and it was considered safe to take them across without unpacking. This opinion proved to be correct. A little farther on a glacial stream had to be forded. This stream was not deep, but the bed was lined with bowlders, over and around which the water rushed rapidly.

We had intended to stop for the night at Workman’s [ed. note: Wortman’s] road house, some 18 miles from Valdez. On reaching this place, however, we learned that the Bertha was due to sail from Valdez the next day. The moon was at the full, and as there was a prospect that our good weather would not last much longer we concluded to travel by moonlight.

After allowing the horses to rest for several hours we started, about 9 o’clock, on the last stage of our journey to Valdez. The moon shone dimly through a thin layer of cloud, giving sufficient light to enable one to follow the trail without difficulty.

The scenery in the canyon was impressive. There was no wind stirring, and the moonlight striking through the clouds gave a sort of weird appearance to objects along the trail, which winds back and forth along the wall of the canyon, now approaching the river and again going from it. The night was filled with the sound of rushing waters, and the mountain streams, which in places fall almost perpendicularly for several hundred feet, appeared like long bands of white upon the mountain side. The effect is greatest at points on the trail where one can look from some narrow ledge almost straight down on the river far below.

!26

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 The trail through the canyon was the most difficult task the trail builders had to encounter, but here as elsewhere the work was well done. The Government trail from Valdez is a great help to one going to the interior. Good work has been done as far as the Tanana River, 265 miles from Valdez, and while the trail is far from being a good wagon road in the summer months, it will afford a splendid sled road, and even wagons could be used before the frost leaves the ground in the spring. To one who knows anything of trail building in Alaska the surprise is not that the trail is no better, but rather that it is as good as it is.

After leaving the canyon we traveled down the bed of the Lowe River, which spreads over a large gravel flat. In places the trail led through timber for a short distance, and here the large trees, clear of branches for 50 feet, and the large rank ferns which grow in great masses, cause one to forget for a moment that these are Alaskan products.

We reached Valdez on the morning of the 28th, and I sailed on the Bertha about noon the 1st day of October.

ISAAC JONES, Assistant, Alaska Investigations.

Prof. C. C. Georgeson, Special Agent in Charge of Alaska Investigations. ~•~

The 1901 Report of Isaac Jones on the Reconnoissance of the Interior Along the Trail from Eagle to Valdez was published by the Office of Agricultural Experiment Stations, U. S. Government Printing Office, in 1902. It can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/1901Report

S. S. BERTHA, Copper Mountain, Land Locked Bay, Prince Willam Sound, Alaska, Wilse Photo.

alaskan-history.com

!27

Alaskan History

Glacial Lake Ahtna Reseach suggests Glacial Lake Ahtna may have been a serial generator of some of Earth's largest freshwater floods.

Maps and photographs are from the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management

Lake Ahtna—often spelled Atna—was a prehistoric proglacial (ice-frontage) lake which covered more than 3,500 square miles in the Copper River Basin, initially formed approximately 58,000 years ago during the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. Other examples of prehistoric megafloods include Lake Agassiz and the Lake Missoula Floods, major catastrophic events resulting from the sudden drainage of proglacial or subglacial lakes, known by the Icelandic term jokulhlaups, and one such flood may have contributed to the destruction caused by the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

Lake Ahtna existed in several forms, with several prominent shorelines observable in modern geology. The basin of the lake lay within an area bordered by the Alaska Range to the north, the Wrangell Mountains to the east, the Chugach Mountains to the south, and the Talkeetna

!28

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 Mountains to the west. At its greatest extent, the lake surface area was larger than modern-day Lake Michigan, and upon discharges Lake Ahtna may have generated some of the world’s largest ever freshwater glacial lake outburst floods. The earliest identified outlets were down the current-day Copper River to the south, the Susitna River to the west, and the Tok River into the Tanana Valley. Relatively recently, the Matanuska River was also identified as a drainage route.

In a research paper titled Late Quaternary megafloods from Glacial Lake Atna, Southcentral Alaska, U.S.A., published in the May, 2009 edition of the journal Quaternary Research; authored

by Michael Wiedmer, with co-authors David R. Montgomery and Alan Gillespie, Univ. of WA professors of Earth and space sciences; and computer specialist Harvey Greenberg, it was made apparent that information about how the Lake Ahtna megaflood potentially affected parts of Alaska was only recently brought to light: “Previous attention has focused on Lake Atna's morphology and chronology; the lake's drainage routes and discharge behaviors have received scant scrutiny. Here we report geomorphic, stratigraphic, geotechnical, and biogeographic evidence for a late glacial Lake Atna-sourced megaflood down the Matanuska Valley, a previously unrecognized drainage route, and provide the first estimates for flood volumes and peak discharges through other previously recognized outlets.”

An article in the April 29, 2010 University of Washington newsletter titled ‘Research shows part of Alaska inundated by ancient megafloods,’ by Vince Stricherz, quotes from the Weidmer et al. article: “New research indicates that one of the largest fresh-water floods in Earth’s history happened about 17,000 years ago and inundated a large area of Alaska that is now occupied in part by the city of Wasilla…”

Map showing geographic features related to Lake Atna.

alaskan-history.com

!29

Alaskan History

The bluffs near the confluence of the Gakona and Copper Rivers expose nearly 300 ft of the Quaternary lacustrine, alluvial, and glacial deposits that fill the Copper River Basin. Most of the section seen in this view consists of finely laminated to indistinctly bedded sand, silt, and clay, with or without coarser material, deposited in glacial Lake Atna.

Stricherz continues, “…The megaflood that covered the Wasilla region released as much as 1,400 cubic kilometers, or 336 cubic miles, of water — enough to cover an area the size of Washington, D.C., to a depth of nearly 5 miles. That water volume drained from the lake in about a week and, at such great velocity, formed dunes higher than 110 feet, with at least a half-mile between crests. The dunes appear on topographical maps but today are covered by roads, buildings and other development.”

Stricherz then quotes Michael Wiedmer: “Your mind doesn’t get around dunes of that size.

Obviously the water had to be very deep to form them.”

The same article explained how the prehistoric megaflood may have contributed to the damages seen in Anchorage in the 1964 9.2 magnitude earthquake: “Wiedmer noted that much of Anchorage is built on marine sediments, and one layer of those sediments liquefied and collapsed, allowing the layer above to slide toward the sea. As the upper layer moved toward the water, structures built on top of it collapsed. ‘We suspect that this is evidence of the flood that came down the Matanuska,’ Wiedmer said. ‘The location is right at the mouth of where the flood came down, and the time appears to be right.’”

In 1898, Frank Charles Schrader undertook a study of the Copper River Basin for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Based on sedimentary evidence, he concluded a possibility of

!30

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 a large body of standing water being responsible for the deposits. This could have been an arm of the sea. In 1901, with A. C. Spencer, he concluded these deposits were only in limited areas, disagreeing with his earlier conclusion. This was supported by Walter Curran Mendenhall in 1905, who had studied the Pleistocene deposits in the central region of the basin. In 1954, Fred Howard Moffit noted that topographic conditions were favorable for the possibility of a large lake, but that specific evidence was lacking at that time. In 1957, geologists Oscar J. Ferrians and H.R. Schmoll concluded the basin had been resident to a large proglacial lake during the Wisconsin glaciation. The lake was named Lake Atna by geologist D. J. Nichols of the USGS in 1965. Several of the large existing lakes in the Copper River Basin are remnants of the glacial Lake Ahtna, including Tazlina Lake, Tonsina Lake, and Klutina Lake.

A good description of current-day evidence is found in the online blog, Wickersham’s Conscience (see Resources, page 48): “As you drive down the Richardson Highway from just below Meiers Lake to Tiekel River, you are crossing the old lake bottom. The impressive Copper River canyon is eroded down through the lake bottom. If you look closely at the bluffs above the river, you can see the layers of lake bottom mud, graveled river bottom and, because this area is near the moderately active Wrangell volcanoes, the occasional layers of volcanic ash as well.”

“As you drive down the Edgerton Highway, east off the Richardson, the road drops down a series of old lake terraces, marking old lake shores of a vast lake that is now long gone, but has left its geologic fingerprints all over the landscape of Southcentral Alaska.” ~•~

Edgerton Highway dropping down benches to the Copper River. [AK Dept. of Transportation photo]

alaskan-history.com

!31

Alaskan History

Joseph Herman Romig, M.D., Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, wearing a buckskin costume like those worn by medicine men of interior Alaska. Pluming the cap are feathers of the raven, thought by the Eskimos to be the great creative spirit of the human race. The picture was taken in 1922.

!32

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 Dr. Romig was known as “Yung-Cha-wista,” person working for others, or “Remaker of People.”

Dr. Joseph Romig

The Dog-Team Doctor In 1896 Dr. Joseph H. Romig traveled to Bethel, Alaska, and opened the first doctor’s office and hospital west of Sitka, at a time when there were very few non-native people living in remote southwest Alaska. Four decades later a book would be written about the good doctor’s adventurous and life-saving exploits across the vast northern territory, and one reviewer would observe that the doctor’s extraordinary life ‘read almost like fiction.’

Joseph Herman Romig was born into a family of missionaries in Illinois in 1872. His parents were descendants of Moravian immigrants, and young Joseph grew up as one of ten children at the Chippewa Mission Farm near Independence, Kansas.

In exchange for his pledge to serve for seven years without salary as a doctor at a mission, the Moravian Church sponsored his medical training at the Hahnemann Medical School in Philaephia. In 1896, Joseph married Ella Mae Ervin, a nursing student he met at the school, and the couple moved to Bethel to join Joseph’s older sister and her husband as missionaries to the Yup’ik people of the YukonKuskokwim Delta. Joseph’s brother-in-law, John Henry Kilbuck, was a linguist and a full-blooded Delaware Indian who had been teaching the local native peoples and had established a good rapport with them, and Dr. Romig felt this relationship might smooth the way for the success of his mission.

Bethel was barely a village at that time, consisting of only four houses, a chapel, an old Russianstyle bath house and a small store. The Romig home was a simple two-room structure, and included the first hospital: one room with two homemade beds. Joseph and Ella had four children: Robert Herman (born in 1897), Margaret Maryetta (1898), Helen Elizabeth (1901), and later, after leaving Bethel in 1903, they added Howard Glenmore (1911).

alaskan-history.com

!33

Alaskan History The villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim area were beset by epidemics of influenza, tuberculosis, whooping cough and other ailments, and broken bones, surgeries, and maladies of various description were treated by the doctor. Over time the local people pronounced him “Yung-Cha-wista,” person working for others, or “Remaker of People.”

For a time, Dr. Romig was one of the only physicians in Alaska, and he became an expert at driving a dog team, as his practice stretched for hundreds of miles, and when the land was frozen a good dog team provided the best access to outlying areas. Romig became known as the “dog-team doctor” for traveling by dog sled throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the course of his work.

An excerpt from the book by Eva Greenslit Anderson tells of the doctor’s first year at Bethel: “The Yung-cha-wista was now familiar with all important Eskimo life events and rites: birth, death, marriage, and worship of spirits and ancestors. He had shared their dried fish, and slept in their kashimas. The language of the Kuskokwim was becoming his own and he could tell a ‘nightly story’ with the best of them.

“The doctor was known as a wizard with a dog team, and had made runs through seemingly impossible storms to spend the long nights in lonely igloos, waging a battle for the life of a child choking with croup, a hunter stricken with pneumonia, a fisherman’s wife dying of tuberculosis. Many had he brought back, haltingly—their hands in his—from the long, deep shadows.

“In spite of the grilling work and unspeakable hardships, there was peace in his soul. Through his ministrations, might not God speak to hundreds of brown-skinned heathen? Health, cleanliness, better standards of living, and an understanding of the Infinite. All of these, he craved for the children of the Northland.

“With greater responsibilities, can greater resources and power as he matured on the job. His strengths were knowledge of science, superb physique, stately bearing, resourcefulness and calm in time of danger, kindness to those in sorrow, and sheer magnetism of personality.

“The natives instinctively turned to him for healing, comfort, and food. He even helped them negotiate trades, and sometimes himself sold their furs, worked into parkas and mukluks. Besides

Malemutes as they were driven hundreds of miles each year by the Yung-cha-wista.

!34

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

Bethel in 1896. [This and other photos from the book, Dog-Team Doctor.]

being the Yung-cha-wista, who ‘remade’ people, he was fast becoming Un-gia-kuk, or ‘Big Boss, to all who looked for guidance.

“Duties pyramided. Life speeded up, and he had to accelerate his pace even to keep abreast of the demands. Long trips by dog team and bidarka became more frequent and prepared him well, as it turned out, for the crisis of the winter of 1899.”

The crisis was precipitated by an inexperienced ship’s captain who, carrying the winter’s supplies for mission at Bethel, could not find the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, and sailed away without landing the much-needed cargo. Dr. Romig secured the assistance of about twenty men and a small fleet of light skin boats, canoes, bidarkas, and rowboats and headed upriver to portage across the divide between the Kuskokwim and the Yukon and down to Russian Mission for supplies. They found that supplies were scarce there as well, so the doctor secured passage on a small steamship and continued down the Yukon River to St. Michael where he was able to buy supplies and freight them back to where his small armada waited. The return trip was not easy, with loaded boats, fighting hordes of mosquitoes, and relentless bad weather. When the group finally got back to Bethel, they had covered more than a thousand miles in the relief mission.

Another excerpt, describing the ‘dog-team doctor:’ “A familiar sight in Eskimo villages along the Kuskokwim was the big doctor, running behind his twelve-foot sleigh, drawn by those thirteen spirited dogs: one mother, ten of her off-spring, and two other beauties. Tied to the towline by their collars, the leaders were hitched singly; the others in pairs.

“Yarn tassels, tinkling bells, racing malemutes! Fifty miles a day was their usual run, and the team could carry at a trot an average of fifty pounds a dog. One frosty night his dogs dragged down the

alaskan-history.com

!35

Alaskan History home trail instead of bounding as usual. The native who rushed forward to care for them eyed the Yung-cha-wista reproachfully. “‘Big long far!’ the doctor responded to the question the servant dared not voice. “‘Eighty miles! Broke my record today,’ he later reported to his wife. ‘I-I somehow felt I had to get home to you and the babies tonight.’”

Doctor Romig loved his dogs, and once wrote, “When I die let there be one tombstone of my choice, and let it be that of my dog Rover, in harness, standing over my grave.”

In 1903, when his seven-year term of missionary service was complete, Dr. Romig left Bethel, and moved his family to San Francisco. When the great earthquake hit that city in 1906, Dr. Romig ran an emergency hospital set up in a church during the aftermath, with little but some bandages, gauze, and a few pills. There were no beds, no water, and no useable toilets. The doctor dispatched soldiers to find blankets, sheets, pilllows, towels and drugs. For ten days Dr. Romig served as head of the emergency hospital, a red cross on his cap and on the front of his coat. But one night he stood helplessly and watched the building where his office, with all of his medical instruments and records, went up in flames. He was left with less than four hundred dollars in his bank account, but his family was safe.

Not long after the earthquake, Dr. Romig was called back to the north by the Nushagak Packing Company, offering him a job as company physician at Nushagak, in northern Bristol Bay. With his wife’s blessing he accepted, the family returned to Alaska, and Dr. Romig became the only full-time doctor for five thousand people.

In 1907 Dr. Romig obtained the first government mail contract from Bethel over Togiak Pass to Holy Cross, on the Yukon River, and he relished being on the trail with a good dog team again. Then, in 1909, he was assigned to oversee the 1910 census, supervising twenty-nine census takers in southwestern Alaska. When he was called to travel to Washington, D.C. in connection with the census taking, he took the opportunity to appeal to the Department of Justice for better courts in the Alaska Territory. From the book, Dog-Team Doctor: “Cannery workers, he explained to the Department of Justice, were often lawless floaters. Neither the accused nor witnesses could leave work to go to Valdez, where criminal cases were tried.

“Forced to go against their will, key men often conveniently ‘forgot’ all evidence.

“The first floating courts in western Alaska were made to function as the direct result of that conference. Revenue cutters, bearing a judge and staff of workers, headed into seaport towns to hold court just before the cannery season closed. Clerks and bookkeepers from canneries served as petit jurymen.”

In 1914, seeking to spend more time with his family, Dr. Romig took a position with the Alaska Northern Railway, based in Seward. The following year the struggling railroad was leased by the U.S. Government and eventually became the southern end of the Alaska Railroad.

In the following decades Joseph Romig played an eventful and important role in the growth of Alaska. In the 1920’s he set up a hospital in Nenana for the Alaska Railroad. In 1930, he was asked to head the Alaska Railroad Hospital in Anchorage. He would eventually be, in addition to a missionary, a doctor, and a U.S. Commissioner, a superintendent of schools and mayor of Anchorage (1937-38).

He reportedly “did a commendable job, but found that politics was not in his nature.”

Ella Mae Ervin Romig died in 1937, and two years later Dr. Romig married Emily Craig, who had been chief of nursing at the railroad hospital and a longtime friend of both Ella and Dr. Romig.

In 1939, Dr. Romig was appointed the chief surgeon at Anchorage’s newly constructed state-ofthe-art Providence Hospital, but he retired shortly thereafter, and purchased land on what would later be called Romig Hill. From his log cabin on the property, he started a “Board of Directors” club which eventually provided the founding members of the Anchorage Rotary Club.

Joseph and Emily Romig moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Joseph died in 1951.

Although he was originally buried in Colorado, his remains were later disinterred and moved to Alaska

!36

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 to be buried in the family plot in Anchorage Memorial Park. J. H. Romig Junior High School, named in his honor for his dedication to youth and education and later renamed Romig Middle School, was built on Romig Hill in 1964.

Dr. Romig’s life story and his adventures in southwest Alaska became the subject of a book, DogTeam Doctor: The Story of Dr. Romig, by Eva Greenslit Anderson, Ph.D., published in 1940 by Caxton Printers in Caldwell, Idaho.

The author, Eva Greenslit Anderson, was a Washington state educator, author, and politician, receiving a PhD from the University of Washington in 1937, and named Washington's woman of achievement in 1949. After becoming interested in the history of the Pacific northwest region, she published more than a dozen books on local history. Her book Chief Seattle was rated one of the 10 best on native Americans by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1954 she became a member of the Board of Curators of the Washington State Historical Society, received the Washington State Press Women’s Pioneer’s Writers’ Award in 1963, and in 1968 the Social Science building at Wenatchee Valley College was named Anderson Hall.

A review of Dog-Team Doctor appeared in the Feb. 15, 1941 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association: “The Moravian church sponsored the medical training of young Joseph Herman Romig, who was to dedicate his life to the welfare of the Eskimos in Alaska. Forty-four years ago he went there with his bride and a promise of an expense account of $50 a year, but no salary for seven years. They were virtually alone in administering to the medical needs of the people of southwestern Alaska for years. There were remnants of Russian occupancy, trappers and adventurers from all corners of the earth when he arrived in this bleak land. Through the days of the Klondike gold rush, days when river traffic grew to hundreds of craft, days of building of railroads and highways and the development of the fishing industry to the present, when the airplane has conquered these wide spaces, Dr. Romig has seen and shared in them all. He has been not only a medical missionary but a superindentent of schools, mayor of Anchorage, a railroad surgeon, a United States commissioner and an expert with a dog team which carried him hundreds of miles over the snow to administer to the sick. The story of his life work reads almost like fiction.” ~•~

Map from the book, Dog-Team Doctor.

alaskan-history.com

Dr. Romig in 1939.

!37

Alaskan History

Patsy Ann Official Greeter of Juneau • The jaunty little bull terrier who captured Juneau’s heart • In the early 1930’s the southeastern town of Juneau was a popular stop for an increasing tourism trade traveling the splendidly scenic Inside Passage. Upon arrival at the Juneau wharf a small white dog named Patsy Ann would be waiting to greet the arriving passengers, searching the faces for her many friends, welcoming everyone with a dignified nod and the slow wave of her short, stout tail. It was reported that Patsy Ann was photographed even more frequently than the movie star dog of the day, the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. The purebred bull terrier puppy was born in Portland, Oregon in October, 1929. She was brought to Alaska by Juneau dentist Dr. Keyser, intended as a pet for his twin daughters.

Although she was loved and well cared for by the family, Patsy Ann soon developed a penchant for wandering through the town of Juneau, finding she especially liked the interesting sights and smells of the dockside areas. She made friends easily and soon enjoyed regular handouts from the many local bars, hotel lobbies, and businesses she visited.

Although she was stone deaf, Patsy Ann had an uncanny way of knowing when ships were arriving at the docks, and she would head for the wharf before the ships were even in view down Gastineau Channel. One telling story relates how an error in arrival information had the townspeople gathered on the wrong dock to await the incoming vessel. Patsy Ann made her way toward the water, paused to look quizzically at the crowd, then turned and confidently trotted to the correct dock to wait for the ship’s arrival.

!38

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 In 1934 the mayor of Juneau named the little bull terrier the Official Greeter of Juneau, and when the city passed a dog licensing law that same year Patsy Ann was granted an exemption from wearing the collar she disliked, and the city paid her annual licensing fee.

Eventually Patsy Ann’s favorite hangout became the Longshoreman’s Hall, and it there she passed quietly in her sleep in March, 1942. She was buried at sea near her favorite spot, the small coffin lowered into the channel as a large crowd paid their last respects.

Fifty years later a bronze statue was commissioned and installed not far from her burial site. With her leather collar at her feet, Patsy Ann once more gazes alertly down the channel toward the incoming ships. ~•~

Photos: Page 36: Patsy Ann waiting patiently for a ship. [Alaska State Library PCA-97-1325] Above: Statue of Patsy Ann on the dock in Juneau. [October, 2013, by Cosmos Mariner] Top right: Photo by George Allan Dale, 1939.

Alaska State Library [ASL-P306-0337] Right: File cards compiled by Captain Lloyd H. “Kinky” Bayers [Alaska State Library]

www.patsyann.com

alaskan-history.com

!39

Alaskan History

Luck is often an essential factor in historical research, but researchers must be lucky enough. In my case I was lucky enough in 1980 when I found the John W. White and James T. White Papers in the archives of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. That collection of diaries, correspondence, photographs, and ethnographic material has resulted in forty years of writing Alaska’s history, especially as it pertains to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Revenue-Cutter Service (a predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard) in Alaska’s waters. This is one more story.

On April 6, 1900, California physician James T. White was assigned as surgeon for the Alaska cruise of the Revenue Cutter Hugh McCulloch. Although White’s original orders stated that his appointment would last only until the McCulloch returned from a brief northern cruise, he was obviously also informed that once he reached the Alaska port of St. Michael he would be reassigned to the Revenue Steamer Nunivak. The stern-wheeled Nunivak, commanded by Lt. John C. Cantwell, had already spent one year patrolling the Yukon River in the wake of the Klondike Gold Rush and, after reprovisioning at St. Michael, would start up the Yukon again in the summer of 1900 (see Map).

White had many interests aside from his medical profession. He was particularly fascinated by Native ethnology. He had collected over 500 Alaskan and Siberian Native “curios” that became the core of the University of Washington Museum’s ethnographic collection. He was also a naturalist, a photographer, a diarist, and a bit of an artist. With an opportunity to study Athabascan Natives living along the Yukon, he wrote to John Wesley Powell, director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, requesting Smithsonian Institution publications that might help him in collecting ethnological data. Powell wrote back, wishing White success in his research but explaining that many instructional manuals that might be useful were out of print. Powell did send White a copy of the Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages (written

by Powell himself) and recommended that White use it in his studies, as familiarity with linguistics was key to ethnographic research and rapport with Native groups.

White would not receive Powell’s reply until the Nunivak returned to St. Michael in the summer of 1901, but even without that assistance he compiled Native vocabulary and place-name lists while the Nunivak was iced-in on the Dall River, a thousand miles upriver from the Yukon’s mouth, where the cutter spent the winter of 1900-1901. On March 18, 1901, as preparations were underway to cut the Nunivak Gary C. Stein received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1975 with fields in Western American History and U.S. History to 1860, specializing in Native American History. He has worked as a research historian for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in Anchorage, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington D.C. His personal research interests gravitated toward the history of the RevenueCutter Service in Alaska. He has retired to Florissant, Missouri and is hard at work writing up all the research material he gathered in Alaska more than 40 years ago. Gary presented a version of this article at the Western History Association's 2020 annual meeting. You can write to him at drgarystein@gmail.com

!40

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 out from the ice of the Dall, White came up with another method to obtain useful information about Natives living along the Yukon. He wrote to six missions along a 500-mile stretch of the river: the Russian Orthodox mission of Russian Mission at the village of Ikogmiut; the Jesuit missions of Holy Cross at Koserefsky and St. Peter Claver at Nulato; and the Episcopal missions of Christ Church at Anvik, St. James at Tanana, and St. Andrews at Rampart. All of these were Athabascan Indian missions with the exception of Russian Mission, which was Central Yup’ik Eskimo. Only White’s letter to Holy Cross survives, but it probably represents the letters he sent to each mission:

Fort Shoemaker Dall River, Alaska

Sir:

I would be pleased if you will answer the following questions as fully as possible, and too, to add anything you know regarding the natives that will be of interest.

Said information will be used in the annual report of this vessel to the Department.

The “Nunivak” will be coming down the river early in June next, when we will stop at your mission, and you may give me the answers then instead of mailing them now.

Very Respectfully

James T. White

Surgeon, R.C.S.

White enclosed with his letter a questionnaire he had developed—thirty-one questions on a wide range of topics. White’s questions, and responses he received from the missionaries, provide a unique opportunity for analyzing ethnographic data-collecting at the very beginning of the twentieth century and

alaskan-history.com

!41

Alaskan History how that information can be used in studying the history of Yukon River Natives during this significant period in their history. White’s questions were: U.S.S. NUNIVAK. 1. What is the tribal name of the natives living in your neighborhood, and the extent of the

territory they occupy?

2. Give the names of the neighboring tribes.

3. What is the number of natives living in your neighborhood?

4. Do the children attend school willingly and regularly, and what are their ages?

5. Is there any opposition to their attending from the parents or older people, or do these

take an interest in the school?

6. Are the children intelligent, and do they learn readily?

7. At what age do the women marry?

8. Does the man have to pay the brides [sic] parents for her?

9. Is it necessary for the girl to obtain her parents [sic] consent before marrying?

10. Do the couples now come to you to be married?

11. Did they have any marriage ceremony of their own, and if so, what was it like?

12. Did polygamy formerly exist?

13. What is the standing of the married women, and how are they treated?

14. What is the average number in a family, and the ratio of male and female children?

15. What is the number of children a woman usually bears?

16. Between what ages do women bear children?

The Nunivak at Nulato [National Archives]

!42

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 17. Is infantile mortality very great, and if so, to what is it due?

18. About what is the average longevity?

19. What diseases are common among them?

20. What diseases appear to be peculiar to them, and what are due to the influence of

civilization?

21. Have they medicines, or any methods of treating diseases of their own, or do they depend on the

white man when sick?

22. Do they still have their shamans or medicine-men, and do they possess much authority?

23. What has been the number of deaths since June 1900, and the causes? (give number of

adults and children separately) 24. The number of births for the same period?

25. Have they any observances at the birth or death of a person?

26. Do they tattoo or otherwise mutilate themselves?

27. Do they manufacture pottery and baskets, (other than birch-bark), and if so, out of what

materials?

28. Have they any games, (gambling or otherwise) peculiar to themselves?

29. What are their moral characteristics?

30. Are they addicted to drinking, gambling, or other vices, and to what extent?

31. What effect is civilization exerting on them?

And of course there is White’s rather casual throw-away remark asking missionaries “to add anything you know regarding the natives that will be of interest.”

Although White told the missionaries that the information he wanted from them would be used in the Nunivak’s final report, that did not happen. After the cutter returned to St. Michael in July 1901, Lt. Cantwell was ordered to haul it out on the beach and sell it. A buyer could not be found immediately, and Cantwell left it in the hands of White and a small caretaking crew. Cantwell returned to San Francisco to write his final report of the Nunivak’s two-year cruise on the Yukon. Writing to Cantwell on October 9, 1901, White noted that he was about ready to start on his “Indians of Dall River” report.

Six months later, on April 22, 1902, Cantwell wrote to White that he had not heard from him about his ethnographic report. White did not receive Cantwell’s April letter until July; it had been delayed because the steamship Portland, bringing passengers, freight, and mail to Alaska had been encircled by ice in the Bering Sea for two months. Once White received Cantwell’s letter, he informed his former commanding officer that he was not finished polishing his report and would bring it to San Francisco after the Nunivak was sold.

There is no indication that White finished a separate report on the Natives of Dall River or sent a more polished version to Cantwell. By July 1902, when White responded to Cantwell, his ethnologic report would have been of no use; Cantwell finished his final Nunivak report and submitted it to the Treasury Department in May. Furthermore, Cantwell had years of experience studying and reporting on Alaska’s Natives and was capable of writing about them on his own. Looking at White’s unfinished manuscripts on “The Dall River Indians,” however, it becomes clear that some of what he wrote was taken from missionary responses to his questionnaire.

White’s Categories

On one hand, White’s questions can be analyzed in terms of the kinds of information he was hoping to elicit, as determined by his own interests and background. On another level, missionaries’ responses can be analyzed in terms of their own particular interests in, and biases toward, Natives of their

alaskan-history.com

!43

Alaskan History

St. James Mission, Tanana [Library of Congress]

specific mission districts. Thirdly, missionaries’ replies can be analyzed as descriptions of variations in aspects of Alaska Native life over an area extending more than 500 miles.

There is some overlap, but the thirty-one questions White asked can be grouped into four broad categories. The greatest number of questions (ten) are directly concerned with Native health. He asked about the birth of children, infant mortality, Native longevity, prevalent diseases, aboriginal methods of medical treatment, and the number of deaths and births in the vicinity of the missions after June 1900.

Even if White had not had a medical background, the combined measles and influenza epidemics that decimated Native villages in the summer of 1900 would have been too important not to investigate these aspects of life and death on the Yukon.

The next largest category (eight questions) concerns more general information about Natives—tribal names and extent of their territory, population statistics, Native manufactures, and persistence of aboriginal ceremonies. Such questions are expected from someone gathering ethnographic data on inhabitants of any area. Other inquiries of this type may have been afterthoughts. For instance, White had shown some interest in Native baskets, writing in his diary on November 13, 1900, that Natives along the Yukon made birch-bark baskets, trays, and buckets. His Question 27, however, concerning pottery and baskets may have been prompted by a more immediate experience. Five days before White sent his questionnaire to the missionaries, Judge James Wickersham, on his way upriver to Eagle after presiding over a seven-day court term at the mining community of Rampart, stopped to rest on the Nunivak.

Wickersham, himself known as a foremost ethnologist, noted in his diary that he was surprised to find on board Dr. White, with whom he had corresponded about Northwest Coast Native ethnology.

White was equally delighted to encounter Wickersham, calling the judge “an ‘Indian Crank,’” in his own diary, and they often talked while Wickersham stayed on the Nunivak. One of their discussions was about baskets, White insisting that local Natives only made them of birch-bark. Wickersham, on the other hand, argued that all Indians made woven baskets and only stopped when metal pots were easily obtained from white traders. Wickersham went to the Athabascan village near where the Nunivak wintered and found someone he thought would make a proper basket for him. When the Native basket-maker

!44

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 brought it to him the next morning, however, it turned out to be a small basket made of birch-bark. This event may have prompted White’s question regarding baskets. In fact, it would not be surprising if White’s conversations with Wickersham inspired the entire questionnaire.

White’s next category (seven questions) is another that can be expected, considering his own attitudes and those of the men whose comments he sought. They deal with the Yukon River Natives’ “morality” and the influence “civilization” had on them. White’s sojourn on the river came during a period which, for a number of reasons, was a critical one for the Natives of that region, and of course he was interested in learning about the journey the Natives influenced by the missions had made toward American “civilization.”

Moreover, by 1901 other influences were being exerted on these Natives. The discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896 and at Nome in 1899 ushered in an era of rapid and extensive changes in Native life, some of which are still being felt. Many of these changes in material items and their effects were apparent to White. Other effects that White noted, such as gambling, drunkenness, and promiscuity, were considered vices of civilization. Through his questions White hoped to elicit the missionaries’ attitudes toward changes—both good and bad from their perspectives—affecting their Native charges.

White’s last category, six questions about women and marriage, is something of a departure from his other inquiries. He asked about the age at which women marry, whether a bride price was paid, whether women needed their parents’ permission to marry, the nature of aboriginal wedding ceremonies, whether polygamy existed, and how married women were treated by their husbands. There are only a few instances of his personal observations of these subjects noted in his diary entries during the winter spent at the Dall River, and in his manuscripts he covers these aspects of Native life in very few words. It may be impossible to pinpoint exactly what aroused his interest in this topic.

The Missionaries Five missionaries responded to White’s questionnaire. He did not receive a reply from the priest at Russian Mission, perhaps because Father Jacob Korchinsky, who had served as priest of the mission since 1897, left Russian Mission in September 1900 and was replaced by Hieromonk Amfilokhii in 1901.

The new priest was probably not familiar enough with local Natives to respond to White’s questions, and he may not have seen the questionnaire at all. Some of those who responded were then, or were to become, well-known names not only in their religious communities but in the wider spheres of Alaska history and anthropology. Going upstream from the Yukon River’s mouth they were: Joseph Raphael Crimont—Holy Cross (Koserefsky). Born near Amiens, France, Crimont came to the United States in 1884 and was ordained a priest two years later. He was a missionary to the Crow Indians in Montana before arriving at Holy Cross in 1894 and was the mission’s superior from 1896 to 1901. After serving as acting president of Gonzaga College in Spokane, Washington, Father Crimont came back north as Prefect Apostolic of Alaska in 1904. In 1917, he became Alaska’s first bishop and remained in that post until his death in 1945. Crimont’s thirteen-page response was dated June 20, 1901, two days after the Nunivak stopped at the mission on its way downriver. It probably reached White at St. Michael after the Nunivak reached that port.

John Wight Chapman—Christ Church (Anvik). Episcopal missionary Chapman of Vermont began his forty-three years of work at Anvik in 1887. Next to Father Jetté of Nulato he was the most knowledgeable missionary on the Yukon River. Intent on conducting religious services in the Natives’ own language, Chapman translated most of the Episcopal morning service into Ingalik. He contributed to the collections of the American Museum of Natural History and published “Notes on the Tinneh Tribe of Anvik, Alaska,” a

alaskan-history.com

!45

Alaskan History

Fr. Joseph Jules Jetté St. Peter Claver Mission, Nulato

Rev. John Wight Chapman Christ Church Mission, Anvik

Fr. Joseph Raphael Crimont Holy Cross Mission, Koserefsky

study of Native traditions and descriptions of ceremonies, in 1906. Chapman’s Ten’a Texts and Tales from Anvik, Alaska, thirty-three Native legends in both English and Ten’a orthography, which he compiled in 1911, was published in 1914. His response to White’s questions consisted of thirteen pages, dated April 27, 1901, but he had written an earlier four-page letter dated March 13, 1901 (five days before White sent his questionnaire), containing information White previously requested about local Natives’ religious beliefs.

Joseph Jules Jetté—St. Peter Claver (Nulato). Jetté, a Canadian-born Jesuit priest, was assigned to Alaska in 1898, two years after his ordination. He was twenty-seven years old. While waiting at St. Michael for transportation up the Yukon, Jetté wrote that he was making progress in learning the “Nulato language” from a young boy from Holy Cross. He would eventually master the language and was interested in linguistics, ethnology, and geography. His massive, 2,344-page manuscript dictionary of the Koyukon language is considered an encyclopedia of all of Koyukon culture. Even by 1901, after only three years at Nulato, Jetté was the most knowledgeable—and least ethnocentric—missionary to respond to White’s questions, and his references to other scholarship shows his wide-ranging curiosity. His 34-page response covers only 25 of the questions White asked. It can be assumed that the rest of that document has been lost. It is unfortunate that so much of the document is missing, because Jetté was the only missionary who took White at his word—he added much of what White asked for in terms of “anything you know regarding the natives that will be of interest.”

Alfred A. Selden—St. James (Tanana). A lay teacher, Selden accompanied missionary Rev. Jules Prevost to Alaska in 1898 to assist Prevost and complete the mission buildings at Tanana. Selden’s wife joined him, and they both taught school and conducted mission work. The Seldens left Alaska in 1902. Selden’s two-page response to White’s questions is in White’s handwriting and written on Treasury Department Stationary; it was probably the result of a face-to-face interview between them when the Nunivak stopped at Tanana on its way downriver on June 10, 1901.

Edward J. Knapp—St. Andrews (Rampart). Knapp, a lawyer from New York, was a member of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew and volunteered for service in Alaska. In 1889, working under Rev. Prevost, Knapp was appointed lay reader at Rampart. He left Rampart in 1903 but was back in Alaska the following year in temporary charge of St. Thomas’s Mission at Point Hope. Like Selden’s response, this two-page document is in White’s handwriting and written on Treasury Department Stationary. Again, it is probably the result of an interview with Knapp when the Nunivak stopped at Rampart, June 5-8, 1901.

!46

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 A Sample Analysis A thorough, detailed analysis of White’s questionnaire and the missionaries’ responses will require a monograph-length study. For now, one example should suffice to indicate how that analysis can add to our understanding of Native history along the Yukon during this period in Alaska’s history. Two questions stand out among the ten White asked regarding Native health, particularly because of their relationship to the combined measles and influenza epidemics that struck western Alaska in the summer of 1900. These epidemics have been rightly called “Alaska’s Great Sickness.”

Measles came from Siberia. Siberian Natives contracted it from Russian traders and brought it across Bering Strait on trading visits to Alaska Natives at Cape Prince of Wales. It quickly spread to St. Lawrence Island, the Pribilofs, the Aleutians, and along Alaska’s coast, south to Bristol Bay, north almost to Point Hope, and up the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. At the same time, influenza came north from Seattle or San Francisco, brought by whalers and prospectors to Nome. It then spread to the same areas.

The diseases ravaged Native villages and camps, causing not only great mortality but social disruption as well. It has been estimated that 25% of the Native population of western Alaska died. In some villages and camps along the Yukon the estimate nears 75%. Coming during the fishing season when Natives were in smaller camps, reduced subsistence resources threatened starvation for the ensuing winter.

Anthropologist Robert Wolfe wrote the most complete study of Alaska’s Great Sickness, published in 1982. He based much of his study on missionary writings and White’s official medical report, published as part of Lt. Cantwell’s extensive report on the Nunivak’s patrol of the river. Unfortunately, Wolfe did not have access to White’s questionnaire or the missionary responses. They could have provided the anthropologist with additional detail.

White’s Questions 23 and 24 are important in understanding the effects and aftermath of Alaska’s Great Sickness. Question 23 asked how many Natives had died within each mission’s population between June 1900, when the epidemics began their movement upriver, and March 1901. The statistics provided in the missionaries’ answers to White’s questions go beyond what Wolfe discussed in his article.

Wolfe himself complained that his study was incomplete because mortality statistics he was forced to use were limited as were data regarding deaths enumerated by age and sex. The following table is extrapolated from the missionaries’ responses to White’s questionnaire:

Holy Cross Mission, ca. 1900 [Library of Congress]

alaskan-history.com

!47

Alaskan History Responses to Questions About Deaths and Births 1900-1901* Place

Koserefsky (Holy Cross) Anvik (Christ Church)

Nulato (St. Peter Claver) Tanana (St. James)

Rampart (St. Andrews) *a=adult; c=child; w=white

Deaths

150 32 (23a 9c) 93 (68a 25c) 22 (14a 8c) 16 (2a 11c [3w])

Births “exceedingly few” 2 25-26 6 4 (+2w)

Crimont wrote that the measles and influenza epidemics accounted for most of the 150 Natives who died at Holy Cross. The majority were adults, the children’s deaths from the diseases being few.

According to the sources Wolfe cited, almost half of the Native population around Holy Cross died from the measles and influenza epidemics. This might not be quite accurate. Crimont told White that the Native population around the mission numbered 400 in 1901. If Wolfe was accurate that half the population had died, that would mean the pre-epidemic population must have been 800. Nothing I have seen makes that a reasonable assumption. If, however, 150 died as Crimont wrote, a population of 550 near the mission would not be unreasonable. Some of the dead at Holy Cross were from outlying villages in the mission district who resorted to the mission when the population of their winter village was reduced to an unsustainable number.

The other problem with Wolfe’s analysis compared to the statements White received from the missionaries is that Wolfe only looked at statistics relating to Holy Cross and a few surrounding villages and camps within a fifty-two mile stretch of the Yukon between the mission itself and the village at Dog Fish. Forty miles farther up the Yukon, at Anvik, Chapman provided more details about his mission.

Thirty-two deaths had occurred at Anvik. Seventeen of the dead were females (six of them were children) and fifteen were males (three children). Rather than simply give White a head count of the dead, Chapman listed the causes of death: four from consumption (probably tuberculosis), twenty from influenza compounded by bronchitis, four from influenza combined with measles, two from whooping cough, one from Pott’s Disease (tuberculosis of the spinal bones), and one from paralysis. Twenty-four of the deaths at Anvik, therefore, were caused directly by the 1900 epidemics.

Jetté’s answer was the longest and most detailed. He included statistics from what he considered the wide field of his mission’s influence—stretching from 80 miles below to 200 miles above Nulato.

According to the mission’s records, sixty-eight of the ninety-three Natives who died were adults and twenty were children. Other Natives associated with the mission died on Yukon River tributaries such as

Rampart [Library of Congress]

!48

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021 the Koyukuk and Innoko rivers, but Jetté could not provide their numbers as he had not visited those areas during the winter of 1900-1901.

Jetté attributed all but two of the ninety-three deaths at Nulato to the epidemics in 1900. Some had died in the fall of 1900 and during the winter from after-effects of the diseases. Jetté’s response made a significant point. His statement that there were several deaths in the late fall and early winter of 1900 requires further inquiry into the Great Sickness. When the Nunivak stopped at Nulato on its way upriver on August 28, 1900, White wrote in his diary that twenty-seven had died at the mission by that date.

Jetté himself reported a larger number of dead after the Nunivak left the mission, listing in Nulato’s official records thirty-six who died between July 28 and September 15, 1900. This means that to reach the ninety-three dead that Jetté reported to White in 1901, almost sixty had died from the epidemics in the fall and winter. It would not be far-fetched to assume that a similar situation existed at the other missions.

As for the two missions closest to where the Nunivak wintered, Knapp at Rampart told White that there had been thirteen Native deaths (two adults and eleven children, five of the latter infants) and Selden reported that there had been twenty-six deaths (14 adults and 12 children) at Tanana.

White’s Question 24 adds valuable information on the ability of the Native population to renew itself after the epidemics. Wolfe, of course, had no data on—or perhaps no concern—about the number of children who were born after the epidemics. Crimont was vague about the births during the nine months period White asked about, merely writing that there were “exceedingly few.” At Anvik, Chapman reported that there were only two births during the nine-month period in White’s question. Selden reported six births at Tanana, while Knapp said there were four Native births at Rampart. Jetté reported a rather astounding figure of twenty-five or twenty-six births between June 1900 and March 1901 based on his mission’s baptism records, but his was a broader region of mission influence.

There is some difficulty in reconciling names of villages in the 1900 federal census with actual Native communities, so a detailed comparison cannot be made between the 1900 census data for the Yukon River Native villages with the missionary responses. This is unfortunate, because enumerators for that census had traveled through those villages and missions just before the epidemics struck, so once that difficulty is overcome—and I have no doubt it will be—we have the potential for a relatively complete picture of the pre-epidemic population.

This is a short version of a broader analysis of White’s questionnaire and the missionary responses that is currently underway. It is presented here as an example of how a unique documentary source can be used to provide a window into the work of an amateur ethnographer, the people he was soliciting for information, and the Natives he was studying. White was fond of quoting a line that Rudyard Kipling often used to end some of his writings. The further analysis fits that quote as well: “But that’s another story.”

Officers of the Revenue Steamer Nunivak.

Dr. James T. White seated at left.

Scammell-Tinling Collection.

alaskan-history.com

!49

Alaskan History

Sources & Resources The links and references below reflect the specific sources used in researching the articles which appear in this issue, and include reference books, videos, websites and other media. Lengthy URLs have been shortened.

CR&NW RR STEAMBOATS • Lib. of Congress CR&NW Steamboat Blueprints https://www.loc.gov/item/ak0048/ • 1911 Chitina Leader article https://tinyurl.com/1911ChitinaLeader • Alaskan Riverboats https://tinyurl.com/AKriverboats • National Register of Historic Places CR&NWRR https://tinyurl.com/NatRegHistCRNW THE EAGLE-VALDEZ TRAIL • Isaac Jones’ 1901 Report https://tinyurl.com/1901Report • Resource https:// • Resource https:// • 1909 Map showing Eagle-Valdez Trail https://tinyurl.com/map-of-trail GLACIAL LAKE AHTNA • Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atna • Megafloods from Glacial Lake Atna https://tinyurl.com/Weidmer • UW News article 2010 https://tinyurl.com/2010UWnewsletter • USGS Research paper, O. J. Ferrians, Jr. https://tinyurl.com/Ferrians • Wickersham’s Conscience https://tinyurl.com/WickershamConsc DR, JOSEPH H. ROMIG • Biography https://www.alaskahistory.org/biographies/romig-joseph-herman-md/ • Dr. Joseph Romig article https://tinyurl.com/NLMRomig • Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_H._Romig • JAMA review https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/247338 PATSY ANN, JUNEAU’S OFFICIAL GREETER • Patsy Ann website https://patsyann.com • LitSite AK article https://tinyurl.com/LitSiteAKpatsyann • KTOO news article https://tinyurl.com/KTOOpatsyann • Alaska's Digital Newspaper Project https://tinyurl.com/AKnewspapers

DR. JAMES TAYLOR WHITE’S 1901 YUKON RIVER ETHNOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE • Alaska Jesuit Mission Collection 1887–1955. Microfilm of Records at Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus Archives, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. • John W. White and James Taylor White Papers. Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

• James A. Wickersham Diaries, Alaska State Library, Juneau.

• Robert J. Wolfe, “Alaska's Great Sickness, 1900: An Epidemic of Measles and Influenza in a Virgin Soil Population,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 126 (April 8, 1982), 91-121.

GENERAL RESOURCES • Alaska & Polar Regions Collections & Archives http://library.uaf.edu/apr • Alaska’s Digital Archives https://vilda.alaska.edu • Statewide Library Electronic Doorway [SLED]: https://lam.alaska.gov/sled/history • Google Books https://books.google.com • Gutenberg.org https://books.gutenberg.org • Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov • Chronicling America https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

www.alaskan-history.com !50

alaskan-history.com

January-February, 2021

alaskan-history.com

!51