INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEEK INTO ALASKA. 48 



most promising young men are apprentices in the reindeer herd w liicli 

 is under the care of the mission. The Bureau of Education assists 

 in bearing the expense of the school in connection with the mission. 



On August 15 we readied the settlement on the north bank of the 

 Yukon opposite the mouth of the Tanana River. As one approaches 

 this important point the numerous buildings of Fort Gibbon, one of 

 the largest army posts in Alaska, are seen; then follows a strag- 

 gling row of log buildings along the edge of the blufl", flanked by the 

 warehouses and stores of the North American Trading and Transpor- 

 tation Comjniny and the Northern Commercial Company. This 

 small settlement has three names: Gibbon, Weare, and Tanana. 

 Since the discovery of gold in paying quantities on the creeks and 

 tributaries of the Tanana and the establishment of the towns of Ghena 

 and Fairbanks, this settlementj at the junction of the Tanana and 

 Yukon rivers, has become an important point for the transferring of 

 freight and passengers from the larger steamers to the smaller boats 

 which with difhculty ascend the shallow, rapid, tortuous Tanana River. 

 Hundreds of tons of freight and crowds of passengers are sometimes 

 congested at this primitive settlement, which has absolutely no good 

 accommodations for a large number of travelers. 



During the evening of August 15 w^e left the wide river and with 

 difficulty threaded our way between the sand bars which block the 

 entrance to the Tanana. The swift-flowing Tanana, with its drift- 

 laden current and frequent sand bars, is a trial to the soul of the river 

 captain who is compelled to push his long steamer and cumbersome 

 freight barge around its abrupt curves. The Roclv Island seemed to 

 brace herself for the struggle, and panted and throbbed like a thing of 

 life. Many a time her crew of native boys had to land and by pulling 

 on a hawser swing the prow of the barge out of the swift current and 

 around a sharp bend. By dint of hard work we reached the town of 

 Chena, at the junction of the Tanana and Chena rivers, on the evening 

 of August 20. On the way we passed the steamer Oil City, with a 

 broken shaft, helplessly tied up to the bank. Her decks were black 

 with miners and others flocking to Fairbanks, the most recent mining 

 Mecca. We also left behind many small, flat-bottomed boats which 

 men were laboriously poling against the swift current. The town 

 of Chena is built on a plain, an excellent site for a town, but it is 

 at present eclipsed by the larger settlement of Fairbanks, 12 miles 

 up the Chena River. A railway from Chena to the gold-bearing 

 creeks is projected. The town of Chena became incorporated in 

 December, 1903. At the time of our visit it had a population of 

 about 400. After making repairs to the macliinery, the Roch Island 

 proceeded up the Chena to Fairbanks. This short trip of 12 miles 

 w^as the most difficult piece of navigation accomplished since leaving 

 St. Michael. 



