The Tanana Gold Fields, Alaska 



to grief so many a hopeful tenderfoot. 

 Down the river, through Lake Lebarge 

 and the "Five Fingers," one can jour- 

 ney under many different class tickets. 

 There is the first-class ticket on the 

 first-class boat, which means that you 

 may have a stateroom if you are lucky, 

 or the floor under a table if you are 

 not, and there is the second-class ticket 

 on the first-class boat, which means you 

 may sleep above the boiler if cold- 

 blooded, or on the bow of the boat if 

 warm ; then follow the first and second 

 class tickets on the second-class boats, 

 which cost as much as if they were first- 

 class, but always inspire the sentiment, 

 "If I'd only stayed to home with 

 mother." The wise and independent 

 traveler eschews both classes and masses 

 and takes to the open boat, in many 

 ways the most attractive mode of travel- 

 ing. The river flows swiftly ; the days 

 are endless and the scenery beautiful 

 and varied ; hills and valleys, cliffs and 

 flats, fly by as one takes the midstream 



to escape ' ' them pretty little , ' ' the 



mosquitoes, and 50 miles in a day's 

 run before camp is pitched requires 

 little effort. If in great haste to tread 

 the streets of gold and collect the nug- 

 gets waiting, ' ' watch and watch ' ' will 

 enable you to utilize the long Arctic 

 days. At Gibbon you await the first 

 steamer up the Tanana, for ascending 

 by small boat means much hard poling 

 and tracking on the bank, 15 miles 

 being a big day's work. The light- 

 draught steamer is crowded, and you 

 are in luck if you find space for your 

 blanket on a secluded spot of the deck. 

 But all are gay and hopeful, and dreams 

 of a farm in southern California, with 

 an orange grove about the house, or a 

 brown-stone front on Fifth avenue in 

 the East put energy into the weary. 



It is another matter to reach Fair- 

 banks from the ' ' outside ' ' after the 

 "freeze up." The shortest route is 

 over the mail trail, by dog sled from 

 Valdez, on Prince William Sound, a 



weary stretch of 400 miles of mountain 

 and lowland, not to be undertaken by a 

 1 ' cheechaco ' ' (Alaskan tenderfoot) un- 

 less he possesses not only the right stuff, 

 but also a reserve fund to call on in 

 time of need. Strange as it may seem, 

 the closing in of winter opens up the 

 country to the " sourdough," for dogs 

 can pull where horses fail, and the pros- 

 pector with his team and " grubstake " 

 roams at will. 



Level spruce-covered ridges rising to 

 bare rounded domes, with horizon lines 

 as straight as a rule, characterize the 

 Tanana gold fields. Gently sloping val- 

 leys with hillsides at low angles are seen 

 on every hand, and only a clear day re- 

 veals far to the south across the wide 

 valley of the Tanana the snow-capped 

 Alaskan range towering to the clouds 

 and culminating to the southwest in 

 Mt McKinley. 



Fools, and many of them, rush into a 

 new mining camp, but the presence of 

 angels would be rather a disturbing 

 element in the general scramble for 

 good "pay." Moreover, their wings 

 would become torn in the brush and 

 their robes muddied by the heavy trails. 



Fairbanks is a thriving town of some 

 two thousand souls and growing. In 

 fact, it grows as yon watch it, and it 

 grows as you give up the watching and 

 turn for a few moments of sleep. It 

 has not yet, and it is to be hoped never 

 will, bear the name of city, so often ill 

 applied in the northern camps, where 

 each collection of log cabins is dignified 

 by that addition to the name of the first 

 prospector who struck pay. The main 

 street fronting Chena Slough already 

 puts to shame many a town of ten times 

 its age on the " outside." 



On the main street alone there are as 

 many as ten saloons, all in active busi- 

 ness, to say nothing of the hospital, 

 dwellings, sawmills, drug stores, and 

 commercial companies' posts, where can 

 be bought anything from a paper of 

 pins to a folding bed or from a roll of 



