10 FORTYMILE, BIRCH CREEK, AND FAIRBANKS PLACERS, [bull. 251. 
reached either by overland trails or by tributaries which arc naviga- 
ble for small boats. 
Fortymile vet/ion (PI. VII). — Eagle, the principal town of the 
Fortymile region, is pleasantly situated on the west side of the 
Yukon, about 100 miles below Dawson. There are trails to the placer 
camps in the vicinity of Fortymile Creek, 60 miles to the south, to the 
important localities on American Creek, only about 12 miles to the 
south, and to those scattered along the Seventymile, about 50 miles 
to the west. Eagle, so far as its location will allow, is a source of 
supply for this region; it has a population of about 300, and was 
incorporated in 1891. An army post is located there, and the town 
is the terminus of the Government trail and telegraph line from 
Valdes to the Yukon. There is also telegraphic communication with 
the upper Yukon, the whole region being thus brought into close 
touch with the rest of the world. 
There are two main trails to the Fortymile country. One is by way 
of Thirteemnile Camp, Liberty Fork, and Dome Creek to the junc- 
tion of Fortymile and Steele creeks, about 40 miles south from Eagle. 
The settlement at the mouth of Steele Creek is shown in PL II, .1. 
Thence the trail follows the divide to the southwest, crosses South 
Fork at Franklin, and passes from the Fortymile region to the Kechj 
umstuk Hills and the Tanana. This trail traverses most of the areas 
of economic importance, and all creeks where mining is in progress 
can be reached from it by side trails. It is generally followed by 
the mail carriers on the Valdes- Eagle route. Roadhouses are locatec 
at Steele Creek and on all the important gold-producing creeks. 
The other trail, known as the Government route, leaves the first at the 
Thirteemnile Camp, follows the long divide to the southwest between 
the headwaters of Champion and O'Brien creeks, and crosses North 
Fork at the telegraph office, about 8 miles above the " Kink." 
In dry weather these trails afford good traveling for pack trains, 
but transportation of supplies is so expensive that most of the min- 
ers in the Fortymile area get their supplies elsewhere than a] 
Eagle. In the absence of good roads the trade necessarily goes up the 
river, generally to Dawson; in this case duties must be paid at the 
boundary, and these add greatly to the burdens of the miner. Navi- 
gation on the Fortymile is rathe]* difficult, as the current is frequently 
swift and rapids are numerous, but small boats carry freight as far as 
Chicken Creek on Mosquito Fork. Transportation rates to the Forty- 
mile area by pack train during the summer are as high as 25 cents a 
pound, but in winter, when freighting is comparatively easy, the aver- 
age is about 5 cents a pound. Most of the men buy their supplies at 
Dawson in the fall and have them freighted to the creeks during the 
winter. During the summer of 1903 prices of supplies on the creeks 
