b GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF RAMPART REGION. 
The towns of Eagle, Circle, and Rampart, on Yukon River, and Fairbanks, on 
Tanana River, have developed as supply points for the mining regions in their 
vicinity. The town of Rampart, with a population of about 200, is on the south 
bank of the Yukon, 170 miles, below Circle and about 70 miles above the junction 
with the Tanana, at a point where the Yukon, after pursuing for a few miles a 
southerly course, bends squarely to the west and sweeps in a deep channel past the 
hills which bound the south side of the rather open valley. A narrow-terraced 
slope between these hills and the river is picturesquely occupied along the water 
front and hillside in the background by the irregular collection of buildings which 
forms the town. There is an air of importance about, the place, and it possesses, 
also, a kind of dignity which the pervasive majesty of the great river and the vast 
loneliness of the country through which it flows have conferred upon every one of 
these small isolated outposts of civilization. 
Supplies are received from the outside world by way of either St. Michael or Daw- 
sou. By the first course they are shipped by water to St. Michael and carried thence 
by river steamers up the Yukon, a distance of about 900 miles, to Rampart. By the 
second course they are shipped from Skagway by the White Pass and Yukon rail- 
road through Canadian territory to White Horse, by river steamer to Dawson, and 
by the lower river boats, a distance of 500 miles farther, to Rampart. The fact 
that in the spring navigation opens first on the upper Yukon has led to a preference 
of the Dawson route when it is desired to have supplies arrive at their destination 
early in the season. The first-class passenger rate during the summer of 1904 from 
Seattle to Rampart by way of St. Michael was $127.50; that by way of Dawson was 
$111. The freight rates have a wide range of variation, according to the kind of 
material and the time of year. The approximate rates on ordinary supplies by way 
of St. Michael and Dawson respectively during 1901 were $57 and $106 a ton. 
The gold-producing creeks are at distances of 5 to 30 miles from Rampart, and are 
connected with the town by trails. Minook Creek enters the Yukon from the south 
about a half mile above Rampart. The main trail follows its valley a distance of 
about 20 miles to the head, and then passes over the divide at an elevation of about 
2,000 feet, and extends to the creeks in the southern part of the region. Side 
trails leave the main trail at intervals for the various creeks. Supplies are trans- 
ported over these trails by pack train in the summer and by dog or horse sleds in the 
winter. The summer rates are 4 to 15 cents a pound, according to distance, and the 
winter rates to the same localities are 2 to 6 cents a pound. Summer traveling is bad. 
The trodden muck along the valley sides and bottoms favors the accumulation of 
water, and the interlacing ditch-like trails entail much hardship upon the pack ani- 
mals, which flounder along them, and increase the cost of gold production to the 
miners, none of whom are in a position to improve them. Most of the freighting is 
consequently done in the winter time. Several outfits at Rampart are in the freight- 
ing business, and in both summer and winter make trips at regular intervals to the 
creeks. 
There is a station of the Government telegraph line at Rampart which affords com- 
munication by way of the Tanana with other portions of Alaska and the outside at 
rates which are low in comparison with the advantages which may thus be secured. 
The mail facilities are improving from year to year and, as the rates on small quan- 
tities of light material compare very favorably with the freight rates, this method of 
obtaining such supplies from the States during the summer season is often utilized 
and is of considerable benefit to the people. 
The four important gold-producing regions of the Y r ukon-Tanana country have 
been visited at various times by parties from the Geological Survey, which have 
been engaged either in mapping these regions and the little-known areas between 
them, or in studying the gold-bearing deposits and the distribution of the formations 
w 7 hich occur in the gold-producing regions. The results have been embodied in 
