|
Paris
Mercury
July
28 1899
(excerpts)
The Story of It
Three Members of the Paris Klondike Expedition Have
Returned
They tell a tale of Hardship and Disaster
After an absence of one year and three months Chris
Buerk, Tom Murphy and Dennis Fields... reached home
Monday afternoon, tanned , weather beaten and bearing
unmistakable signs of hardships and suffering.......The
region has a monotonous grandeur of scenery that
terrifies at first.... Imagine dreary stretches of
snow covered mountains towering continually about you
and reaching as far as the eye can see......The mining
population is quiet and orderly, more like a big
family...Lieut. Bell with 50 United States soldiers were
there, but the soldiers were the most drunken and
troublesome men in the Klondike. The rich gold
regions are at Dawson, but when we arrived the country
for 200 miles around Dawson was staked off. We divided
and I (Chris Buerk) went with the Kyokuk party.
....walking over 200 miles over mountains and pulling
our own sleds ....the real hardship and suffering will
be known only by those who experienced them...We had
claims without end but...poorest property in that
country.... We came back to Rampart and at a meeting of
the company asked permission to work for ourselves and
earn enough money to come home, which was granted.
The crowd was then in straightened circumstances, there
being about $125 to the man. Tom Murphy and myself
secured a job as deck hands at $2 a day on "The ?
City" Capt. Bacey of Brunswick, Mo., a floating
house of sin. Old friendship did not count with
Captain Bacey. ...we were treated like slaves and
compelled to eat below deck... It was the worst
job of my life. At Dawson a letter awaited me
conveying the sad intelligence of my father's
death....Murphy and I started out leaving word for Mark
Rodes to follow. He is firing on a steamer
at $75 a month and so is Abe Hill. They may stay
the remainder of the season....... The reports
about the Kyokuk country are lies. No gold has
been found there of any consequence. Trading companies
exhibit fake finds and keep up the excitement......Our
goods are still boxed up at Rampart. There was no sale
for them. Things are as cheap or cheaper in Alaska than
in the States..... The Yukon is dotted with wreck
so boats like ours, for which there was neither business
nor sale.......Tan Bassett, Bob Osborn, Jim Fisher, Dr.
Allen, Hugh Faf and Jeff Crigler are at St. Michael and
will come out soon, whether the boat is disposed of or
not. Rube Holbrook is running a second-hand store
at the same place and it is the funniest store you ever
saw - gold pans, old stoves and mining outfits. He
spreads them out on the beach during the day and puts
them under a tent at night. He sent home $100 to
his wife. Less Dry is firing on a river boat and
J. B. Davis, Henry Wright, Monroe Beagle, John Thompson,
J. B. Jones and Eddy Power are still at Rampart and will
remain another winter. While at Dawson, I heard
that Geo. W. Young, who was staked by Paris parties, had
during his short stay there located a good claim and had
another man working it.
(courtesy of Kathleen
Wilham)
|
