The Klondike Clan
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THE KLONDIKE CLAN A TALE OF THE GREAT STAMPEDE > BY S. HALL YOUNG Author of " Alaska Day* with John Muir " ILLUSTRATED New York Chicago Tobonto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh THE NEW YGft K I PUBLJC LIBRARY ._. AW TUJDKN FOON»ATION3 1817 L Copyright, 1916, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York : 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 17 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto : 25 Richmond St., W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street By S. HALL YOUNG, P.P. Alaska Days with John Muir. Il lustrated, I2mo, cloth — net $1.00 " Do you remember Stickeen, the canine hero of John Muir's dog story ? Here is a book by the man who owned Stickeen and was Muir's companion on the adventurous trip among the Alas kan glaciers. This is not only a breezy outdoor book, fall of the wild beauties of the Alaskan wilderness, it is also a living portrait of John Muir in the great moments of his career."— New York Times. " I can see only one fault with the book, it is far too short. I should love to read such a book as big as the diction ary. Thank you very much ! "—Gene Stratton-Porter. " One need not be an admirer of John Muir to be thoroughly entertained by the lively pages. The Muir of this book is the familiar vibrant personality. This little book, the record of these trips, is written in a style animated and vivid without being journalistic— a style not unlike that of the lover of glaciers him self."— The Nation. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LFNOX TltDEN FOUNQAriowa THE KLONDIKE CLAN BY HIS SIDE A BIG MALAMUTE DOG HCo My Comrades of the Great Social Order Of the Northwest— THE ARCTIC BROTHERHOOD CHILKOOT PASS And you, too, banged at the Chilkoot, That rock-locked gate to the golden door! These thunder-built steeps have words built to suit, And whether you prayed or whether you swore 'Twere one where it seemed that an oath was a prayer- Seemed God couldn't care, Seemed God wasn't there! And you, too, climbed to the Klondike And talked, as a friend, to those five-horned stars! With muckluck shoon and with talspike You, too, bared head to the bars, The heaven-built bars where morning is bora, And drank with maiden morn From Klondike's golden horn! And you, too, read by the North light* Such sermons as never men say I You '.sat and' sat with the midnights • That -BiV and ithat sit all day: , You. beard, the silence, you heard the room, He^rd. Ihfe glory of God in the gloom Wnere. <jhe icebergs boom and boom! Tneir come "to' my Sunland, my soldier, Aye, come to my heart and to stay; For better crusader or bolder Bared never a breast to the fray. And whether you prayed or whether you cursed You dared the best and you dared the worst That ever brave man durst. JOAQUIN Mrr.T.mt FOREWORD ALASKA and the Yukon Territory of Canada together form a country whose whole atmos phere is surcharged with romance. The old days of the Indian and the fur-trader held a buried store of adventure and mystery, of which but a very little has yet been unearthed. The mighty mountain ranges that rim the great bowl of the Yukon; the still higher ranges and peaks that float in clouds within it; the river itself, with its scores of tribu taries coming mysteriously from unexplored wilds; the vise-like cold of the winters and wonderful life and beauty of the summers; these all enhance the poetic interest of the far Northwest. When gold first began to be discovered in this neglected corner of the world, and hordes of eager adventurers stormed across the mountain-ranges of the coast and along the southern and western shores of Alaska and up its rivers, the romance of great gold-camps was added to that of the game- stocked wilderness. This field has been prolific in literature, and the traveler, the poet and the story-teller have tilled it diligently, and sometimes successfully. But the author of the present volume feels that a large sec tion of this rich field is still virgin ground. He has spent almost his whole life in Alaska, and has seen it change from a despised and ridiculed country, for 11 12 FOREWORD which the purchase-price of seven million dollars was considered exorbitant, to its present status as " the richest section of either American continent " ; from "Seward's Folly" to " Seward's Wisdom," from " Uncle Sam's Ice Box " to " The Storehouse of the Nation." He has lived among and studied its natives, has explored unmapped wilds, has paddled his canoe or driven his dogs over almost all sections of Alaska, and sampled all its climates. He has seen its white population grow from less than two hundred to sixty thousand. He has followed all the great gold stampedes and many of the smaller ones, and has been at the birth of most of the camps and towns of the Northwest. He has lived the life and played the game. Alaska is the author's home. He considers it the best of all lands to live in, to work in, to die in. He esteems its people as among the bravest, cleanest and most admirable in all the world — the survival of the fittest, the winners of a mighty battle, the sifted wheat, the separated nuggets. He believes that very few of those who have written of this strong and typical American race have done it full justice. The region known vaguely as The Klondike lies in Canada, but close to the Alaskan border. Gold was dis covered, and the first claims staked there, by citizens of the United States — old miners from Forty Mile Creek and Circle City in Alaska. During the first year of the Klondike Stampede it was generally believed through out the Republic, that at least the greater portion of the Klondike, including the richest creeks, were on the Alaska side of the line between the two countries. A popular cartoon of the day in a New York journal FOREWORD 13 depicted the British Lion sitting close to the Alaska line, on the other side of which was written " The Klondike." He was saying " I wonder if I couldn't inch over a bit." Fully five-sixths of the stampeders were from the United States, and the great majority of the claims were owned by citizens of this country. Although Canada organized its government, sent its officials and collected its taxes, the United States sent freely its citizens of all classes, and its mission boards sent in ministers to look after them. When the Stampede reached high tide in the summer of '98, and the vast majority of the eager host were disappointed in secur ing gold mines on the British side, they sailed by thousands down the Yukon to Alaska and spread over that vast region, prospecting for the precious metal; and with them went their missionaries. In the religious and humane work required for this host in the wilderness, the motto of the Arctic Brother hood has been adopted — No Boundary Line Here. This book is an attempt to depict the scenes of the great Klondike Stampede as they occurred, and the stampeders as they were. The incidents are more his tory than fiction. The characters are types. Some of them are attempted portraits, others composites, still others, ideals. Many of the adventures of the story occurred under the personal observation of the author or that of his friends. " The Parson " is in no sense or degree a portrait of any one man; much less of the author himself. Many of his adventures, deeds and words are actuali ties ; but the man is an ideal — rather what the author U FOREWORD and others would like to have been, than what they were. The volume attempts to depict with fidelity and truth the indomitable, joyous, humorous and earnest spirit of the pioneers of the Northwest. The author acknowledges with gratitude the helpful suggestions of friends, some of them authors of far greater experience and power than himself. Some of these have advised that he drop the fiction form and write a simple narrative of personal experience and observation. Others have advised more romance, mys tery and adventure. The author has chosen a course like that of Tennyson in The Princess: I moved as in a strange diagonal, And maybe neither pleased myself nor them. New Yok. S. H. Y. CONTENTS BOOK I THE GREAT STAMPEDE I. THE GATHERING OF THE CLAN . 19 II. CAMP CONFUSION .... 2^ III. WHICH PASS? 38 IV. THE CONSTITUTION .... 47 V. LONG SANDY AND THE GIRL . 57 VI. THE BEACH 73 VII. SANDY'S FAMILY 81 VIII. NORTHWESTWARD Ho ! . 89 IX. THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST . 98 X. SCOTTY'S SHAME . BOOK II THE YUKON XI. THE LAKES 129 XII. THE MAD WATER .... 143 XIII. THE ICE JAMB 155 XIV. THE AURORA 164 XV. THE STRUGGLE OF FIRST THINGS . 174 XVT. LANKY BILL 183 XVII. THE JOKE ON THE PARSON . 195 15 16 CONTENTS BOOK III GOLD XVIII. KING GRUB 203 XIX. KING WINTER 223 XX. WALTER'S QUEST .... 242 XXI. CHRISTMAS CHEER .... 258 XXII. THE FUTILE GOLD . .278 -XXIII. THE MAIL 293 BOOK IV BETTER THAN GOLD XXIV. WALTER'S RETURN .... 305 XXV. FATHER JUSTUS 318 XXVI. CUSSIN' JIM 328 XXVII. THE CLAN TOGETHER . 346 XXVIII. THE GREATEST FIND OF ALL . 363 XXIX. LONG SANDY STRIKES IT RICH .