Even as the snow continues to fall, the days are getting longer and we feel spring is right around the corner. Ray and I are planning for not only the 1st Chicken Run of 2020 (tentatively the last weekend in April), but placing orders for our summer projects. We have a lot of plans for this summer and we can’t wait to get started.
Travelling the Taylor and Top of the World Highways
Top of the World HIghway, Alaska side
But as some of you who follow me regularly know, Ray and I
have a passion for Historic Ghost Towns. We’re planning on getting out this
summer and visiting a few more in the region. We are going up the Taylor and
Top of the World Highways toward Eagle and Boundary to obtain large chunks of
quartz and granite for landscaping and sculptures. We are also going to drive
to Dawson, the setting for my Historical Fiction/Paranormal Romance, A Drink of
Darkness.
Yukon River, looking north from Midnight Dome
Ghost Town of 60-Mile and the Lonely Spectre
One of our stops along the way will be the Ghost Town of
60-Mile. On the Canadian side of the border, people were mining in this area more
than ten years before the discovery of gold on the Klondike. During its heyday,
almost 2000 people lived in this remote area. Before the highway was built, it
was the direct route between the mining towns of the 40-Mile district of Alaska
and the Klondike goldfields. Most people packed up and headed for Dawson when they
heard of the big strike. But a few stayed and continued to mine (there are
still some small mining operations to this day).
From the Ghost Town of Chicken, AK; a the former residence of a hermit miner featured in some of my blogs, Toad
Hermit Miners
According to resources, one character in particular was a
hermit miner named John Stockton. One of the interesting things about the
miners who come to the region, and really people who come to Alaska in general,
they are true loners. Many really want to just work their claims and be alone.
They might come into town on once or twice in a summer, pick up their supplies,
and head back out only giving the occasional greeting. From all accounts John
was one of these. Not hostile, but not social.
The Ghost’s Background
John was born in Oregon circa 1866* and was found deceased by the Northwest Mounted Police near his claim in 1944. He filed 6 mining claims with the government. He was buried on top of the hill in a spot he had pre-selected, overlooking the 60-mile valley. According to numerous stories and legends, his ghost still haunts the hill, and can be seen from time to time watching the new mining operations in the distance. He apparently doesn’t like anyone mining on the claim on which his grave rests. Anyone who tries experiences unexplainable equipment problems and bad weather.
Greeting the Ghost
We plan on checking out the ruins of the old town of 60-Mile.
Most of this Ghost Town has succumbed to the elements. We’ll also say hi to
John. According to legend, he’s amicable to people saying hi and visiting his
grave, he just doesn’t like it if they disturb things, linger long, or try to
find out anything about him. Mediums and other people trying to reach out to
him purportedly have gotten a stern, “Leave me alone,” in response to their
well-meaning efforts.
After having our cabin out in Chicken, I could understand
wanting to live my eternity undisturbed out in such a beautiful, peaceful
region. It sounds like the “Lonely Miner of the 60-Mile” is content with his
afterlife.
Who wouldn’t love to enjoy this view forever?
Much of my information on this story, I got from the book, Ghosts of the Klondike Gold Rush by Shirley Jonas.
Thanks for reading. My horror novella set in the Alaska backcountry, The Dark Land, is coming to Amazon May 4th. (pre-sale starts April 16th). If you sing up for my newsletter, you’ll get a sneak preview of a scene from the Dark Land.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
In my next blog post, I will talk about one of the most famous ghosts and hauntings of the Klondike Rush, and Dawson City’s Palace Grand Theatre.
The Dark Land, Available on Amazon
Ancient evil stalks the frozen trails of Alaska’ boreal forests. The legend of the Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. The Dark Land’s hunger for flesh never sleeps, even in the deepest cold of winter
*I did notice a minor typo in her book about John’s DOB, which is why I note the year of his birth as approximately 1866. It is listed in her book as 1886, which doesn’t add up to his death in 1944 at the age of 79. According to her notes, he filed his first claim in 1909 at age 44.
More of my adventures in Dawson City, YT as I researched my Historical Fiction Novel, A Drink of Darkness
“You can drink it fast. You can drink it slow,
But your lips must touch the toe.” -The Sourtoe Cocktail Oath
I did a poll a while back about which blog posts people
wanted to see. While the Sternwheel Graveyard won the poll to go first, I did
promise to circle back around to the Sourtoe Cocktail.
The Sign for the Sourtoe Cocktail club. Yes, that many people have imbibed. I was #91346
What’s the Sourtoe Cocktail?
A tourist attraction in Dawson is to join the Sourtoe
Cocktail Club. It is even in the Yukon, Larger Than Life, tourist pamphlet.
What is the Sourtoe Cocktail, though? It is quite simple, but yet kind of
gross. It is a shot of alcohol (must be more than 40% by volume—no beer or wine)
with a toe in it.
It is an actual human toe preserved in salt.
How the hell did they come up with this idea?
Captain Dick Stevenson came up with the idea in 1973 when he
found the preserved toe of Louie Linken. The rum-runner lost the toe to
frostbite in the 1920’s.
Did I join the Sourtoe Club?
So at first I was resolutely in the no category. But my
husband wore me down in the week or so leading up to our trip—you know, the
whole when in Rome idea. We were staying at a B&B just down the street from
the Sourtoe Saloon, so we figured we’d just saunter down, do the shot and go
home. They don’t start up until 9pm. Much to our surprise, there was already a
huge crowd. We watched people down the shot for a while, then decided to come
back early the next day and get our spot in the queue.
The next day, I got a call from my boss letting me know our business unit was being sold, so I was going to be laid off at the end of the year. Primed for a few good drinks, I headed to the Saloon ready to join the club.
You pay for your shot of choice in advance. I decided on Jameson Irish Whiskey. When you sit down across from the Good Captain, he fills out your Sourtoe Membership certificate. You have to agree that you will not swallow, bite, or purposefully put the toe in your mouth at the risk of a $2500 fine.
The current toe used in the Sourtoe Cocktail. It is NOT the original toe.They are on #10 after the alst one was stolen.
Yes, if you are wondering—the toe has been swallowed more
than once. Last time on purpose. The toe I had the—uh—pleasure of imbibing is
not the original toe. They are actually on their 10th or so toe in
this game.
The toe looks more like a small shriveled sausage than a toe. I took the oath from the Captain and became the 91346-th member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. If you are interested, you’ll be happy to know that you only have to pay the fee one time. After that if you want to do it again, you can just show your certificate and the fee is waived.
Me with my certificate proclaiming me to be a proud member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club
Wait—people want to do this MORE THAN ONCE?
Once was good enough for me. Apparently, the record is 14
times—in one night. One of the times the toe was swallowed was when a guy was
trying to beat the record.
Overall it was a fun experience. After Ray and I joined the club, we sat around joking and heckling others. The atmosphere draws a light-hearted tourist crowd, and everyone joins in on the fun. If you’re interested in joining the club, the Sourdough Saloon is in the downtown hotel on the corner of 2nd and Queen St. As previously mentioned, they start promptly at 9, but I would recommend getting there early and getting your shot ready (maybe have a few before hand to build up your courage).
Me posing with the Captain at the Sourdough Saloon.
Thanks for reading. My Alaska horror novella, The Dark Land is now available on Amazon. Subscribe to my newsletter below and get a sneak peak of The Dark Land.
Lured by her high peaks and vast forests, adventurers swarm to the siren call of Alaska’s backcountry. Her harsh bite scars many. Some never return.
The legend of the Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. Its hunger for human flesh never sleeps, even in the deepest cold of winter…
In the meantime stay tuned for more of our adventures in Dawson and the interior of Alaska.
Gold nugget from Jack Wade Gold Co. Guess how many oz this weighs
My research into Dawson City for my Historical Fiction novel: A Drink of Darkness
Gold was discovered in the Klondike in August of 1896 in a small tributary in the sprawling Yukon River. Due to slow communications, the rest of the world didn’t hear about it until July of 1897, after the Excelsior pulled into Seattle with “A ton of Gold.” A million people made plans to head north. Over 100,000 people actually crossed the Canadian border, taking one of few routes to the Klondike gold fields.
They could get to Skagway and take the “short,” treacherous
route over the Chilkoot Pass or White Pass. Too steep for horses, they carried
their 1000 lbs of goods mandated by the Canadian government on their backs. It
took an average of 40 trips over 33 miles to cart the goods over the passes to
Bennet City, where then the next leg was via river. This exercise took almost 4
months to complete.
Or they could take the 1600-mile, more expensive, all-water-route. They would travel by steamer from Seattle to St. Michael. Then they could take another boat up the Yukon. The steamers only ran from June until the end of September, when the river was free of ice. In the summer of 1898, the water levels were at record lows and the steamers got stuck multiple times, stretching the journey from 10 days into over two weeks.
In the summer of 1898, 40,000 people passed through Dawson City. A brash boom-town already calling itself the “Paris of the North.” During its boom from 1897-1899, it would be the largest city north of Seattle and west of Winnepeg. By the time the “Stampeders” reached the Yukon, most of the best claims had already been staked. People had been mining for gold in the region for over 10 years. When miners close by heard of the strike, they quickly moved in and staked the best claims, leaving little to nothing for the men who arrived by 1898.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we writers are often
told, “Write what you know.” I know what it is like to live in Alaska, and work
in the extreme cold (the coldest temperature I have ever worked in was -65 with
WC of -80). I know what it is like to be really remote with no internet, power,
cell service, running water and other basic services. But going back to another
period in time is a completely different story.
For my Historical Fiction, A Drink of Darkness, set in
December of 1898, the peak of the boom in Dawson City, I needed to do some
detailed research to give the story more depth. I used several sources, but
this blog post is going to focus on the archived photographs from the Alaska Digital
Archives. It is a compilation of historical photographs from Alaska’s past,
taken from various resources (UAA, UAF, Alaska’s libraries and records) and
digitized into one location. You can view and search them here:
It is free to view these photos online, but in order to use these photos for a blog or website, permission must be granted from the Archives. You can find the form and instructions to do so like I did on their website.
I started by searching through the archived photos of Dawson. I wanted to get a feel for the layout of the streets and the way the buildings looked. Built at a rapid pace on a muddy turn of the Yukon River, the first year it was mostly tents, yurts and three-sided log cabins. There was no sewage system or electric grid. Most heat was either wood or fuel oil.
Front Street in Dawson in 1898. Image P-277-79
Wickersham State Historic Site. Photographs, 1882-1930s. ASL-PCA-277
Note how the cart is buried up to its axles in the mud. Dawson was built on the mudflats of the Yukon River and extremely prone to flooding. The streets through downtown were unpaved in this period
They didn’t account for the spring flooding of the Yukon River or subsidence into the mud. As time went on, more “permanent buildings” were constructed. However, there were multiple fires. The worst being in April of 1899. Before this, there was no sewage/plumbing system downtown. After this, the new buildings were mostly finished wood instead of log construction. These details are important to my research both in showing the crude conditions in which my main character Helena had to live, but in determining which buildings belong to which era of Dawson. They were also helpful in understanding how people dressed when out on the street.
Picture of Front Street with people gathered to receive mail and news from the “outside.” Image P-41-161 P. E. Larss Photograph Collection, 1898-1904. ASL-PCA-41
Note the crude log construction in this photo and the lack of telegraph lines (though there appear to be poles with cable in the background-the system was under construction, completed in summer of 1899). This photo is probably from 1898, before the large fire that devastated the downtown.
It is also critical to note how the hills and river looked.
This land is similar to where our cabin is in Chicken with boreal forests
containing spruce, birch and willow. At roughly the same latitude as Chicken
and Fairbanks, it is also prone to permafrost. Due to all of the mining and
need for wood, the trees were clear cut around Dawson by the winter of 1898,
leaving Midnight Dome, the mountain behind the city, bare to the weather.
Front Street looking north toward “Midnight Dome” Image P-277-001-58 Wickersham State Historic Site. Photographs, 1882-1930s. ASL-PCA-277
The lack of telegraph lines and street lamps indicates the above photo was once again probably from 1898
Front Street along the waterfront Image P-277-001-81 Wickersham State Historic Site. Photographs, 1882-1930s. ASL-PCA-277
This is another view of Fronts Street. The better constructed buildings and docks along with the telegraph lines running along the water lead me to believe this photo has to post-date the fire of April 26, 1899 which leveled the waterfront.
I was also able to get an understanding for which businesses and Saloons were actually open the year Helena would have been in Dawson, along with an idea of the location of buildings critical to my plot (the Royal Mounted Police Barracks from which Liam and Zhang break into/out of at one point in the story).
Canadian Royal Mounted Police Barracks P-41-41, according to maps, it is still in this location P. E. Larss Photograph Collection, 1898-1904. ASL-PCA-41
There were fantastic pictures of the boats pulling into
Dawson. I used these, along with my other references to show what Helena’s
arrival into the “Paris of the North” would have been like.
Steamers pulling into Dawson and unloading, 1898 Image P-41-41 P. E. Larss Photograph Collection, 1898-1904. ASL-PCA-41
Pictures of steamers waiting to load/unload. Note the tents pitched right next to the river, along with the small boats just left along the shore. In the summer of 1898, boats pulled into Dawson by the hundreds nightly. But could you imagine wintering in the Yukon in a tent? Not to mention, the Yukon is notorious for flooding in the spring. Just ask the residents of Eagle, AK:
Dawson had a telegraph installed by summer of 1899, but little other communication to the outside world. The Yukon froze October 31, 1898. Steamer travel would have ceased weeks before as the river began to clog with ice (starts to happen beginning of October, pictures I reviewed online indicate mid-to end of September was the last Steamer out). Once the river freezes, the only way to transport supplies was by dog sled. This was treacherous at best, presuming the aforementioned passes were open. Skagway to Dawson was 444 miles over rough trails prone to avalanche, but a few brave souls did it for profit.
Dog Sled Team pulling into Skagway from Dawson, winter 1898. Image P-41-10 P. E. Larss Photograph Collection, 1898-1904. ASL-PCA-41
This is critical to my plot as well, both stranding Helena in Dawson for the winter (the Yukon typically won’t completely break up until May, with the first steamer arriving from Seattle until June). She then has to survive the boomtown madness. It is also critical to Liam. He needs to contact his brothers in Sitka and his oldest brother Jack, who is on the American side of the border, scouring the gold rush towns of Jack Wade, Steel Creek, Chicken and Eagle. The only means of communication by December of 1898 would have been mail delivered by dog sled.
According to the unofficial census taken by the Mounties, approximately 16,000 people wintered in Dawson, but only 500 of them were women. Something else is stalking the Yukon in the winter of 1898. Something deadlier than typhus or scurvy.
Helena will struggle to resist the Drink of Darkness. The taste is to die for.
Conrad J Kenneman Died Jan 23, 1911 age 51 years
Thanks for reading! For my next blog, I will be talking about my research into the real ladies of the night of Dawson City and other boom towns of the Alaska-Klondike Gold Rush.
