by Jerold Last
“One of the reasons for Russia selling Alaska to the US at such a good price was Russian concern about British and Spanish claims to Alaska based on 18th Century exploration of the region by sailors from both countries. Financial difficulties in Russia, the desire to keep Alaska out of British hands, and the low profits of trade with Alaskan settlements all contributed to Russia's willingness to sell its possessions in North America.”
Bednor took a few seconds to look at something outside the train window before continuing. “They started building the Alaska Railroad we’re on now in 1902, which finally connected Seward on the Kenai Peninsula to Fairbanks, a rapidly growing city in the interior and the center for agriculture in Alaska, in 1914. The new railroad made transport of products to the lower USA economically feasible. Copper mining, commercial fishing, and big canneries that processed and shipped the fish become important industries up here in the early 20th century, with as many as ten different canneries in some major coastal towns.”
There was another long pause while the guide gathered his thoughts. “Getting closer to Denali National Park, they found gold in what’s now the park in 1905, along Moose Creek. That’s just behind your destination tomorrow, the Kantishna Roadhouse. It’s at the end of the seven hour bus ride through the park you’re going to be taking.
“In the summer of 1903 the famous gold rush in the Yukon Territory was past its peak. Hundreds of gold prospectors were idle, out of work, just hanging around Fairbanks. Adventuresome Alaskans trying to climb Denali discovered gold near the mountain. In 1904 Joseph Dalton led a party to prospect the Toklat River basin. They found gold. The following year Joe Quigley and Jack Horn found gold in Glacier Creek. When the news reached Fairbanks, another gold rush began, with thousands of miners traveling up the Tanana, Kantishna, and Bearpaw Rivers to the new strikes in the Kantishna District.
“The tent camp of Eureka, which is now called the town of Kantishna, as well as several other mining towns sprung up over the summer. Before long the easily mined gold was gone. Brutal winters and no roads discouraged bringing in heavy equipment to go after the rest of the gold and the gold rush was over almost as fast as it had begun. Less than 50 inhabitants remained to work the claims by continuing placer mining in the region.”
Bednor looked thoughtful as he paused in his story. “The Kantishna gold mines were kind of like a cat. They seemed to have more than one life. Thirty years later things changed again. The US Government raised the price of gold to $30/ounce, the Denali National Park road was completed, and the depression era gave rise to a cheap and willing labor force to work the mines. The Banjo Mine was developed on Quigley Ridge near Eureka, and became the fourth largest mine in the Yukon Basin. Rock milling and stamping was established and commercial scale gold mining came to the Kantishna District of Denali. This boom continued until World War II, when military needs took precedence.
“Mining activity began again after the war, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s when prices of gold increased sharply. In 1976 the Mining in Parks Act was passed so further mining in the National Parks was brought to an end to protect the environment. By 1980, the Park was expanded by 4 million acres. The 196,000 acres of the Kantishna Mining District was incorporated into the National Park and commercial gold mining officially came to an end in 1985. Nearly 100,000 ounces of gold were extracted from the rolling hills at the end of the Park Road around Kantishna, with an estimated value of $24 million. The remaining gold, and other minerals like silver, lead, and antimony, are estimated to have a total value well in excess of $1 billion.”
The guide paused again, staring out of the window. “Let’s get back to what you’ll be seeing tomorrow when you take the bus. The 92 mile road from the park entrance runs east to the Kantishna lodge and mining camp. Only a very small fraction of the road, at the Park entrance, is paved because of permafrost under the surface layer of dirt and rock, which undergoes freeze-thaw cycles. Maintenance of a paved road would be very expensive since it would freeze and crack every year in the winter freeze-spring thaw cycle. Private vehicles are only allowed on the first 15 miles of the road. Beyond the 15-mile point the only access is by hiking or taking one of the concessionary buses. The bus tours travel from the initial boreal forests through tundra either to the Toklat River at mile 53 or further on to Kantishna.
“The landscape you’re going to see from the bus is a mixed forest at low elevations, including deciduous taiga, tundra at middle elevations, with glaciers, rock, and snow at the higher elevations. The vegetation you’ll see depends on altitude. The tree line is at about 2,500 feet. Most of the park is tundra. Lowland areas like Wonder Lake feature spruce and willows. The poor soils and cold climate make for small trees. Low brush bog, bottomland spruce-poplar forest, and upland spruce-hardwood forests are common. The forest is irregular, not continuous, because of occasional fires.”
“How will we know what we’re looking at?” asked Suzanne. “Are the altitudes marked with road signs?”
Bednor smiled at that question. “No. A sign like that isn’t natural, so it wouldn’t belong in a National Park like Denali. The easiest way to tell is to look at what you’re seeing. In the lower elevation forests, you’ll see trees, of course. As you climb into the tundra, look for layers of topsoil that collect on broken rock and are moved by glacial activity. Mosses, ferns, grasses, and fungi grow in this soil. When things are wetter the spongy waterlogged tussocks and deep pools of moss-covered water are called muskeg and are a good habitat for algae. Wild blueberries and soapberries thrive in the tundra and are the major part of the diet for the local bears.
“Most of the wildlife eats foods that grow best in the tundra, so look for the animals there. Some of the mammals you’ll see include bears, caribou, Dall sheep, moose, wolves, hairy marmots, ground squirrels, beavers, pikas, and snowshoe hares. If you’re lucky you may see a fox, marten, lynx, or wolverine.”
“What else should we be looking for during the bus ride?” I asked.
The guide thought about my question before answering. “On the flora side, there are more than 450 species of flowering plants that have been described in the park. Most of them bloom in the summer. The most abundant include goldenrod, lupine, fireweed, bluebell, and gentian. Lupine and bluebell should be in full bloom now. The birds are abundant too. Common birds include waxwings, Arctic Warblers, pine grosbeaks, wheatears, ptarmigan, and the tundra swan. Also raptors like hawks, owls, golden eagles, and gyrfalcons. And, of course, our National Bird, The Bald Eagle.”
“How about when we get to the end of the bus ride at Kantishna?” I wondered aloud.
Bednor had his answer ready for that one. “There are fish in the local creeks and rivers including trout, salmon, and arctic graylings. There are also wood frogs in the creeks and ponds.
“As far as history is concerned, old Kantishna still remains. The tourist’s Kantishna contains the old roadhouse, a sprawling wooden building with moose antlers over the front porch, on what’s left of an old 5-acre mining claim. There are also log cabins for guests to sleep over, a sauna by the creek, huskies chained up in the yard, dog sleds, and other touristic detritus.”
The guide stopped long enough to cough, blow his nose, and cough again. Then he resumed his story. “The old Kantishna is out back, behind the lodge and cabins. There’s the original roadhouse, a decaying old log structure. It’s surrounded by assorted remains of the old mining operations: burned-out generators, old bus seats piled high, useless and rusted out trucks, rusting fuel tanks, scraps of metal and lumber, and other garbage nobody has removed over the 30-odd years that have passed since commercial mining stopped here.
“Eureka Creek, which is about 4.5 miles long, was the richest creek mined in the Kantishna District. It flows into Moose Creek just north of the old town of Kantishna. A big gold strike was made in Eureka Creek in 1905. The largest gold nugget taken from the creek weighed more than 2 pounds. Commercial mining of the creek continued until at least 1983. The total production of g
old from the creek was more than 10,000 ounces of gold, 75% of which was recovered in the first year of mining. As much as 10,000 more ounces of gold are estimated to remain in the gravel of the creek. Twice this amount may still be in the gravel beds under the ground along the creek. With pure gold worth as much as $1500 per ounce at current prices, there’s certainly an incentive for legal panning for gold in the creek, and maybe some illegal placer mining of the creek, too.”
Suzanne had a quizzical expression on her face as she asked, “What can you tell us about the bears in Denali National Park? We read about a couple of tourists who’d been killed in the park last week. Do we need to worry about our safety if we walk off the road?”
The guide smiled with an amused expression. “There are black bears and grizzly bears in the park. These bears are wild animals. If you frighten or provoke them, they can be very dangerous. If you follow a few common sense rules, you shouldn’t ever be at risk. Pay attention to what’s going on around you. You want to avoid situations where you might surprise a bear, especially in tight spaces. Ideally you never want to get closer than a quarter of a mile or so from a bear. This means watching for bears and for their tracks when you’re out in the open. It’s a good idea to sing, talk, or make some other kind of noise when you’re walking through the forest or dense brush.
“If you can’t help yourself and you come up on a bear or the bear comes up on you, watch what the bear does. Usually, they’ll run away from you. If the bear stands upright on their hind legs it may be trying to see you better, not necessarily planning to attack you. Turn around or make a wide detour. Don’t get closer; you can’t scare them away if they don’t want to leave the area. If it stands still and faces you, this is an aggressive posture and the bear may be preparing to charge. Turn around and walk away so you don’t continue to challenge it. You want to avoid this situation if you can, which is why keeping alert and staying away from bears is so important. And be careful with food, especially food with strong smells like fish, fresh meat, cheese, or sausage. That will attract bears, especially if you leave the good, smelly stuff lying around your camp site.”
The guide paused in his narrative. A thoughtful expression passed quickly across his face, disappearing behind his mask of affability as quickly as it had appeared. “Where are you planning on staying in town when we get to Denali?”
A muted alarm went off in my head. This could be a perfectly innocent question, but it seemed a little out of context and maybe a bit too personal. I decided to give him an answer but not too much information just to see what he’d ask next. “I’ve forgotten the name of the hotel but it’s up on top of a cliff in the middle of town”.
“Oh, you mean the Grande Denali Lodge. Good choice, the food in the restaurant is very good and the view’s great! How long do you plan on staying there?”
There was definitely something a little off in this conversation. I thought a bit then answered. “I’m not sure. Our plans are open-ended about how long we’ll stay at the Park. How about you, Forest? Where do you stay?”
“Here and there,” he replied vaguely. “Out at the Kantishna Lodge or here in town. I tend to pop up just about anywhere. I suspect you’ll be seeing me a lot sooner than you might think.”
Just then, the conductor announced our imminent arrival in Denali. We thanked Forrest Bednor for his time and information. He shook my hand, bowed to Suzanne in an old fashioned gesture, and wished us well. “I hope I’ll get another chance to see both of you in the park or at the Roadhouse. Enjoy your ride tomorrow, and be careful of those bears,” he said with a mischievous smile.
I exchanged a look with Suzanne. She was looking at Forrest Bednor in a curious way that told me she had gotten the same weird vibes I had when he started asking personal questions. Filing the conversation for future reference I stood up to collect our bags from the overhead rack and prepared to get off the train.
Chapter4. The Alaska wilderness by ATV
The train arrived in Denali that afternoon at 4 PM. Our reservations for the night at a very nice lodge on top of a small mountain in Denali got us a free shuttle ride from the train station to our hotel. After settling into the room we had time for a beer before an excursion van picked us up for this evening’s adventure, a wilderness tour by All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) a few miles from the hotel and restaurant complex that made up the town of Denali. After several stops, about two-dozen tourists including us were assembled at the wilderness outfitter. A very short lecture on how to drive the ATVs later, Suzanne and I shared one of the units near the back of a ragged line following the leader as we chugged up the side of a small mountain.
I drove for the first, uphill shift. Suzanne would drive us down the mountain. The vehicle was like a glorified golf cart with oversized wheels and tires, a reinforced frame, and a souped-up engine to take on mud, hills, and boulders along the way. The controls were simple, an ignition key for On-Off, a gas pedal for Go, a brake pedal for Stop or Slow, a steering wheel for left and right turns, and Low and High gears for steep hills or normal conditions. Driving was easy once I got the hang of it. Uphill, give it lots of gas. Downhill, shift to low and use the brake. To go through a mud puddle, shift to low and hit the gas while the driver hung on to the steering wheel and the passenger grabbed something attached to the frame. Leave plenty of space between your ATV and the one in front of you.
There was a break when we stopped at the top of the hill we’d been climbing to enjoy the panoramic view of the area around the town of Denali. Everybody here was a tourist either going to, or coming from, the National Park. We got a chance to talk to the other tourists during the break. They were mostly families with young children or teenagers who’d been drawn to the chance to drive one of the off-road vehicles over the rough terrain. Especially for the urban types, this was a real change of pace from subways and taxicabs on paved streets.
Newcomers to Denali, on their way to the park, clearly could be ruled out as suspects in the Roberts’ deaths the previous week. The interesting people for us were the tourists on their way home, and perhaps the guides who lived here for the entire tourist season. Two such couples about our age were particularly drawn to us and vice versa. John and Bob, a gay couple from San Francisco both about our age, were on their way home. They’d spent a week camping in the park. It only took a simple question from Suzanne to unleash the floodgates of gossip about the bear attack in the park.
John was tall, thin to the point of skinny, and had a pouting expression. “We were right there, staying at the Wonder Lake Campground less than 5 miles from the Kantishna Roadhouse when it all happened. We’d actually hiked over to the Moose Creek mining area behind the Kantishna Lodge that day to do some gold panning. The first thing we knew was when all the excitement started---Park Ranger pickup trucks with flashing lights and sirens heading out into the wilderness, a medevac helicopter, and lots of the guides all running around or jumping onto ATVs.”
Bob, the other half of the couple, was short and fat with a dour expression, the complete opposite, physically at least, of his partner John. The old rhyme about Jack and Mrs. Spratt described John and Bob. “About that time we also started seeing helicopters from the major TV stations in Anchorage flying overhead. An hour or two after that, the FBI arrived in another helicopter. It was a zoo scene. All the campers were told to stay at the Lodge, so most of us were in the restaurant area, drinking beer and trying to figure out what was going on. A couple of reporters eventually came in to get a beer and told us the story. A couple of tourists had gotten too close to a female bear with a couple of cubs. The bear charged them and the rest was history. One of them was thrown 30 feet through the air into a tree and the other one was stomped to death.”
Suzanne and I exchanged a look before turning to the other couple we were with. Harry and Clara, a cheerful couple in their late twenties from Muscatine, Iowa, were on their way to visit the park. Harry was tall while Clara was short, another couple reminding me of Jack Spratt and his wi
fe. They wore wedding rings and acted like newlyweds, lots of touching, whispering, and kissing. In fact, they finally told us they were on their honeymoon, which included visiting the National Park, followed by a luxury cruise from Seward to Vancouver before returning home and to work.
Clara asked John and Bob, “Does this kind of bear attack occur often? We’re just taking the bus ride and tour, not camping. Is it safe?”
“They told us nobody remembered anything like this happening for as long as they’d been there in the park,” replied John. “I think you’re perfectly safe on the bus.”
The local tour guides herded all of us back onto our ATVs to continue our trip to a clearing in the forest where snacks and hot chocolate awaited our arrival. We made it a point to talk to all the other tourists on this jaunt.
Only one other group was coming from, rather than going to, the park. This was the Curtis family. It consisted of Mom, Dad, and three kids under the age of ten, two girls and a boy. Mom and Dad Curtis, Sandra and Wally, had a full time job keeping up with the next generation of the Curtis family, which included an energetic boy as the middle child who seemed to love tormenting his older and younger sisters. The sisters rolled their eyes and said “Oh, Mom” a lot. Their brother seemed to thrive on driving his sisters crazy.
Sandra and Wally looked tired and harassed, but seemed to have refined the art of ignoring all three kids so they could be as obnoxious as they wanted to be around the other adults on the tour. We gave them a wide berth for the rest of the tour, as did Bob, John, Harry, and Clara. It took less than a minute to rule out the extended Curtis family as suspects; they’d been here for just three days, having arrived several days after the killings took place.
