Pearl waited.
“It took months and we walked miles and miles making many trips back and forth with our sled transporting our supplies from one camp to the next. It was bitterly cold and the snow so deep you could barely walk. After we got over the Chilkoot Summit we reached Lake Lindemen. There we attached a canvas to our sled and let the wind blow us across the lake. We camped at Bennett Lake until the ice melted. In the spring we cut trees to make a raft and then we sailed across the lake to the Yukon River. We floated down the river and arrived at Fortymile.”
“It sounds like a tough trip.”
“It was.” Ethel’s face lit with a broad smile and her eyes sparkled. “And it was the most wonderful adventure. I would do it again.”
* * *
After a hasty breakfast of flapjacks Sam, Donald and Gordon set out to find the posts for No1 Above Discovery which was upstream from Carmack’s claim, and Nos. 1 and 2 Below Discovery, downstream from the first. Carmack had staked a second one for himself as was allowed by law for the discoverer, and Skookum Jim and Tagish Charley each had one. Once they knew where those claims were, they tested for gold on each side of the taken claims. Donald tried the gravel beside No 1 Above Discovery while Sam and Gordon took their pans and went farther upstream to see the landscape. They split up as each occasionally stopped and panned, sometimes crossing the creek to probe the other side.
Besides looking for a section of the creek with gold, Sam’s practical side made him check the ease of accessibility to the creek. He didn’t want a high bank and he wanted good sized trees on it so he could use them to build a cabin.
He wasn’t happy with what he saw upstream and neither was Gordon when they met up.
“Let’s go downstream and try some of the gravel bars we saw yesterday,” Gordon suggested.
It pleased Sam to see some of Gordon’s old enthusiasm surfacing. Maybe this would be what it took to make him stay.
They trekked back to find Donald writing on a post. “I’ve stepped it off and claimed Four Above Discovery,” he said. “I’ve already found about twenty-dollars-worth of gold.”
They had beans for lunch, then Sam and Gordon returned the way they had come the day before. Again, they each stopped and panned and eventually they separated again. Sometimes their pans had some coarse gold on the bottom, and sometimes they were empty. There didn’t seem to be one site that screamed, “This is where the gold is.”
Sam knew that the major streak of gold would be in the bedrock below the permafrost. He would have to dig through that permafrost, which stayed frozen even in the summer, to reach the bedrock. The problem was that it was impossible to judge the lay of the land in order to pick a claim where the gold would be close to the surface.
It was afternoon when Sam and Gordon returned to their camp.
“Did you find anything?” Donald asked Sam.
“Not enough to make me want to stake up or down the creek.”
“Gordon and I have decided we might as well take a claim close to yours so that we can all work together.”
With that decided, Sam spoke for Five Above Discovery and Gordon chose Six Above. According to the mining regulations, the length of each claim was to be five hundred feet along the general course of the creek and the width extended from the base of the hill, or bench, on one side of the stream to the base of the hill or bench on the opposite side.
They stepped off five hundred feet for each claim and put their names on posts made of tree stumps. Like Carmack, they leaned their shovels and gold pans against the posts.
Sam heard voices. He looked at the others and then towards the creek. Two men thrashed their way through the swampy water with packs on their backs. They were speaking French.
“Hey!” Sam called. He recognized the French-Canadians. Antoine Lapierre and Gabriel Remillard had been prospecting in the north for eleven years with little success.
The men stopped and looked around.
“Over here.” Sam waved from where he stood in the trees.
“Sam! Gordon!” the two men exclaimed, as they stumbled towards the shore. “We are so happy to see you.”
“Antoine and Gabriel.” Sam clasped their hands. “What are you doing here?”
“George Carmack say there gold here. You find, too?”
“In some places along the creek we found some but in other spots nothing,” Sam said. “We did stake three claims and are heading to Fortymile tomorrow to register them.”
Lapierre and Remillard laughed and awkwardly hugged each other around their backpacks.
“Carmack’s discovery claim is further upstream,” Sam said. “We are on our way back there now.”
The four men chatted as they worked their way to the camp.
“Donald, look who we found,” Gordon called. “Carmack told them about the gold, too.”
Donald stood up from where he had been adding wood to the fire.
“Antoine. Gabriel.” He smiled as he shook their hands. He picked up an empty bean can from beside the fire and handed it to Sam. “This is what I found on my claim.”
Sam looked down at the layer of gold on the bottom. “That’s great,” he grinned, as he passed it to Gordon and then the Frenchmen.
Since the newcomers had little food, Sam and his friends shared their meal with them then the five men sat around the fire talking.
“We were out of provisions and our spirits were very low,” Antoine said. “We were floating down the Yukon to Fortymile when Carmack called us over to the native camp at the mouth of the Klondike. When he told us about his gold find we didn’t believe him.”
“I know what you mean,” Sam chuckled. “We did the same because we’ve heard too many similar stories in the past.”
“But when he showed us the gold in his shell we changed our minds.”
Gabriel took up the tale. “We must have gotten struck by gold fever because we quickly emptied our boat, filled our backpacks and headed up the Klondike.” He grinned at Antoine. “We didn’t even tie up our boat. When I remembered it, I turned to go back but I saw that Carmack was doing it for us. I waved to him and we continued up the river.”
Chapter Five
“Are you going to spend the night at the hotel or would you like me to show you to your cousin’s and his friends’ cabin?” Ethel asked. “You could stay there if you wish.”
“We can?” Pearl was a bit surprised.
“Certainly,” Ethel said. “The rule of the north is that if you need a place to stay and you come across an empty cabin, then you are welcome to rest there. You can eat the food and sleep in the bed but when you depart you have to leave payment if you can and a pile of kindling and wood as a thank you to the owner or for the next person in need. I’m sure since he is your relative he won’t mind at all.”
“That way too, they will know we are here when they get back,” Emma said.
Pearl felt her spirits lift. She stood. “How will we get our trunks there?”
“I’ll find some men to carry them for you.” Ethel and Emma also rose.
“Do you live nearby?” Pearl asked as they followed Ethel through the haphazard array of cabins.
“No, my husband and I have a gold claim outside of town. He got his job back at the saloon working for Bill McPhee to help support us and I came into town today to buy supplies.”
“May we visit your claim some day?” Pearl asked.
“For a future article?”
“Yes. I need to learn everything about gold prospecting and the north that I can. I want the people back home to experience, via my writing, what I am experiencing.”
“You are welcome anytime. Just ask Sam to bring you when he gets back.” Ethel gestured to a cabin. “And speaking of Sam, here is your home for the night.”
Pearl turned the knob and pushed the door open. The inside seemed small and crowded but there was an empty corner opposite the door and she motioned for the four men who were carrying their trunks to set them there.
“Thank you for helping us.” She reached into her handbag to pay them.
“We don’t need anything.” One of them lifted his hands in protest. The others nodded. They tipped their hats at the women and left.
Ethel pointed to a pail hanging on the outside wall. “This is for carrying water from the river. The boys probably took their frying pan and other dishes.”
“That’s fine,” Pearl said. “We’ll see what’s wanting and go shopping tomorrow for whatever we need and for some food.”
“Ethel, there you are!” A tall, broad-shouldered man came running up to them.
“Clarence, what’s the matter?” Ethel asked, concern in her voice.
“George Carmack found gold on Rabbit Creek. Bill McPhee has grubstaked me and I’m heading to the creek in the morning to stake a claim. Let’s get back to our cabin.”
“Nice meeting you,” Ethel said to them, as she hurried away.
“Thank you for your help,” Pearl called after her.
“A gold strike,” Emma said, excitedly. “We’re here during a gold strike.”
“Yes,” Pearl grinned. “I’ll get to write about it.”
“I wonder what it’s going to be like.”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
Pearl and Emma stepped into the sparsely furnished dirt-floored cabin.
A three-tiered bunk bed stood against one wall, its mattresses bare. The lowest bunk barely cleared the floor and the top one had just enough room for a man between the mattress and the ceiling. The middle bed looked the most comfortable.
A rough-hewn, handmade table and three chairs sat against the opposite wall. On the far wall, a sheet-iron stove with a stovepipe that went straight up through the ceiling completed the furnishings.
A small stack of logs and kindling stood in a pile beside the stove. The shelf over the table held a pot, a few dishes, an oil lamp, and a box of matches. The cabin had no window and the walls were bare save for a lonely calendar.
“How do the three of them live in such a small room?” Pearl wondered. “There’s hardly room for you and myself.”
“It must test their friendship,” Emma agreed.
Although it was still light outside, the cabin was dark with the door closed. Pearl took the kerosene lamp down and set it on the table. She picked up the matches and lit it.
“Which bed do you want?” Pearl went to her trunk and pulled out her sheets, blankets, and pillow.
“I’ll take the bottom one.” Emma took out her own bedding.
“Okay, I’ll use the middle. The top one looks claustrophobic.”
They made their beds then changed into nightgowns and robes.
“I wonder when they will be back.”
“Well, hopefully not tonight,” Pearl giggled. “It would be rather crowded in here. Although, if they did you could share a bed with your brother, Gordon and Donald could share one and I would have one to myself.”
“I don’t think so,” Emma laughed. “I’ll go to a hotel first.”
Emma stretched out on her bed, but the desire to work on her article sent Pearl and her writing pad to the table.
In the dim, fluttering light of the lamp, she jotted down what she could remember from her conversation with Ethel Berry. There was a lot she forgot. It didn’t matter. She wanted to spend more time with her new friend. She planned to write her other article on the men of the north and she wrote down the names Ethel had given her: Joseph Ladue, George Carmack, and Bob Henderson. She also added Clarence Berry.
Then she sketched the inside of the cabin from two different angles. It’s a good thing I brought along four sketchbooks, she mused.
After sketching she worked some more on the diary of her trip, writing about their arrival to find no one to pick them up, their meeting with Ethel Berry, hearing about the finding of gold, and their first night in a prospector’s cabin.
* * *
“Shall we wash our own clothes and sheets or take them to a laundress?” Emma asked the next morning, looking at the pile on her bed. During their trip they had not had a chance to do any laundry.
“To save money, I think we should wash them ourselves.” Pearl heaped her own skirts and tops on her bed. “I looked but I didn’t see a tub or a wash board outside the cabin. So we need to buy one.”
“Remember what Mrs. Wills said about the cost of her washboard. It might not be cheaper to do it ourselves.”
“I’ll pay for it since I’ll be using it during my year here.”
“I’ll buy the soap.”
“Then let’s go shopping.” Pearl laughed and happily picked up her handbag. “I’m hungry so we’ll eat at the restaurant first but buy our own food for our other meals.”
Pearl and Emma stepped out into the bright sunlight and closed the door. Emma opened her parasol but Pearl decided to enjoy the sun. She had dressed in a pair of gray bloomers that gathered at her knees. The matching form-fitting jacket flared out over her hips and ended at her thighs. She had covered her legs with white stockings and she wore oxfords on her feet. She felt much freer than Emma in her corseted dress that hung to the ground.
There was a lot more activity on the streets than the day before. Two men scurried past them heading towards the river. They carried bedding, a tent, some food, shovels, and gold pans.
“Let’s see what they’re doing,” Pearl said to Emma and the two girls followed behind the men. As they walked they saw others hurrying in the same direction. At the river they were amazed at the commotion on the shore. Men jostled each other as they struggled through the throng with their equipment and sacks looking for their boats or rafts. Others tried to push their already loaded boats and rafts out into the water. Some, who didn’t have a watercraft, called out to others begging for rides. A few of the rafts and boats were loaded down while others only had a few items on them.
In spite of the hundreds of men vying for position on land or water there wasn’t any fighting. They helped each other load their boats and rafts and push them out. There was almost a festive air to the scene with men laughing and yelling.
Pearl and Emma watched the orderly disorder for a while, until hunger drove them to the restaurant where they had eaten the evening before. This time they ordered eggs and flapjacks.
When they had their plates in front of them, they picked up their knives and forks and began eating.
“Ew, these flapjacks taste the same as the sourdough buns.” Emma wrinkled her nose.
“They certainly aren’t as tasty as the ones at home.” Pearl managed to swallow her first bite. “But I guess we will have to acquire a taste or we may go hungry.”
“Hungry isn’t such a bad idea compared to these.”
After paying for their breakfast they went to the store and found a round, galvanized washtub, a washboard, a wringer, and a box of soap.
“I’d also like a pail, some rope, two cans of beans, two cans of peaches, a can of milk, a pound of coffee, a pound of sugar, two pounds of flour and a dozen eggs.” Pearl told the storekeeper.
“Why a second pail?” Emma asked.
“If I’m going to the river for water, I want to have a pail in each hand.”
They loaded everything into the washtub and each grabbed a handle. When they reached the cabin, Emma organized their purchases and started a fire in the stove. Pearl hustled down to the river with the pails. She made two trips and dumped the water into the tub sitting just outside the door. When she got back from her third trip, she set the pails on the stove to heat the water.
They sorted their clothes and with the water in the pails scalding hot, Pearl poured it into the tub. They washed their unmentionables, their stockings, their nightgowns, Pearl’s bloomers and any blouse, skirt, or dress that needed it. When they finished the wash, they tipped the tub so the water ran onto the ground and Emma went back to the river for rinse water.
Pearl knotted the rope on the nail where the pail had hung and looked around for a place to attach the other end. S
he noticed a nail sticking out of a log on the cabin next to them, so she went over and knocked on the door.
No one answered so she tied the rope to the nail. If they didn’t like it they could let her know when they got back.
Pearl hadn’t seen any wooden clothespins to buy in the store so once they rinsed the clothes they draped them clothes over the rope.
There wasn’t room for everything so they what they could and left the rest until the first batch dried.
It was hot in the cabin with the fire going, but they added another piece of wood so they could heat some beans and boil water for coffee. They left the door open hoping it might cool down, but they didn’t like the men walking by and looking in, so they eventually closed the door and lit the kerosene lamp.
Pearl wrote out her stories and included them and her illustrations in an envelope, which she addressed to the editor of the Halifax Morning Herald. She finished with a sense of satisfaction knowing that her first articles were ready to send out on the next boat.
By late afternoon, the first line of clothes had dried so they took them down and hung the second set. After eating supper, they hauled water so they both could bathe before getting into their nightclothes. They undid their hair and each took turns brushing the others’ long tresses.
* * *
Sam and his friends left their tent on Donald’s claim. They would be back soon, so they only took their blankets, axe, frying pan, backpack and enough food for a meal on their way out. They left the rest of the food for the French Canadians.
They waved goodbye to the men and began their easier journey downstream on the newly named Bonanza Creek to the Klondike and their raft. When they reached where the Klondike emptied into the Yukon, Sam looked at the brush shelters of the traditional fish camp of George Carmack’s wife’s clan, the Hän.
They had seen Carmack’s native wife, Kate, at the camp when they’d come from Ogilvie. The camp stood empty this time, and when they met Lou Cooper and Ed Monahan on the river, they told them that they had all headed for the gold strike on Bonanza Creek.
Romancing the Klondike Page 5
