1902 Geo Survey of the Northwest Arctic Region

The Morning Herald, 28 Dec 1902

Fort Hamlin to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska
Professional Paper United States Geological Survey No. 10 now in press, consists of an illustrated report by Mr. Walter C. Mendenhall, of a Reconnaissance from Fort Hamlin to Kotzebue County, Alaska, by way of Dall, Kanuti, Allen and Kobuk rivers. This reconnaissance, says Mr. Mendenhall, was carried out in pursuance of a plan which has been followed for some years by the United State Geological Survey in the topographic and geologic exploration of the little known parts of Alaska, and in the collection of such information as will be of value not only to the scientific world, but to the prospector, the miner, and the trader. Lives are being continually lost because the location and character of trails, drainage ways, mountain ranges and passes are unknown, or because the knowledge which a few possess is not in a form available for the use of others. Capital disappears, and years are wasted by prospectors who push out beyond the frontier and pursue their search for gold where gold does not exist.

Gradually the great waterways and mountain systems are being mapped, and reliable information is being gathered concerning the distribution of timber, the numbers and character of the native inhabitants, and the presence of absence of game -- all matters of vital interest to the traveler who, whatever his object, ventures away from the great central waterway of the Yukon or from the fur trading stations on other streams.

The route was from Seattle, about the middle of May, 1901, to Skagway at the head of Lynn Canal; thence to Dawson, Fort Yukon and Fort Hamlin, and on up the Dall river to Dall city, thence across to and down the Kanuti river to Bergman on the Koyukuk; thence into and up the Allen and across the portage to the Kobuk river, down the Kobuk to Kotzebue Sound, and back by steamer from Nome to Seattle about the middle of October. The distance travelled from Fort Yukon, on the Yukon river, to Deering on Kotzebue Sound, was 1,169 miles.

The region under consideration first became definitely known to Europeans through the voyage of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue, a German in the Russian service, who, while in command of the brig Rurik, discovered Kotzebue Sound in 1816. Since then a number of expeditions along the coast and into the interior of the region have been made, including the remarkable mid-winter journey of 1,500 miles from the coast north of Bristol Bay to Point Barrow, made in 1897-98 by Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Doctor Call, of the revenue cutter Bear, for the relief of whalers imprisoned at Point Barrow.

The most important physical features of that part of Alaska lying north of the Yukon is a great mountain range, the Endicott mountains, from 3,000 to 7,000 feet high, extending from the Arctic Coast just north of Kotzebue Sound eastward and northeastward to and beyond the international boundary between the Porcupine river and the Arctic Ocean. North of this range the cold arctic storms may be expected at any time throughout the year; south of it, the summers are hot and bright, though short. North of the range the country is timberless; south of it, trees are more or less abundant throughout the river valleys. The Endicott mountains from a general divide between the arctic drainage proper and the rivers flowing into Bering Sea and Kotzebue Sound, the largest of which is the Koyukuk, about 700 miles long.

After discussing the local geography and the geology, and noting that the country between the Yukon and Koyukuk is free from all evidences of glacial action, the report takes up briefly the economic geology of the region. An eleven-foot bed of lignite coal is found on Coal Creek, about one mile above its entrance into the Dall river, of which four to five feet are apparently on good quality. The outcrops of lignites along the banks of the Kobuk are from six inches to three feet in thickness, and are probably valueless economically. The reports of the occurrence of coal elsewhere in the region are as yet unconfirmed. Prospecting for gold on the Dall, the Allen, the Noatak and the Kobuk rivers has so far failed to develop any deposits of value. Some $25,000 of gold was taken out of the Kotzebue Sound district in the late summer of 1901, but another season's work will be required to give any proper idea of the richness of the Candle Creek district.

At the mouth of the Dall river is a settlement of Yukon Indians who are prone to decline to work for strangers, even at $5 a day, unless they are in need of supplies. On the Kanuti river is a similar fishing settlement of perhaps 75 Koyukuk Indians, who exchange game and furs with the traders or work for the Koyukuk miners. Much the most enterprising and reliable of the native peoples encountered are the Eskimos of the Kobuk Valley, some 250 in summer in 1901, who proved themselves efficient laborers and seem intelligent and imitative and anxious to learn English and civilized ways.

Winter temperature of 60 degrees or 70 degrees below zero are reached for a few days at a time in this interior region adjacent to the arctic circle, but during these severely cold periods it is usually perfectly calm. The more dangerous times are those of higher temperature and wind. At such times man cannot face the gales and live. The summers are short, but warm enough to be pleasant, the months from the middle of June to the middle of September being available for travel by the waterways or for prospecting. The mosquitoes and the gnats are well nigh intolerable nuisances during the summer.

Salmon was the main food of the natives living on the Koyukuk and the Kobuk before the arrival of the traders with their stores. Waterfowl are plentiful along all of the streams, since they breed in great numbers in the lakes and ponds of the tundra. Geese, ducks and ptarmigan are numerous.

Caribou are found in the region about the head of Kanuti river; a few mountain sheep are in the higher country; black bear are distributed throughout the district; moose are rare, being found chiefly toward the south and east in the Yukon drainage basin; smaller animals are plentiful in certain localities.

Spruces, cottonwoods, birches and willows are generally found at the lower levels throughout the district traversed, the southern and eastern shores of Kotzebue Sound excepted; but the trees are usually small. Grasses sufficient for food for pack animals grew as far north as the party went. Red currents and cranberries are found; bilberries are widely distributed, and salmon berries grow on the tundra everywhere; hardy and showy flowers are abundant during the short summer season. Collections of the flora of the region were made, of which the classified lists are published in the reported.

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