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(ALASKA). NICHOLS, FRANK C. Alaska Gold Rush Diary, 1898-99, Seward Peninsula. , Alaska: 1898-99. Narrow 8vo. 135 pp. Contemp. sail cloth. Thirty-six pages damaged by contemporary fire. Written in pencil in a legible hand. $8,500.00

 

     The diary is divided into two main sections: a 46-page fishing and hunting trip near Westport, MA, July 1888;  and a 135-page account of Nichols' gold mining activities on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska Territory in 1898 and 1899. Ninety-nine pages of the Alaska section are in good condition; the remaining 36 pages suffering varying degrees of destruction or loss due to a fire that destroyed Nichols' tent.

     In 1897 word of the Klondike gold strike was out and the rush was on. By the time many of the prospective miners reached there, however, most of the good sites had been claimed. On April 23, 1898, gold was discovered along the Ophir and Melsing Creeks on the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska, near what grew into that region's  first mining town, Council. In September of the same year, gold was also discovered along Anvil Creek, near what would become Nome. As many as 20,000 miners flocked there over the next few years. By 1900, however, individual and small cooperative mining ventures had sold out to larger industrial operations with the ability to bring in large dredges to break through the frozen sand. Nichols' diary covers his activities during the first two years of the Seward Peninsula rush.

     Nichols records his address as "Frank C. Nichols, 18 New Boston, Fall River, Mass." The first section of this journal is a 46-page account of fly-fishing and hunting in the region of Westport, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, at "Camp Blossom." He, his friends, and family spend from July 1 through July 20th, 1888, on this vacation. He goes sea fishing and fly-fishing around Maccumbers Cove, Prince's Cove, and Sandy Pond.

     Ten years later he uses the same notebook to record the far more interesting subject of his trip  to Alaska and his adventures in the gold fields of the Seward Peninsula. This part of the journal begins with a 16-page section entitled, "Log of a Trip to San Francisco and Alaska." He leaves home by boat and then switches to a train. He stops in New York City, Washington, and various stops along the way to Tampa and finally Bradenton Florida. He is an acute observer, and his impressions are valuable. He leaves home on February 19 and arrives in Bradenton on February 24, 1898. The next entry in this section is dated June 3, 1898, and begins to record, in retrospect, the next leg of his journey. This section is never completed, probably because he had left San Francisco for Alaska on May 14. The fact that he set out for Alaska in February probably means that he originally intended to go to the Klondike Region, but, hearing of the Seward Peninsula strike, he diverted to that locality.  

     The next entry is dated, "Council City Terr. Alas[ka,]Apr. 21/99." This is the beginning of the burned section of the diary. Some pages in this section are legible in part, but it is not until the May 14, when he begins the final section of the diary with an account of the fire that caused the damage, that he continues without interruption until his arrival back in San Francisco, on October 25. 1899.

     On May 14 he records the following: " To-day is the anniversary of the day we left Frisco, and we have been celebrating as best we can in our little camp on Crooked River, where we are weather bound." He next explains the fire damage to the notebook: "Ed was cooking food for the dogs on a little stove made on a cracker tin and I was writing in this journal, when he suddenly yelled the tent is on fire. I had just about time to jump out. The tent was a sheet of flame. We commenced hauling it apart to save our cloth goods. In the confusion of the moment I threw the journal down on the deerskin sleeping bag and I rushed to help Ed put out the fire. I suppose the book flew open or otherwise it would not have burned."

     They then load up the dogsled and move the camp to an exposed bank of moss near one of their caches on the snow-covered river bank. When Nichols says they are "weather bound," he means that as late as the middle of May in this part of Alaska, the rivers are still iced over and haven't yet begun to flow. The only way to get to their widely dispersed claims (at least 8 numbered claims are mentioned in the journal), is by boats on the Niakluk, Ophir, Camp Creek, and various tributaries of  the Crooked River. Once settled in at this new camp, still weather-bound, his "mind goes back to one year ago. The Mermaid at the dock in Frisco about to leave for the far away Arctic Ocean and Kotzebue Sound." With nothing to do, Nichols carries the reader through the entire first year of his and his companions' experience in the Seward Peninsula gold fields. He mentions Eskimos by name and village, other miners, sites of prospecting, boomtowns they visit, etc.

     This detailed reminiscence covers 17 pages. He describes "the order of the day" during the winter months as follows: "Chop wood, sleep eat and read." We also find out in this retrospective account that his first station had been established "at the foot of Divide on the Kruz-ga-ma-pa." At that time, he records: "Severe cold weather. Too much load. Hard pulling up a small river. Compelled to camp on the Open Divide. In danger of Freezing to Death. No wood and a terrible cold night. Obliged to cache one load and divide the other on two [dog] sleds. A Hard days Work.  [ Reach] Sta No 2 on Crooked River. Hickies Archie aand Hen. B. go to get cache, and return same day about 7 p.m." This section ends with the bill of fare for their "Christmas Dinner Stewed Beans, Flap Jacks Coffee."

     Nichols resumes regular journal entries on May 17. Two of his partners arrive in camp "with heavy packs of blankets on their backs." Nichols prepares breakfast for the company. Later that day the thaw begins: "Water is running out of the tundra into the river and little pools are forming in the snow in the bed of the stream." The next day he records that "water started to run down the river bed this morning and in a few hours there was quite a stream flowing. We at once decided to launch the boats." They go upstream to where the boats, a ship's boat and a dory, are cached and bring them back to the camp to load up for their trip down to their various claim or "stakes."

     The trip down stream is very perilous and they are nearly killed. They manage the heavily loaded boats fairly well among the floating ice, but are soon swept against an unexpected ice jam. They rescue most of the goods from the dory, but lose it and the screen and rocker that they need to prospect. They cache some of their goods, release their four sled dogs, and overpack the ship's boat. Nichols notes that if they had fallen into the river, they would have been killed. This part of the journal reads like an adventure novel. After the jam breaks, they proceed on their way without too much trouble. Downstream they recover the rocker and screen. They also recover some items from a sand bar that seem to have lost when someone they knew was lost in the river.

     On June 1: "Thursday -- Started at about 5 o'clock this afternoon down the river . . . to make an attempt to reach Ophir Creek near Sweet Cake. We found plenty of ice along the banks and a dangerous place just at the mouth of Camp Cr. where we dragged over a bar. Everything went well through the Gorge but we had to haul into the bank to save going into an ice jam about 3 miles above Ophir." The next day they check one of their caches to see if the tents and supplies stored there have been picked up by their other partners: "Borden and I went down to the portage to see if the boys had come over from Council City and taken a tent and tools (that had been cached there) to Sweet Cake. The cache had gone so we concluded they must be at the claim. Arriving at the claim they find their partners, and on 3 June Nichols, after helping get lumber up from the mouth of the creek to build sluices, heads out to check his "pup": "Jim, Scanlon, Martin and I went up stream about 3/4 of a mile to prospect my pup, as a claim I staked is called, but could not get down to get a good prospect as the bed was frozen. We got no color."  On the 4th his partners go to visit the Dusty Diamond  and Independence Company claims, while Nichols stays home and builds a frame for their cook house. That evening the president of the Independence Company comes by for a visit: "He is a fine young fellow. He got a sample of [our] Sweet Cake gold in 2 or 3 pans and was surprised to see what coarse stuff it is." The next day they visit the nearby Eskimo village to retrieve the "ballance" of their sluice and see if the dogs they had left there were still alive.  Duke and Jack are there, but not Prince: "Duke almost talked he was so glad to see us." Later in the journal, in addition to fire and ice, they suffer damage to their claim from a flood.

     They deal with the Eskimos pretty frequently and name them: for example,"Sept. 10/99 Ooplawaluk and Nubilyuk came over the Mts. today from the Nuxapaga  country. They said Munacituk was camped over there."

      It begins snowing in September on the Seward Penisula. On September 12 they begin preparations for leaving Alaska and going home to San Francisco: "Started early this morning Ophir Creek was quite low and we had to drag boat over several riffles, but arrived in C.C. OK. Went to the recorders office to record assessment work and sware out our power of attorney for Joe Harding's use, as Ed Borden and I have grub staked him. The boys had breakfast and we got away about 10 o'clock. There were nine people in our boat. Bill Jones, Frank Horton, Hen. Borden and Ed, Mike O'Brine, Bill Eastman, Whitney, a young man of eighteen (Frank Puntell) and myself. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the trip sown the Neakluk (We were going home)."

     Alaska gold rush diaries are quite scarce. Nichols' journal is full of the raw details of everyday life among the first individual miners of the region that are lacking in the more literary accounts of Grinnell and men like him who headed larger companies. Due to severe conditions, the prospecting season ran only from June until September. Nichols gives us two full years of gold hunting in Alaska, the first in retrospect, the second as it happens, day by day.