Klondyke Nuggets: A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the Northwest — John Shaqi
Klondyke Nuggets: A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the NorthwestLadue, Joseph
History
Klondyke Nuggets: A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the Northwest
Ladue, Joseph
Alaska -- Gold discoveries; Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Gold discoveries
"Nothing more was ever done in the vicinity of Fort Selkirk[7] by the
Hudson's Bay Company after these events, and in 1869 the Company was
ordered by Capt. Charles W. Raymond, who represented the United States
Government, to evacuate the post at Fort Yukon, he having found that it
was west of the 141st meridian. The post was occupied by the Company,
however, for some time after the receipt of this order, and until
Rampart House was built, which was intended to be on British territory,
and to take the trade previously done at Fort Yukon.
[Footnote 7: This is now a winter port for steamboats of the North
American Transportation and Trading Company, plying the Yukon and its
tributaries. There is also a trading post here owned by Harper & Ladue.]
"Under present conditions the Company cannot very well compete with the
Alaska Commercial Company, whose agents do the only trade in the
district,[8] and they appear to have abandoned--for the present at
least--all attempt to do any trade nearer to it than Rampart House to
which point, notwithstanding the distance and difficulties in the way,
many of the Indians on the Yukon make a trip every two or three years to
procure goods in exchange for their furs. The clothing and blankets
brought in by the Hudson's Bay Company they claim are much better than
those traded on their own river by the Americans. Those of them that I
saw who had any English blankets exhibited them with pride, and
exclaimed 'good,' They point to an American blanket in contempt, with
the remark 'no good,' and speak of their clothing in the same way.
[Footnote 8: Since the date of this report the North American
Transportation and Trading Company, better known in the Yukon valley as
"Captain Healy's Company," has established a number of posts on the
river.]
"On many maps of Alaska a place named 'Reed's House' is shown on or near
the upper waters of Stewart River. I made enquiries of all whom I
thought likely to know anything concerning this post, but failed to
elicit any information showing that there ever had been such a place. I
enquired of Mr. Reid, who was in the Company's service with Mr. Campbell
at Fort Selkirk, and after whom I thought, possibly, the place had been
called, but he told me he knew of no such post, but that there was a
small lake at some distance in a northerly direction from Fort Selkirk,
where fish were procured. A sort of shelter had been made at that point
for the fishermen, and a few furs might have been obtained there, but it
was never regarded as a trading post.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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