Alaska continued - page 6
As you read in the letters, S.E.B. enjoyed the trip and was please to report his
adventure to the folks back home. Alaska in the 1923 was considered to be the
last North American frontier. Kids growing up during that time read about the
adventures of the gold miners and sled dog teams of the Klondike and were full
of Jack London stories, so Alaska was big travel deal. And S.E.B. needed to sell
the trip back home because he had forked over his last $200 for stock in the
expedition.
What happened to him after arrival is something of a mystery? The Moore expedition stake on Osborn Creek was a bust. Not enough pay dirt to fund a dredging operation. A gold dredge is typically built and floated on a pond. It digs up the gravel with in reach and screens it for gold passing the spoils behind and digging out a new hole that fills with water and continues to float the dredge. The plan was to move down part or all of the 45 miles stake on Osborn Creek.
Both letters talk about the imminent arrival of the steamer S.S. Buford in Nome late in August. Pop planned to send letters when the Buford departed. We have a good picture of him posing with a native schoolteacher and her dog on the Buford deck, but I'm sure he did not return on the Buford. He probably had his picture taken while visiting the Buford in the Nome harbor. The identical pose with the same gal and her dog can be found on a website for the pioneer aviator Charles LaJotte.
LaJotte and his Curtis Jenny airplane were on the Fred J. Wood trip. You can read his report of the expedition and his flying adventures around Nome in the story Misadventures of a Jenny in the Artic on that site. As you will read, he was a green pilot at the time but survived to be an airmail pioneer and later a test pilot who somehow survived to a reasonable old age. LaJotte said the Moore expedition returned on the Buford, which is not correct.
The author, E.B. White (Charlotte's Webb, Elements of Style, etc. Editor of The New Yorker) also fits into the story. He took passage on the Buford from Seattle and ended up working on the crew for the Artic trip in 1923. In his book Essays of E.B. White the essay "The Years of Wonder" tell his story of the trip. When the Buford arrived in Nome on August 17th a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce group on tour of the Artic was on board. White reports they took on only ten passengers at Nome, which put a strain on the Buford's accommodations. So not many, if any, of the Moore group returned on the Buford.
The family story I had always heard was that Pop spent a long, cold winter working on a dredge (not Moore's) and was quite happy to leave Alaska behind when the ice broke the next spring. I need a little more research time to find out how and exactly when he returned to the west coast. He said he never had a desire to return to Alaska - been there, done that.
The schooner Fred J. Wood never left Alaska. It was grounded in a strong wind on the beech at Teller, Alaska, the next bay north of Nome. The picture shows it's final resting place. Pop said it eventually burned to the water line.
The Fred j. Wood aground at Teller, Alaska
Gold dredge somewhere near Nome
Starlin with big codfish. Bering Sea
Starlin and dog sled team
continued (page 7)