Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1897 — NEW ROAD TO WEALTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW ROAD TO WEALTH

HERE’S A BACK-DOOR ROUTE TO THE KLONDYKE. Gold Field May Be Reached in Two Month® Over the Hudson Bay Trunk Line to the North—Travel Easy and Expense Light. Overland to the North. A back-door route to Klondyke has been discovered. By it travelers from Chicago may reach the gold fields within two months, or possibly six weeks, if an immediate start is made. Two hundred dollars is said to be sufficient for the trip. Railways and steamboats largely cover the route and supply stations are placed at convenient intervals all the way. This back-door route or inside track, as it is called, is simply the old Hudson Baytrunk line to the north. It has been in use nearly a century. A railroad official has called attention to the route. To travel over it passengers from Chicago must go to St. Paul and there take train over the Canadian Pacific. Leaving St. Paul at 9 o’clock in the morning, the international boundary at Portal will be crossed at 4 o'clock next morning. At 2:22 the following morning the Chicagoan will find himself at Calgary, where he will leave the main line of the Canadian Pacific ami travel to Edmonton, a point 1,772 miles from Chicago, and where the rail portion of the journey ends. The railroad fare from Chicago is $53.65. A stage ride of forty miles will bring him to Athabasca Landing. Here he will find a continuous waterway for canoe travel to Fort Macpherson at the north mouth of the Mackenzie river, from which point the Peel river lies south to the gold regions. From Edmonton to Fort Macpherson is 1,882 miles. There are only two portages of any size on the route—that from Edmonton to Athabasca Landing. owr which there is

a stage and wagon line, and at Smith Landing, sixteen miles, over which the Hudson Bay Company has a tramway. With the exception of five other portages of a few hundred yards, there is a fine down-grade water route all the way. Wherever there is a lake or a long stretch of deep-water navigation the Hudson Bay Company has small freight steamers which ply during the summer months between the portage points. From Edmonton a party- of three meii with a canoe should reach Fort Macpherson within sixty days, provided they are strong and of some experience in that sort of travel. If winter comes on the traveler can change his canoe for dog trains and reach Klondyke with much less difficulty than on the Alaska route. The great advantage claimed for the inland route is that it is an organized line of communication. Travelers need not carry any more food than will take them from one Hudson Bay post to the next, and there is abundance of fish and wild fowl along the route. They can also get assistance at the posts in case <tt sickness or accident. If lucky enough to make their “pile” in the Klondyke they can come back by the dog-sled route in the winter. There is one mail to Fort Macpherson in the winter. Dogs for teams can be bought at any of the Hudson Bay posts which form a chain of roadhouses on the trip. Parties traveling alone will need no guides until they get near Fort Macpherson, the route from Edmonton being so well defined. It is estimated that a party of three could provide themselves with food for the canoe trip of two months for $35. Pork, tea, flour and baking powder would suffice. Parties should consist of three men, as that is the crew of a canoe. It will take 600 pounds of food to carry three men over the route. The paddling is all done downstream except when they turn south up Peel river, and sails should be taken, as there is often a favorable wind for days. There are large scows on the line manned by ten men each, and known as “sturgeon heads.” They are like canal boats, but are punted along, and are used by the Hudson Bay people for taking supplies to the forts.

NEW ROUTE TO THE KLONDYKE.