My Journey to ALASKA

[(RIP) rustygates]

The outhouse, someone has added the polystyrene

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

the cabin before we cleared the scrub

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

Originally the cabins had earth and sod roof, but by 1950's small planes started to fly into a makeshift airstrip and they carried fuel in 2gallon cans the empty cans where cut open and flattened and used like slates to cover the roofs to keep cabins dry.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

Yes we still own the cabin,but we have given it to local community and the mining rights were robbed by the "silverado mining group" who have laid claim to everything up at Nolan where bob had his mine,apparantly if no one has done a stock take or worked the mine in 12months they just take it over, that why bob stayed up at Nolan and all the other "Sourdough" old timers would go back to Fairbanks for the winter

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

Inside the old post office

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

At Wiseman,there was gold in abundance and left in cabins and nothing was ever stolen but the whiskey was heavily guarded and where gold and men where there was always prostitutes,very few miners ever held onto the gold as they spent it on women,one miner bought a prostitute in gold in the equivelent of what she weighed, gold dust was king in the bars and brothels,bar girls used to put vaseline on their fingers and when miners paid for drinks with gold dust the dust stuck to their fingers and they wiped their fingers and retreived some gold,others went under the floor boards to gather dust which had fallen through.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

This willys jeep was sent to bob from a friend in Fairbanks in 1947 but as there were no roads bob used to drive backwards and forwards a few yards, george and clutch got it going and put oversize wheels on it.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

The famous beer can tower where everybody throws their empty's, we put in quite a few,american beer is crap and that's a fact.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

From Wiseman to Deadhorse the road was not good so not many photos/pics, but this video will show you it all,it's not my vid
here's the link. youtube vid

Episode 26 - Alaska - Part 5

 

[96terrano]

very awesome:thumb2:thumb2

 

[puddle hoppers inc.]

magical, thanks for sharing :thumb2

 

[exosteve]

hope this thread aint goin end anytime soon. need more:thumb2

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

These are some old photos of Bob and others getting delivery of a Cat from Seattle1946. Bob is the one kneeling and with his back to the camera

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

Wiseman bridge over the river which cut the village in two, there was always rivalry between the two sides and it still exists today.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

The Cat had gone through the ice it was rescued, because it's still in Wiseman today

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

Here are some photos taken around 1900's

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

This was a regular site, I wonder how much it would be worth today.?

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

One of the early "rockers" separating paydirt from the gold

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

The most iconic picture ever, these people from all over the world landing at "Dyea"and "Skagway" with their supplies,the border police would not let them into Canada unless they had 1 years supply of food etc which weighed 1ton, and they carried,dragged this load 30mls from scagway to "Lake Bennet"over the mountains in winter, some of them did it 30 or 40 times carrying 50-100 lbs, the lake was frozen so they set about building boats,rafts. In the spring they traveled another 100 miles up the Yukon River to the gold fields and when they got there most of the claims had gone.

 

[(RIP) rustygates]

I could talk about this story for weeks, but would probably get boring to some, and there are more important issues on a Nissan Terrano-Maverick site,like "how can i remove this fly off my windscreen".lol but if you want me to carry on, i will, the next installment is from Fairbanks to Dawson