ALASKA'S FIRST AIRSHIP.
The Scouts and their commander reached the mouth of the Gold early in the
evening, and made camp on their old ground, the sandy spit between the two
rivers. The steamer from Dawson was due some time during the night, and
before they turned in they set up a red lantern on the long steering sweep
as a signal. The dawn had broken when the hoarse siren of the steamer was
heard down the Lewes, and by the time all hands were awake she was backing
water at the mouth of the Gold. The flat boat was quickly poled out to
her, and what Swiftwater called their "dunnage" was placed aboard. Then,
with the steamer's boat in tow the batteau was taken back into the mouth
of the creek and securely anchored to the bank to be called for by Colonel
Snow's men the following fall.
The trip to White Horse was uneventful, and from there the boys, after a
call on Major McClintock at the Mounted Police post, where they left
thanks for their rescuers, who had not yet returned from their patrol
duty, took a train to Skagway. They found Colonel Snow awaiting them, and
after Swiftwater had given an account of the work at the camp on the Gold,
preparations were made for the journey down the Yukon to St. Michaels and
the Seward Peninsula, where Colonel Snow had some further business to
transact for the government. Traveling in Yukon and Alaska is expensive,
but Colonel Snow had agreed to defray the expenses of the trip from
Skagway to Nome in payment for the boys' services in the camp, and they
had already confided to him the scheme they had in mind to make some money
for themselves.
The Scouts had given every attention to detail in setting up the machine,
and the apparatus had been given a tryout by frequent runs across the
grass and short lifts into the air. A small grandstand had been built for
the town officials and invited guests, and the Scouts attired in their
khaki uniforms and broad hats acted as a reception committee and as
ushers.
Swiftwater, who was to go down the Yukon to Dawson with them on his way to
the Fairbanks mining district, where he proposed to carve out what he
termed a new "stake," acted as box office man and ticket taker. There were
nearly two thousand persons on the grounds when the boys brought out from
its canvas hanger the neat double plane with its bright motor and
varnished propeller. The skids had been replaced with rubber tired bicycle
wheels and the controls were of the latest pattern. The machine was
dressed with tiny flags, and out of compliment to the neighboring Yukon
territory the British colors shared the display equally with the American
flag.
The hour of the ascent was announced by a bugle call, and the boys
surrounded the aeroplane to keep the crowd back, when Gerald climbed into
the seat. A cleared space of nearly a quarter of a mile had been reserved
for him, and starting the motor he glided gently away over the grass, then
lifted his forward plane and rose into the air. He lifted the plane to
about two hundred feet, circled the lower end of the field and came back
over the heads of the crowd. As he swept over the grand stand the
astonished crowd recovered somewhat from its amazement and sent forth a
mighty cheer that was added to by almost as great a throng outside the
grounds. Having given the crowd an opportunity to inspect the machine at
close quarters, Gerald began to mount in spirals until he reached an
altitude of nearly two thousand feet, after which he headed directly for
the summit of one of the lofty mountains that form the natural features of
the Skagway region. It was nearly a dozen miles away, but he passed over
the intervening country at a speed of nearly sixty miles an hour, and
after the lapse of about twenty minutes returned, and dropping slowly in
spirals, glided gently to earth within a score of feet of the spot from
which he had risen.
Soon after their return to Skagway the mysterious "piano case" was brought
out of storage and unpacked, a vacant but fenced lot was rented and the
first aeroplane that Alaska had ever seen was soon put together, and was
in process of being tuned up.
As has been told in a previous volume, the Creston Patrol of Boy Scouts
had become fairly proficient airmen, having constructed a glider which in
a contest had won for them a motor with which they later equipped an
airship. Gerald, especially, had shown himself a most capable and
courageous aviator, and only a short time before coming to Alaska had
received from the Aeronautical Society his license as a full fledged air
pilot. Needless to say their exhibition was the notable event of the year,
and it added as well a goodly sum to the boys' exchequer.
Citizens and visitors were delighted with the exhibition, and begged for
another day of the same thing, but Colonel Snow was anxious to be on his
way to the Klondike country, and could not allow the boys more time. The
sum realized was not only satisfactory to the town officials, but the
share coming to the boys went a considerable way toward providing funds
for their trip down the Yukon.
The aeroplane was loosely crated for the journey, and early in the month
of July the Scouts took the train for their second trip from Skagway to
White Horse. Upon their arrival at the end of their three hours' journey,
Colonel Snow, Rand and Swiftwater repaired to a nearby Siwash village, to
which the wounded chief had been conveyed upon their return from Gold
Creek and found him nearly recovered from his injury.
He showed considerable satisfaction at meeting them, and was evidently
very grateful to Swiftwater and the boys for their kindness to him. He
said the return of the ancient tribal relic had greatly rejoiced the
members of the tribe, and had aroused great interest among the older men
in the old legends attached to the heirloom. These had to do with a great
wealth of ivory which had been stored in a cave at the top of a cliff
during a tribal war over a hundred years before, and that this cave was in
the mountains which "ended near the Great Water." As near as Swiftwater
could make out the mountains referred to were either the great Alaskan
range which swings in a semicircle across the territory from the
international boundary on the Yukon, where the range bears the name of
Nuzotin, west to Cook Inlet, an arm of the North Pacific Ocean or the
Chugach or Kenai ranges nearer the coast. Four great peaks are features of
the Alaskan range, chief of them being Mount McKinley, the highest
mountain in all America--20,464 feet--until recently unconquered by any of
the ambitious mountain climbers who have attacked it.
The chief said further that some of his young men were ambitious to hunt
for this peak, and that he himself would go with them over into the Cook
Inlet region for the salmon fishing, and later would take up a search
through the mountains aided by a remnant of the tribe which still haunts
that section. He promised Rand that should the treasure be found he would
share with the boys who had returned their ancient relic to the village.
While Colonel Snow had little faith in the existence of the cave or the
possibility of its rediscovery, he saw that the spirit of adventure was
aroused in the boys, and as he proposed that they should see as much as
possible of Alaska, and as he himself must later visit the copper mining
region he made an arrangement to meet the chief at Seward in the Kenai
Peninsula, the end of the military cable to Seattle, late in August.
The Indians greatly desired that the boys should visit their village that
night for a "potlatch," but as they could not do so the villagers insisted
on presenting each of the party with a handsome hand woven blanket, the
manufacture of which is the chief native industry.
Meantime, the other boys had paid a visit to the Custom House to give bond
for their airship, but as the collector could find nothing of the kind on
the tariff list, as none had ever been entered at a Yukon customs house,
he concluded it was exempt and allowed it free entry.
"I see that the members of your Congress insist that a protective tariff
is for the primary purpose of preventing foreign competition with home
industries. As I do not believe that you will find an aviation industry on
the Yukon, I guess I am safe in letting you take your machine through."
The boys also visited the police barracks and found their three friends of
the forest patrol whom they again heartily thanked. At seven o'clock, at
what would have been night anywhere else, they went aboard the "Yukoner"
with the aeroplane, and an hour later cast off lines for Dawson. Here
another exhibition was made, and under Swiftwater's guidance a visit paid
to the mining camps.