EPISODE 689 ESCAPE FROM YUKON JUNEAU AND PAN AMERICAN “707 SET TO GO”
alan skeoch
Dec. 4, 2022
My Escape from the Yukon began when I hi-jacked that bus from Mayo Landing and drove the bus
and passengers to Stewart Crossing where the bus was vacated and then caught the early morning bus to
Whitehorse from Dawson City.
September 11 to September 15, 1961 Escape from the Yukon retracing the trips of
the Yukon Gold Rush Mayo Landing to Stewart Crossing to Whitehorse to Skagway to Haines
Junction to Juneau to Seattle to Vancouver to Toronto.
(I do not expect all episodes will be read…who gives a sweet goddamn about
my experience in the Yukon.? I may be the only one. Understand that. our
two sons seem to avoid the emails. Maybe Marjorie, my proof reader, is the only
reader. Not quite so. I was amused at curling
yesterday when three of my curling friends began talking about their Yukon adventures.
Triggered by my emails. That made me
feel good.)
Main street in Juneau…with mountain hovering over.
Juneau was quite a shock after Keno City whose population was 50 or less…perhaps 20 or even less. I can count 20 people on this street alone.
What do I remember about Juneau leg of the trip? Nothing very remarkable. Spent 6 hours in small cabin of
the S.S. Chilcot, a water taxi. Arrived at Juneau in pouring rain. No shelter at dock, soaked. Taxi to
downtown Juneau (really uptown Juneau because the city is built on slope
of mountain. Rather miserable place in pouring rain. As a matter of fact my
memory of Juneau boiled down to one event. Leaving Juneau on a
Pan American Boelng 707 and the voice of Gordon Lightfoot:
arrived in a rainstorm … and flew out in a rainstorm.
In the early morning rain with a dollar in my handWith an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sandI’m a long way from home, Lord, I miss my loved ones soIn the early morning rain with no place to go
Out on runway number nine a big 707 set to goAnd, I’m stuck here in the grass where the pavement never growsNow, the liquor tasted good and the women all were fastWell, there she goes, my friend, she’ll be rolling down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver wing on highShe’s away and westward bound, far above the clouds she’ll fly
There the morning rain don’t fall and the sun always shinesShe’ll be flying over my home in about three hours time
This old airport’s got me down, it’s no earthly good to meAnd I’m stuck here on the ground as cold and drunk as I can beYou can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight trainSo, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain
You can’t jump a jet plane like you can a freight trainSo, I’d best be on my way in the early morning rain
GORDON LIGHTFOOT 1966*
(* Song was not written in 1961 as I believed…no matter
I have always associated it with the Pan American 707 in Juneau.)
Juneau airport … I think pic was taken in 1961…notice the background…needs lots of power to clear the mountains.
That song I will never forget. Travelling alone is not enjoyable. Better
to have Marjorie with me…far better. That was what I felt for most
of those last Yukon days “In the early morning rain”. My flight out
of Juneau fitted the song so well….”Big 707 set to go”.
The Boeing 707 had to be really set to go because the Juneau
airfield is short and the mountains are close. Extra boost needed.
Before boarding I visited a tourist gift store and bought Marjorie
a wall hanging titled Toads on Tidewalker not knowing this was
a Tlingit legend. Not even knowing much about the Tlingit people.
I just wanted get home but “just can’t jump a jet plane like you
csn a freight train”…I had to arrange flight to Seattle and then
a $99 prop driven flight to Vancouver and finally an Air Canada
flight to Toronto. That took time and reinforced the loneliness.
Her picture hung in every tent we pitched.
Marjorie and I had got engaged just before i took offer the mining
job in the Yukon. We got married August 24, 1963. In September I would begin
teaching at Parkdale Collegiate Institute in West Toronto.
How could I finance our honeymoon? Mining exploration. Dr. Paterson
offered a job North of Lake Superior near the company town of
Marathon. Maker of cardboard from boreal forest pulpwood. Air full
of H2S..Hydrogen sulphide…lots of it. What does it become when mixed with moisture in our lungs?
H2s04..sulphuric acid. Not nice stuff.
My excuse to
Marjorie was the need for some cash for our honeymoon which was only
partly true. I wanted another summer doing mining exploration…loved the
adventure. Probably did not fool Marjorie because when we got close to
the wedding date she arrived in Marathon with my mother and aunt Phil
to make sure I showed up for the wedding. That was a three day drive
for them. Maybe Marjorie felt I would not show up for the wedding as
Bill Dunn did on the Yukon job. He left his girl at the alter, or so he said.
In any event I was kidnapped…willingly so.
Marjorie and her guardian and mom did all the wedding arrangements.
All I had to do was show up. Some think that is still the case.
And I was able to have one more year of wilderness adventure. “Needed to
pay for the honeymoon, Marjorie.” Not sure anyone believed that half truth.
The Marathon job had lots of excitement. I was in charge of the camp.
A black bear insisted on joining us no matter how we tried to discourage the
poor creature. One night I got up to go for a leak. John Lloyd thought
I was the bear coming into the tent and grabbed an axe ,. Close call.
We did not want to kill the bear. Tried electricity
to scare him or her away. Our meat and chocolate bar locker was a big meal garbage can buried
to the lip in the ground. We hooked our motor generator to the garbage can
lid and all of us, six men, crammed into our truck and waited. The bear came,
lifted the lid and grabbed a box of Neilson’s Jersey Milk chocolate bars before
we could flip the switch. That was a very fast bear. And dangerous..
A nasty decision had to be made…I am a firm believer in gun control…what to do?
NEXT EPISODE: MINING DAYS COME TO AN END — MARJORIE JOINS THE CREW
post script
In those long Yukon summer nights there was lots of light for reading. That summer of
1961 I was deep into the thoughts of Thoreau: I was 23 years old and a touch idealistic.
“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”
―
―
The Founding of Juneau, Alaska
by Nancy Warren Ferrell
For the most part, the vast spruce covered mountains and protected waterways along Gastineau Channel in Southeastern Alaska laid untouched to the mid 1800s. Before that, Tlingit Indian tribes fished the rich salmon routes for centuries. And a few well-known explorers had come before: Men such as George Vancouver and John Muir.
But it was rumors of gold that lured prospectors to the Gastineau Channel in the 1870s. Sandwiched in quartz within these coastal mountains, ran a 100-mile belt of gold from Windham Bay to Berners Bay1. River gravel below the peaks sparkled with yellow particles washed down from the mountain lodes.
A German-born mining engineer, George Pilz, then working in the headquarters of the Territory–Sitka–grubstaked prospectors to search for gold and silver 2 in Southeastern. Pilz offered substantial rewards to the local Indians(“100 pair of Hudson’s Bay blankets, and work for the tribe . . . “) 3 for any promising gold-bearing ore. When Chief Cowee of the Auk Tlingits brought in rich ore samples, Pilz sent out a party of miners to follow-up on the hopeful location. The party consisted of Joe Juneau and Richard Harris. They left Sitka in the summer of 1880.4
The two prospectors, with an Indian guide showing the way, located gold in Silver Bow Basin, on a stream they simply called Gold Creek.5 “We followed the gulch down from the summit of the mountain into the basin,” Harris later said, “and it was a beautiful sight to see the large pieces of quartz, spangled over with gold.” 6 This find was the first major Alaskan gold discovery.7