{"id":22623,"date":"2022-11-21T11:41:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T16:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22623"},"modified":"2022-11-21T11:50:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T16:50:35","slug":"episode-682-escape-from-the-yukon-part-5-the-treadwell-mine-disaster-kills-12-horses-1-mule-maybe-1-man-1917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22623","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 682 ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON PART 5: THE TREADWELL MINE DISASTER — KILLS 12 HORSES, 1 MULE, MAYBE 1 MAN 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 682    ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON  PART 5:  THE TREADWELL MINE DISASTER — KILLS 12 HORSES, 1 MULE, MAYBE 1 MAN   1917<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 20, 2-22<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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My water taxi was getting ready to dock in Juneau\u2026the land- locked capital of Alaska was a city <\/div>\n
stacked like cordwood.  Ascending in tiers up a mountain on the east side of the Gatineau Channel.   <\/div>\n
Juneau was obvious to the naked eye. If so, then The Treadwell Mine must be equally obvious.<\/div>\n
I turned and looked westward across the Channel.  Douglas Island was there even though it had<\/div>\n
moved and reshaped itself back in 1917.  But there was no sign that this Island had once housed<\/div>\n
the largest gold mine in the world.  Here were the ruins of the Treadwell Mine?<\/div>\n

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Nothing there except one measly little nondescript tiny tower poking out of raw slurry of sand and bits of rubble<\/div>\n
I was disappointed.  The reason for my ‘ Escaping the Yukon\u2019 plan was to see the fabled ruins of the Treadwell Mine.<\/div>\n
There was\u2026.there is\u2026.nothing to see.<\/div>\n

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Just getting here had been exciting.  Travelling down on the Yukon and White Pass Railway.  Imagining the<\/div>\n
3,000 bodies of inhumanely  treated horses at Dead Horse Gulch,  recreating the wild days in Skagway when<\/div>\n
bunco artist Soapy Smith ruled the roost, taking a tiny 10 person water taxi down the Gatineau Channel.<\/div>\n
All very exciting.  But the culminating event, the Treadwell Mine\u2026was not worth the  effort.   Or so it seemed<\/div>\n
at first glance.<\/div>\n
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\u201cSomewhere under this channel, over 2,000 feet below us are the skeletons of 12 horses and 1 mule and maybe 1 man\u201d<\/div>\n
“How do you know that?\u2019<\/div>\n
\u201cThe largest gold mine in the world in 1917 was here\u2026the Treadwell Mine\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTunelled under the Gatineau Channel\u20265,000 tons of ore a day taken from under the  ocean?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMiners excavated 65 miles of tunnels.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen it all came to a crashing end in just two hours, April, 1917\u2026.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd all that remains is this peculiar building.  Looks like a tiny Greek Parthenon\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen Treadwell was in full flower there were buildings stretching for miles.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd Douglas Island was a fulll fledged town\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow there is just this one building\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBuilt on a massive pile of mine tailings that has made the Douglas Island beach where no beach was before.”<\/div>\n

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The main event\u2026.THE TREADWELL MINE DISASTER\u2026Is coming in the next episode.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 21,2022<\/div>\n

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Post script:  The Treadwell Mine was really four mines all carved out<\/div>\n
of a fault in the skin of our mother earth.  A crack that allowed gold<\/div>\n
bearing magma to ooze up.  <\/div>\n

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Take a close look at the small cross section map of the Treadwell Mine\u2026top right hand side, small\u2026NOTICE ANYTHING?<\/div>\n

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640″ style=”box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; max-width: 640px;”>\"Treadwellwww.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/image2099306_web1_Treadwell_workers_outside_mine_building_ca_1918-300×185.jpg<\/a> 300w, www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/image2099306_web1_Treadwell_workers_outside_mine_building_ca_1918-640×396.jpg<\/a> 640w” sizes=”(max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 720px” apple-inline=”yes” id=”68288B38-9943-49CE-99F7-E38E1D99DD54″ style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15); display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 640px; margin: 0px 0px 0.25rem;” src=”https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image2099306_web1_Treadwell_workers_outside_mine_building_ca_1918.jpg”><\/p>\n
Treadwell workers outside mine building, circa 1918. (Alaska State Library)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 682    ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON  PART 5:  THE TREADWELL MINE DISASTER — KILLS 12 HORSES, 1 MULE, MAYBE 1 MAN   1917 alan skeoch Nov. 20, 2-22 My water taxi was getting ready to dock in Juneau\u2026the land- locked capital of Alaska was a city  stacked like cordwood.  Ascending in tiers up a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}