has had an experience that few of us have passed through. He was
a member of the famous Klondyke party 
that started from
Montgomery on the 9th day of August, 1897, when he, Tom See, Lee
Gregory and Frank White preceded the big rush in the following
spring when the party was headed by the late Frank Purcell of
High Hill, who is said, met a tragic end at Seattle, Washington.
Mr. Barton had a most interesting experience during this
exploration of this new country and we have asked him to give an
account of some of his trials and hardships and what he saw for
this special edition for the Standard.Mr. Barton was a friend and associate of the well known writer Jack London who has recently sent Mr. Barton an autographed copy of his book entitled "Adventure" in which he wrote the following on the inside page;
"Dear old sour-dough friend of Youkon days, Everett Barton:-- Just for fun I wish to refresh you with adventure entirely different from those you and I had in Alaska and the North West territory. All the incidents in this book, except the Love-Making, are things that happened. I cruised nearly six months in the Solomons in the "Snark". (Signed) Jack London."
A Few Lines from Mr. Barton.
"You have asked me to jot down a few lines about my experiences in the Klondyke, because I am personally acquainted with Jack London and have received this book written by him it does not follow that I can write for publication, but really we had a very interesting and unique experience in those days.
Our party, four in number, Lee Gregory, Thomas See, Frank White and myself left Montgomery City, August 9th, 1897, to embark on a journey of thousands of miles fraught with many hardships and dangers, passing through and making changes at Kansas City, Mo., Billings, Montana, on to Seattle, Washington, where we purchased our outfit and boarded the steamer City of Kingston, which plied the waters known as the Inside Channel extending north. This great inland waterway stretches from Tacoma, at the head of the great inland sea; Puget Sound on the north past hundreds of islands with great mountains on either hand; almost unkown channels reaching back for into the mainland; mountains whose tops are always covered with ice caps and snow. We made a short stop at Victoria, on the southern end of Vancoover Island, which with its natural bays make it an ideal place for pleasure in the way of boating and fishing. As you keep going north you sail by great glaciers and beautiful water-falls; some days the seas are so calm that every cloud, mountain, rock and tree are so perfectly reflected that you can not tell where the shore line ends-- in fact you seem to be sailing on clouds and trees. We had on board a party of big game hunters who were let off up one of these channels leading back into the mountains; the steamer was stopped about one hundred and fifty yards from shore, the parties were taken ashore in a boat, but their pack animals were led onto a long stage and dumped into the water, as they would strike the water we could see them go under several feet-- receiving a ducking, but would soon rise to the surface-- blow the water from their nostrils and swim to shore. We stopped again at Juneau, Alaska, where are located the Tredwell Mines, where a mountain of low grade gold ore is found, the stamp mills there, at one time, were the largest in the world. After leaving Juneau and passing through the channel leading up to Skagway and Deya, the two places being separated by a point of land extending midway into the channel, on the south side of which is located Skagway and on the north, Deya. Skagway being the point from which leads the trail over White Pass to the head of Lake Bennett, a distance of about fifty-two miles. Deya is an Indian village, from which leads the Deya trail over Chilkoote Pass to Lake Linderman, a distance of about thirty-two miles; The two trails coming together at the head of Lake Bennett; after crossing Lake Linderman on the Deya trail. the Deya Trail being the shorter we transferred our outfit to that trail, which trail has been used for many years by the Indians and parties in reaching the headwaters of the Yukon river, which at that time was the most paractical route to reach the interior. After packing to various points along the trail, from Deya to Finnegan's Point, Head of Canyon, Sheeps Kamp, Rock House and reaching the scales, at which point the use of pack animals cease, the next is at Crater Lake over the summit, then three miles to Long Lake, where we ferried two weeks, in the meantime packing to and from this lake; then Deep Lake and Lake Linderman, from where we started our boat journey.
The time required in packing from Deya to Lake Linderman was fifty-two days, for three of us, Gregory, White and myself having packed over 1000 pound each. Thomas See having stopped at the head of the Canyon with the intention of sledding over the snow.
From Lake Linderman, we portaged our outfit and let our boat down the rapids between Lake Linderman and Bennett, with ropes attached to each side, I remained in the boat to keep it off the rocks. From Bennett on down the rivers and lakes, next being Lake Tagish in which we encountered several high winds; Marsh Lake, the Canyon, White Horse Rapids, Lake Labarge, Five Finger Rapids to Pelly River, any one of which would be worthy of a story itself. The junction of the Lewis and Pelly Rivers form the Great Yukon. These lakes vary in length from one mile to thirty-two miles, some being five miles in width and eight in number and as many rivers or connections up to reaching the Pelly river. On November 5th, 1897, we reached Stewart river floating with the ice and were pulled ashore by a long rope. We were now out from home eighty-six days. At Stewart river we erected a cabin which was soon called and known as the "Missouri Boys" cabin. After stampeeding to several creeks and prospecting for several weeks and as nothing had been struck worth mining, Lee and I went to Dawson, a distance of eighty miles; running short of provisions we returned to Stewart river, and soon after Lee and Frank went to Dawson and remained. Later in the winter I made another trip to Dawson for mail and to take rubber boots to the boys for use in mining; having traveled 320 miles on foot in making these trips during the winter, the first trip the thermometer registered as low as 50 degrees below zero, part of the time sleeping in a tent which we carried. I remained over until spring to bring down our outfit by boat when the yukon borke up. While at Stewart river, I became acquainted with people from all parts of the United States, and at which place I first met Jack London, who afterwards became a noted writer. The thermometer during this winter registered as low as 72 degrees below zero.
On May 9th, 1898, the Yukon broke up, causing a gorge twenty-five miles below; when the gorge broke, many island covered with timber were mowed down like grass before a sickle. After reaching Dawson and witnessing the big rush coming in from both up and down the river, it being estimated at 45000 persons, the boats, from up the river of every kind and description-- lined the shore from three to five deep for two miles along the river front.
After passing the next winter mining on Bonanza Creek,
which
would be quite lenghty to
describe, we left Dawson
on the 3rd day of July, 1899 at 2
o'clock P.M. down the river to St. Michaels a distance of 1800
miles; the next day July 4th, we ran onto a bar in the river near
Fort Yukon, which is on the Arctic Circle, here we were hung up
for 26 hours, at which palce the sun was visible twenty-four
hours; at 12 o'clock at night the sun appeared just above the
horizon. After being on the Yukon 9 days, we reached St. Michaels
on Bearing Sea, from which place we boarded the Steamer St. Paul
for San Francisco, a distance of 3000 miles. After passing
through Bearing Sea, we made a short stop to bury two men at sea;
another stop we made when we met the Steamer
Portland out of sight of land. At 11 o'clock P.M. July 28th,
as we passed through Golden Gate into the bay, where we anchored
for the night, a great sight met our eyes, thousands of lights
reached many miles up and down the bay when a shout went up
"We are back to cvilization". It certanly did look good
after being in the north nearly two years. After landing at San
Francisco, and getting into some glad rags and visiting a number
of the principal places, such as Golden
Gate Park and Sutter's Baths, and bidding my two remaining
companions good-bye, left for Missouri, arriving home August 9th,
1899, just two years from the day we left.This brief outline of those two years practically tell nothing of the beauty, dangers and hardships; each step has its own story, each mile its victim. I have seen a number of men buried on this trip on land and at sea, some from exposure, many were drowned in the lakes, rivers and rapids, some killed by the Indians, some from scurvy and freezing; nearly every day in the summer of 1898 I saw someone bieng carried to the little cemetery back of Dawson and placed in a grave of frozen ground. On the great highway, as it is called, the Yukon and its headwaters, you will find the graves of many who were laid to rest. The toll from our county alone, being Thomas See, John McCafferty, Charlie Nebal, Mr. Frank Purcell who met his death at Seattle, also a Mr. Watson who died soon after reaching his home in Callaway county. As one Writer has said in writing of the many deaths in the early gold mining in Colorado. "Many with folded arms and rigid faces were consigned by strangers to hill-side graves with no child's voice to prattle its simple sorrow, no woman's tears to be-dew their memory". Everett Barton