Alaskan History
Office of Agricultural Experiment Stations
Report of Isaac Jones on the Reconnoissance of the Interior Along the Trail from Eagle to Valdez, 1901
Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for the year 1901; Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. This 1901 annual report contains a section from Isaac Jones on the reconnaissance of Alaska’s interior along the trail from Eagle to Valdez. It includes a discussion of the Copper River region, interesting notes and observations on the Native and non-Native residents and visitors to the area, including tensions between the miners and proposals for bringing agriculture into the area.
These are selected excerpts from the original, the entire report can be read online, see page 48. The following report on that portion of Alaska bordering on the mail and Government trails between Eagle and Valdez is respectfully submitted: I started from Eagle on the morning of September 10 in company with Mr. Oscar Fish, the mail contractor, and one of his carriers, Mr. Al Paxton. The trail, which is simply a more or less well-marked footpath along which pack animals may be taken, leads off in a southwesterly direction from Eagle to the ridge, which on one side is drained by the Fortymile system, and on the other by tributaries of American and Mission creeks. The trail here is very good as Alaskan trails are considered. On the lowlands and through the timber the soil is somewhat sandy in character and fairly well-drained. Trees that would have interfered in using pack animals have been removed, and it is only where there is a very considerable depth of moss that the trail is wet and at all trying on horses. On the higher ground the trail has very much the appearance of the buffalo paths that used to be so common in the prairie States. It is beaten well below the general level, and has the characteristic windings where there seems to be no good reason why it should not have continued in a straight course. For 25 miles from Eagle the entire country is broken by small creeks, separated from one another by steep ridges. These streams have, as a rule, very narrow valleys. The hillsides are steep, and in nearly all cases the foot of the incline is close to the stream. In places, the higher ground spreads out in a sort of table-land half or three-fourths of a mile wide; but generally
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