Part 3

In 1926, Mr. Wimmler wrote, Placer Mining in Alaska. He did not visit the Marshall area but gave special acknowledgment to George Marsh and Chris Betsch of Marshall among others for the following information. Twenty-five men were engaged in placer mining and development work in the Marshall district and preparations were made for increased mining operation. There was but little change in the production, which for several years has been averaging around $12,000 per year. Most of the mining was done on Willow Creek. Marsh, Wirem and Company installed a cable-way excavator plant on the Bon Rosa claim on Willow Creek during the season. The Bon Rosa claim is located between number 3 below Discovery and number 2 Bench on lower Willow Creek. With this plant a long bed rock drain was dug, thus opening up the ground for future productive operation.

Drilling during several previous seasons showed promise on this ground and it was said to average from 25 feet to 30 feet in depth with very little muck over burden. The gravel is not frozen, but is coarse and contains quite a number of large boulders. Bedrock consists of porphyry which, it was claimed, could be readily dug and cleaned. A 3-drum, 8-¼ inch by 10 inch, double cylinder hoist of local construction operates the cableway-excavator. From 6 to 8 men were employed that season with Marsh, Wirem and Company. Mining was planned for the spring of 1927. It was planned first to strip off the upper 15 feet of barren or low-grade gravel, with the excavator, and then to mine the remaining gravel according to usual cableway-excavator methods. Tom Plunkett, Joe Plein, Leo Moore, James Johnston, W.H. Parks, Tony Jurack and Patton & Hill, all conducted small open-cut operations on Willow Creek. Edgar & Duggan hydraulicking on Disappointment Creek were using a scraper to stack tailings. George Pilcher hydraulic mined on Elephant Creek.

The North Country had been calling in the back of Lars Ostnes' mind for some time and he made the decision to return to Alaska. He had been in Alaska from 1903 through 1919 mainly mining for and finding gold from the Juneau and Dawson area to Fairbanks and Iditarod. In 1919 he had returned to his native Norway to baptize his son Leif and visit his and wife Elise's families. Returning to America Lars worked as a Superintendent at Concord Oil Company, an oil drilling operation in Texas and worked with N. C. Jensen in Washington doing some “wildcat” work drilling for oil in Washington until around 1929.

The Depression hit the U.S.A. and by 1930 Lars and his partner Jim Johnston were in the Marshall District of Alaska. Jim Johnston had mined the Willow Creek at different areas since the early 1920´s. They leased the Bon Rosa claim on Willow Creek from George Marsh. George had mined on and off since the mid 1920´s. By the mid 1930´s the Marsh´s were running a small hotel and George was the U. S. Commissioner for the area. In the 1940´s George worked as an assistant to Louie Kier at the Chris Betsch store in Marshall.

George Pilcher in 1933 had decided on retirement. Professor Bill Hunt of the University of Alaska had written a small paper on George Pilcher. In it he wrote, “a rich source for an appreciation of life along the lower Yukon River are the twenty-one diaries of George M. Pilcher, woodcutter, homesteader, trapper, trader, engineer, miner, journalist, artist and inventor.” In the last diary Pilcher wrote about his retirement, “Have made up my mind in the last few days to fix for solid comfort here on the creek and end the fight at mining. Friends want me to move to Anchorage but I feel too far down the line to make a new start in strange surroundings.” Fortunately, Pilcher realized that his diaries, “Modest Account of Daily Occurrences”, might be of importance and presented them to the University of Alaska in 1935 “in deep regret at their shortcoming.” Pilcher in 1940 however was leasing his mining claims on Elephant Creek to A. V. Ericksen, owner of Wilson Creek Mining Company.

In the 1930´s Willow Creek was practically the only creek with pay. It is located eight miles from Marshall by river to Marshall Landing and then four miles overland to the camp Johnston and Ostnes built. The camp´s location near Marshall Landing on the Yukon River was convenient for riverboat landings. Supplies at that time were landed at the mouth of Spruce Creek, which now was flowing into the slough, from which a good road, traversable by auto, lead to the camp.
 
The partners were back to hand mining. Panning the creek in different areas then, depending on the colors, holes were sunk. The conditions were primitive at first. Using bonfires to thaw frozen ground and hand hoisting buckets of the gravels they would sluice until freeze up. When conditions became impossible to continue mining the two partners would work at various settlements along the Yukon River. The two partners stayed at Mountain Village through two winters, as there was a hospital there at that time. They both could do a little work there to survive. Jim Johnston met his wife to be Mable, at the Hospital where she worked as a nurse. There was a Lutheran Church at Mountain Village too, which had Reverend Wilson in charge. Being part Eskimo, Reverend Wilson was no doubt knowledgeable about winter and surviving and was helpful to a life long Lutheran, Lars. After 1932 they stayed at Willow Creek but friendships that would last for years brought the partners back to the various villages many times.

There was much backbreaking work in the early 1930´s. Huge rock and boulders were cleared by hand. In time a steam donkey was acquired to hoist a platform of rocks to the top of the tailing piles. A slack line scraper was used at first to get the gravels to the sluice boxes. Later large pipes from ten inches to sixteen inches in diameter were installed at the penstock to carry water a mile or so down to the “cut”. Wing gates were installed on each side of the sluice box. Two number 2 hydraulic Giants washed the gravels, soil and gold toward the gates for diversion into the sluice box. At the bottom of the sluice box were slotted metal forms.

The riffles of the sluice box were taken up for the clean up. After drying, smaller amounts were put in gold pans where it was picked over removing gravel and dust. The dry gold was stored in leather pokes. The nuggets were put aside and kept in containers like coffee cans.
 
By 1936 Lars was making a request at the First National Bank in Seattle for a large equipment loan. When he was asked how he would repay the loan Lars responded with “Cash, 120 days from delivery.” It was approved as a hand shake arrangement. The equipment went to Seward by boat, to Nenana by railroad then to Marshall Landing by barge with the riverboat “Nenana”. Vernon Hunter remembered when the equipment arrived and was delivered to the Landing. He said because the Wilson Creek Slough was so narrow the “Nenana” had to back up all the way to Marshall in order to return to the Yukon River. An RD-7 Caterpillar, a P & H dragline model 705 with a regular bucket and an extra 1-½ yard rock bucket, a welder and a pump were the big items. The sluice box would be improved with manganese riffles.

There were three shifts working that year. In the Marshall area general labor was about $6.00 for a 12 hour shift in open cut mining operations. The cost for room and board for each person in the camp cost between $2.50 and $3.00 a day. Nellie Johansen was hired as the cook and her husband Edwin was the carpenter. Both were kept very busy. The camp was known for it´s superior grub, an important consideration for those seeking work. With lumber brought down from Ruby a new mess hall and a bunkhouse were built for the workers. For the machinery a large machine shop was built for repair and maintenance as well as winter storage. Edwin also built a good-sized house for Lars' family at both Willow Creek and at Marshall. The Johnstons stayed in the original house built by the partners. The workers hired stayed in the bunkhouse. The Johansens had an attached area on the mess hall. When George and Ethel Marsh came out to camp for the clean up, they stayed in a small guesthouse across from the mess hall.

The Ostnes family took the “S. S. Victoria” to Nome that year. The fourteen-day trip went on the Pacific Ocean then through the Aleutian Islands to the Bering Sea. Since there was not a harbor at Nome passengers were taken ashore in small boats. A new type of transportation was available for Alaskan´s by then, “the aviation”. They then transferred to a bush plane bound for St. Michael then again to another bush plane and on to Marshall. Another trip into Marshall the family took Alaska Steamship to Seward, a train to Anchorage, then bush plane to Marshall. Looking over the ground from the air and explaining how Lars used to drive his dog team over the same area must have been grand conversation.

The bush pilots were invaluable to Alaskans, providing a link for medical aid, transportation of some supplies and delivery of mail to name a few. A crude telephone system was available through the Alaska Communication System, but most of the messages were sent in and out by radiophones. A broken or worn-out part of the mining equipment could slow down the whole operation so quick replacement was a necessity. The pilots became good friends, often spending the night at the camp. If their schedules did not allow for a stopover, they would buzz the camp, wag their wings and drop the mail or whatever else was to be delivered out of the plane.

Vernon Hunter remembers the mine was low on meat one time. The Ostnes' called in to the store for a half a side of beef to be delivered. When the time came to deliver the meat Vernon and pilot Howard Beymer flew the cargo out to the mine. Since there were no airstrips they buzzed the mine and flew real low. As Howard tipped the plane Vernon shoved out a quarter of the side of beef. They flew around and checked where the meat had landed so they could drop the second. The meat had landed right in front of the mess house. They continued around and dropped the second quarter of beef close to the first. As they went around to check the results Howard decided to drop a couple of beers. Vernon dropped two bottles in the tundra and they burst wide open. They tried one more time with two more bottles and one survived the drop. Leif Ostnes was able to find and give a toast with the bottle of beer as Vernon and Howard circled to return to Marshall.

The lower Yukon down to Marshall was still served by the Alaska Railroad river steamers, which haul freight from the railroad in Nenana. From Seattle, Washington to Marshall the distance for freight was 3,299 miles. The freight rate was the same over the whole river, regardless of the distance from Nenana. Rates did not include charges for handling, wharfage, storage, transfer or other terminal charges or marine insurance. Average handling and wharfage charges are about $3.00 to $4.00 per ton at both ends. The Steamers brought in practically all of the mining and other supplies.

Airplanes were mainly relied on for traveling and for emergencies. During the period when the steamers were not in commission, airplanes offered the only practical means of transportation over long distances. Airplane service was less certain in the lower Yukon country than further inland, because of higher winds and generally more stormy weather. The planes made no scheduled flights. Like tramp steamers, they traveled where ever the business was needed and returned to their base only when carrying freight or passengers, or for periodic overhauls. Most of the planes were based at Anchorage. The Star Airlines did most of the business in this region.

Small airplanes would land at Marshall after Jim Johnston and Leif Ostnes used the two caterpillars to dig an airfield out of the tundra behind the town. Pictures showed there was quite an assortment of planes. The airfield however in later times sunk due to the permafrost problem prevalent in the area.

The Yukon and other navigable rivers and sloughs are suitable for use by pontoon planes in summer, and by planes mounted on skis in winter. The only auto road in the region was the one to Willow Creek. The camps at Flat and Wilson Creeks were served by partly graded cat roads, for which the Road Commission appropriated part of the money. John Fitzhugh was the Road Commission Foreman in the area. He would regularly bring in a dump truck to the Johnston and Ostnes operation on Willow Creek to obtain gravel. Operators tried to ship in their heavy supplies in the spring, or in the early summer before the ground thawed. This required a certain amount of forethought, and in some cases, additional credit or cash, as the supplies would have to be landed by steamer late in the preceding summer. In this manner much expensive road building and maintenance could be avoided, and supplies ordinarily could be brought in more cheaply.

The importance of radio communication in this region is indicated by the fact that nearly every mining camp has a radio receiver and transmitter. Private stations also were maintained in Holy Cross and Marshall, and most of the planes were equipped with a two way radio. A few of the stations used code. Because the region is isolated, and the distance between mining operations is great, radiophones were used for calling airplanes, sending and receiving weather reports and for transacting general business. A telephone line installed in the mid thirty´s connected the Willow Creek camp with Marshall. The phone was in the mess hall. It was a big wall type telephone with out a dial, just a spinning crank. According to Eleanor´s recollection calling the Ostnes camp was two short rings and one long ring.

Lars and Elise´s son Leif was on the payroll, first on the rock crew then working his way up to equipment operator, welder and mechanic. During one summer on the rock crew Leif remembered some tourists that had come up to see the operation. One particular young lady asked the men to hold still while she took a picture. Leif recalled one fellow on the crew who normally would pass over bigger rocks when loading the rock platform picked up quite a large rock for the picture. The poor fellow kept holding the rock while the young lady fumbled with her camera. The fellow´s face kept getting redder and his knees began to shake. Just as the lady said she was ready to take the picture the fellow gave out and dropped the rock. Leif wasn´t sure how the picture turned out but the poor fellow on the crew never heard the end of it.

Lars made Leif his Assistant Superintendent when Jim Johnston passed away in the mid 1940's. There were new improvements continually and other less time consuming methods integrated as the mine expanded. The operation of the Willow Creek Mining Company had ground being mined averaging $1.25 a bedrock foot, or $1.15 a cubic yard. The operation was profitable, although the large boulders and thick gravel overburden made mining costs high. The gravel on Willow Creek was coarse, and sub-angular to rounded, instead of fine and well rounded as on other creeks of the area such as Flat, Kako and Wilson Creeks. On Willow Creek the gold was coarse and rough in part, and occurred throughout the lower eight feet of gravel instead of on bedrock as in the other creeks. The gravel was composed of mainly greenstone, with some granite and a few quartz pebbles. Boulders of greenstone up to three feet in diameter were common. The bedrock was a decomposed argillite. An outcropping of Granitic rocks were also at the head of the creek.

Marshall in the 1930's was small and spread out. The most imposing structure was the centrally located store owned by Chris Betsch. Mr. Betsch owned four stores along the Yukon in Pilots Point, Marshall, Ohogamiut and Russian Mission. Mr. Betsch usually stayed in Russian Mission just up river from Marshall. He and Lars were good friends and many a time while visiting the Ostnes family he would regal them all with his stories of when he was a cabin boy on the “U. S. Constitution”. His store was huge and carried everything many and varied items. Snowshoes, skis, oil lamps, candy and canned goods to name a few were stocked. Muskrat and fox pelt hung on the walls next to mukluk boots, parkas and rifles. When in September the last river boat of the season had unloaded it cargo the supplies had to last until the river was free of ice the following spring. This general store then had by necessity a very thoroughly stocked and unusual inventory.

To Part 4

This series of community histories was a partnership between YukonAlaska.com, the Yukon Anniversaries Commission, the City of Whitehorse and several local historians.