Northwest History. Aviation 8. Wilkins' Expedition, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1926
• Subjects: plane; snow motors; Wilkins; Point Barrow; Nenana; Alaska; Tanana river; sledges; transpolar airplane expedition; George H. Wilkins; Arctic ocean; Campbell's roadhouse; Koyukuk river; Seward; Camplell's trading post; Detroit arctic expedition; Tolovana; A. Malcolm Smith; Trojans; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Detroit; Fairbanks; Pacific; Rossman; Wilkins Point; Barrow; Tundra; tundra grass
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86075

Plane Supplies Balked By Trail: Snow Motors Unable To Pull Sleds Overland In Alaska -- Make 42 Miles In Week./Probably Fly North./Believe Captain Wilkins Will Use Planes To Move Equipment 700 Miles To Point Barrow. plane supplies balked by trail; Snow Motors Unable to Pull Sleds Overland in Alaska—Make 42 Miles in Week. PROBABLY FLY NORTH Believe Captian Wilkins Will Use Planes To Move Equipment 700 Miles to Point Barrow. Nenana, Alaska, Feb. 18. (/P)--Fears were expressed here today that two snow motors traveling down the frozen Tanana river will break through the ice if they continue journeying on the stream. The snow motors pulling 10 sledges of supplies for a transpolar airplane expedition of Captain George H. Wilkins, left Nenana a week ago on a 700-mile trip to Point Barrow on the Arctic ocean. The party was two miles beyond Campbell's roadhouse today, having gained only one mile yesterday. Next Lap Worse Yet. The trip overland from Tanana to the Koyukuk river, the next lap of the expedition, is considered rougher than the trail that has been forsaken. It is a narrow dog trail that has never been used for freighting supplies by any means other than dog team. It is believed here that Captain Wilkins on reaching Seward next week will order the supply party to abandon its enterprise and return to Nenana. In this case the supplies are to be carried to Point Barrow, the expedition's flying base, by airplane. Trail Stops Snow Motors. By Earl Rossman, special correspondent of The Spokesman-Review and the North American Newspaper Alliance, with snow motors division of the Detroit Arctic expedition. Copyright, 1926. Cambell's Trading Post, Tanana river, Feb, 17. (Via Fairbanks February 18).--The snow motor train of the Detroit arctic expedition is lined up on the Tanana river below here tonight, ready for an early start tomorrow morning for Tolovana, 20 miles down the river, on its way to Point Barrow with fuel supplies for the Wilkins transpolar planes. Today was spent in a fruitless attempt to negotiate the overland trial from here to Tolovana, an attempt which resulted in damage to the sleds and the two snow motors and the return to the river ice after the train had covered three miles of the roughest ground imaginable and then returned to Campbell's. Crashing through brush and bumping over "niggerheads," frozen clumps of tundra grass and earth, one of the motors broke another main front casting, which was repaired on the trial, and the second motor had casting cracked. Forced Back to River. A. Malcolm Smith, leader of the party, ordered the return to the river in order to save gasoline, time and the equipment. One of the sleds was broken en route and there are now nine in the train. The party reached Campbell's at 2 p. m. yesterday, after covering 12 miles in six hours. Three hours then were occupied in getting the convoy from the river to the mainland trail. The seven of us worked like Trojans, hauling on or two sleds at a time up the 20 percent grade to the top of the 15-foot bank and chopping trees through the woods to the trail. This morning we set out at 6 o'clock. At noon we had made only three miles and had abandoned three of the sleds. When starting its train each snow motor backs up and then starts forward quickly, the jerk loosening the frozen runners of the sleds in the snow one at a time. This is sometimes repeated five or six time before the load gets under way. Meanwhile, each time the train backs up the sleds telescope upon one another. All the men in the party are well.