Northwest History. Alaska. Explorers, Exploration & Discoveries.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1932
• Subjects: Philadelphia; Alaska; Mrs. Edward M. Biddle; Katishna county; Nenana; mail service; Fannie and Joe Quigley; Mount McKinley; reindeer moss; Ptarmigan; Mike Cooney; Materialism; Siberian huskies; remuneration; Porcupine river territory; Fairbanks; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Patience; Quigley; alaska range; Porcupine River; Huskies
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90935

Society Queen Braves 60 Below: Mrs. Edward Biddle Of Philadelphia Hits Trail./Likes Hardships./Sees Game In Myriads -- Finds Men Of Alaska Most Gallant. SCOIETY QUEEN BRAVES 60 BELOW Mrs. Edward Biddle of Philadelphia Hits Trail. Likes Harships. Sees Game In Myriads -- Finds Men of Alaska Most Gallant. Mrs. Edward M. Biddle, Philadelphia society woman, has just emerged from three snowbound months in the remote Katishna wilderness in Alaska, where she went to get material for a book. She writes here of her experience. (Copyright, 1932, by The Spokesman-Review and North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) NENANA, Alaska, April 3.—I have just completed what was to have been a four weeks' trip in the savage Katishna country, but the four weeks materialized into three months of hardship and cruel cold, though an experience I shall never regret. Only now I have finished 140 miles of trail in three days,~a distance that required 13 days going in. Owing to the particularly severe winter and the discontinuance of dog team mail service no trails were open. Each mile had to be broken with snowshoes before dogs could move the sled. One night we found the temperature at 60 degrees below zero. I spent six weeks at the cabin of Fannie and Joe Quigley, veteran sourdoughs. Much of that time was put in climbing what, in Alaska, they call hills, but what many of us in the States regard as mountains. They are foothills of the Alaska range. Mount McKinley lay 30 miles away. Its great majesty seemed to dominate our very lives. Sees Game in Big Herds. Herds of caribou continually passed over the hills. For three weeks more than 1000 grazed behind our cabin, digging through three feet of show for reindeer moss. Several times we got within 50 feet of them to take photographs. Moose traveled continually up and down the creek below us. Wolves made their kill in the night, and in the morning we found the bodies. Big flocks of ptarmigan fed in the willows. In more than 100 square miles of this country there are perhaps 35 trappers and prospectors, with, to my knowledge, only three women. All kindness and good will were shown me. Trader Is Gallant. An instance was the offer made by a trader, after I had waited three weeks for Mike Cooney, Alaska musher. to finish his freighting and take me out. When, owing to terrible weather, Cooney failed to show up, this trapper offered me three of his four dogs to come out with. Considering the importance of dogs in the life of a man in this country, and the fact that the trapper who made the offer would not see his dogs again until he came out by water after the ice break-up in May, I regard his generosity as one of the most gracious gestures I have ever experienced. Materialism does not cut a figure in this country. At no time was I allowed to make remuneration in cash for all I received. Richly Rewarded. Aside from the fact that my weather-imposed blockade deprived me of a longer trip into the Porcupine river territory, I do not at all regret having delved into the mysteries of running a trap line, including the trapping of beaver under ice. All these things were a reward in themselves for the three months, during which I saw only five persons until my last three weeks at Diamond trading post, where I met trappers as they came in from the creeks with their winter catch in fur. Driver and Dogs Wonders. Mike Cooney's 22 Siberian huskies and Cooney's handling of the team in excruciating weather conditions are alone a story. My admiration for his endurance arid patience knows no bounds. I have seen Alaska in the grip of the cruelest winter on record at the weather bureau in Fairbanks. It surpassed my expectations both in beauty and the way of life, and I am content.