Northwest History. Alaska, United States.

Monument Pays Horses Tribute. MONUMENT PAYS HORSES TRIBUTE SKAGWAY, Alaska.—"The dead are speaking," one reads on a monument set high on the mountainside as he goes over the trail of '9S, Skagway to Carcross, in Yukon territory. It is a monument at Dead Horse Gulch, erected by the pio...

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Bibliographic Details
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1937
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Online Access:http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/92170
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Summary:Monument Pays Horses Tribute. MONUMENT PAYS HORSES TRIBUTE SKAGWAY, Alaska.—"The dead are speaking," one reads on a monument set high on the mountainside as he goes over the trail of '9S, Skagway to Carcross, in Yukon territory. It is a monument at Dead Horse Gulch, erected by the pioneers of the golden norlh and the Alaska- Yukon trail hikers, to the 3000 horses that died at this place. The monument overlooks the White Pass City that, was a stopping place for gold seekers, now abandoned. Through the canyon walls one catches a glimpse of lovely Lynn canal, end of the inside passage. Pack Horses "Speak." "In memory of us three thousand pack horses that laid our bodies on these awfull hills during the gold rush of 1897-1898 we now thank those listening souls that heard our groans across the stretch of years," th* monument, reads. For nine miles of the While Pass, teams were used in moving freight. But beyond that, the trail would scarcely give a horse passage. Men who knew nothing whatever of how to pack a horse so that the load would stay on, were blind to the sufferings caused by the friction of the pack. Many o.' the horses died of starvation, and were tossed into the gulch below. Horses that stumbled and broke their legs on this rough trail were shot, and they, too, went down into the eulch.—The Detroit News.