(a continuation from an earlier post) A Journey to the Interior of the Kenai Peninsula With Antique Real Photo Postcards Our visit to the Hope-Sunrise area was rife with exploration ! Hope had a social hall and there were dances when the miners were in town and that’s where we met a Mr. John Hirshey. He invited us to see his mine at the end of a long beautiful valley where Palmer Creek is nee in the mountains. It was an arduous trip but he dreams big of a road one day to ease the burden. As the saying goes the heart of a prospector beats forever hopeful ! We met another miner named Harry Johnson prospecting Abernathy Creek and journeyed with him alongside the ever-rushing Resurrection Creek. It was as beautiful in this section of mountains as the Hirshey mine and we reasoned these men were here for the love of the land over the draw of the gold. Harry told us tales of the rugged interior of the Kenai Peninsula from his trapping days and secrets of how to access it and from the intriguing description he gave we had to see it ourselves ! Boarding the very next boat at the Sunrise dock and with a pinch of good luck we eventually steamed into the quiet serenity of Resurrection Bay. We found a boarding room to let for a few nights while we explored this new town of Seward and walking down a dusty Fourth Avenue discovered the Brown and Hawkins store. To our good fortune Mr. Charles Brown we saw in the bidarki earlier was there! Outfitting us with the appropriate gear for our next adventure he talked boldly about the town of Seward and the opportunities for a young man to make a good start in life. Through his words we could envision the dog teams from the Iditarod picking up freight and dropping off gold right beside us ! Mr. Brown told us of prospectors and their dogs loaded down with equipment ready for the summer trail. There was no doubt of potential fortune here…with the new railroad being built and Seward as a deep water port for passengers and freight this was indeed a hopping little place on the Kenai Peninsula. On the day of the start inland we followed the advice of Harry Johnson and caught a ride on the train shuttling a work party to the uncompleted tracks. A copy of the Seward Daily Gateway newspaper was shared among the passengers and through it we discovered the Princess May had gone upon the rocks near Kodiak. The waters of Alaska are perilous and many a ship seeking to tame them has met its fate in the salty brine. As we crossed the Snow River the crew told us were approaching our departure point at Kenai Lake where the train stop was located and a lady that went by the name Alaska Nellie was our hostess. What a character she turned out to be a better cook and more entertaining hostess may not exist on the Kenai Peninsula ! Alaska Nellie assisted in appropriating a guide to lead us down the waterway of the Kenai River drainage across the Kenai Peninsula as there were no roads. Andy Simons was to be our skipper. His reputation as a big game guide on the Kenai Peninsula was stellar and his knowledge of the lakes and rivers renowned. Andy secured a power boat to tow our oar operated river boat across the lengthy Kenai Lake. Here we left company of the power boat and Andy began to row. Andy soon stopped at a place that went by the name of Cooper Landing and we met the Towle family that settled here and showed us their unusual garden. While we were there another settler of this area named Jack Lean went by in his boat. After visiting it was time for us to depart and we went downriver further. At a place Andy called Cooper Creek we went ashore and climbed the mountain to a mine operated by the Kenai Mining and Milling Company. Here they were diverting water into a flume for hydraulic mining for gold. Back on the oars again Andy led us on the amazing journey through river rapids and on through the Kenai River Canyon to the great Skilak Lake. Rowing across the lake and on to the river again we began the last leg of the trip through this vast untamed wilderness and just days after we had began the major drainage of the Peninsula deposited us at the quiet village of Kenai at Cooks Inlet shore. It was here we began to contemplate where on this wonderful Kenai Peninsula did we belong, where did we fit in ? We decided we loved it all and no matter where we were we could indeed call it home.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 02:49:33 +0000
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