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Sweltman's Gold Mine
Hope, Alaska
Got your attention with the gold mine title, didn’t I.
We dropped anchor at the Williwaw Campground in Chugach National Forest. The area is north of Anchorage, but nestled in the mountains. As in all the campgrounds, there is the mandatory BEWARE OF BEARS, YOU ARE IN BEAR COUNTRY, and various instructions for your reaction if you stumble upon a random bear. Although skeptical, I always take these warnings to heart; after all, we are in the land of grizzlies and brown bears and black bears, oh my. The usual unpacking and settling always comes immediately after finding our site. Barry this time decided to take a nap, and I wanted to walk. Not a real hike, just a little walk-about. I circled the perimeter of the campground and saw a whole bunch of animal trails. Some were barely visible, just mashed down grass. I could hear running water so I took one of the most worn paths. It took me out to a boardwalk that was a trail to the visitor’s center in one direction, and the salmon fishing platform in the other direction. I just bounced along for a couple of minutes all by myself, no one in hearing distance and suddenly stopped. I knew there were bears around the camp - one had been spied that very morning. Back to the RV I went, hippity hoppity. Barry was still napping, so I picked up my bells and whistles, the bear spray can and my hiking stick. I was all set now! Bring ‘em on! Before I got out the door, Barry awakened and decided to come with me. We didn’t get far before we ran into Phyllis and Larry (PaL). We talked about happy hour and went on our way. Somehow I didn’t’ get back to the boardwalk. I really had wanted to see the salmon by the viewing platform. Oh well.
While I’m thinking about it, I want to say a word out the Alaska Visitors’ Centers. Each is a wealth of information and education. Each focuses on that region. I could spend days in each one. They are so thorough in the information about that region. None are redundant, but they overlap to give you a sense of continuity. They have plenty of staff, both rangers and volunteers to answer any question. Just great. Kudos to the state for funding these centers of learning. They also typically have terrific videos shot and produced by National Geographic. I feel like I have been right on the scene with their videos they are so stunning and encompassing. The Visitors’ Center at Portage Glacier had been planned and built for optimal visuals of the glacier. Theatre watching this spellbinding video and when it ends the curtains draw back and you’re looking out a window the size of the theatre curtain. What you see is the vision of what was Portage Glacier.. In the design of the Center, the calculations were that the Glacier would be visible from there until 2020. Unfortunately the glacier has shrunk out of sight. You do get a very beautiful view of a smaller glacier and snow covered mountains.
Williwaw proved to be a very underestimated stop. We had thought maybe a hike or two, loll around in the shade of the beautiful forest for a couple of nights. Surprise!!!! PaL took a trip to crow’s creek Gold Mine. They got the mandatory schpeel about panning gold, then were give here to their pans and shovels and shown where to look. Phyllis said it was back breaking. You leaned over a stream of water hour after hour hoping for that one little flake! They managed to find several slivers, but when Phyllis reach to get hers at the end of the day - the container was tipped over and the gold was gone. WHAT A BUMMER! Larry managed to get out with a few specks of gold dust. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Barry was loading up on information about local towns, Hope and Whittier.
Yesterday we struck off for Hope, Alaska. What a charming little village. Its total population is 200, but we didn’t see more then 50 people and that was including the other tourists! We amused ourselves by walking around taking in the old log cabins built by gold miners decades ago. Then WE struck gold. We happened on this one area, sort of self enclosed with several different kinds of log edifices. As we poked around, an old gentlemen walked out of one of the cabins and took us on a guided tour of the little compound. His name was Bill Miller, he was 81 years old and had a very personal stake in the old buildings. He personally ,moved the building from a site that had been racked by earthquakes and tsunamis then abandoned. Some he had to disassemble altogether and rebuild entirely. It was just Bill and a youngster that was working with the rangers at the time. He had a story about each nook and cranny of each old building. There was a barn, a blacksmith’s shop, an building that the troops in WWII had used. In that particular building Bill had established what he called an Army Room!
Old Bill Had been in the Korean Conflict. He was right up there in the front lines when the Chinese poured all the manpower into the North Korean fight. He had plenty of stories, and didn’t mind telling them all. In his Army Room he had his old Eisenhower jacket, his pistol, his clip belt, boots, files and God knows what else! finally at the end of his tour Barry asked him a few questions. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew we were back in the truck headed for an old gold mine!
We still had to get out of Hope, by the way. We took one of those roads less traveled which took us into the jungle around Hope! I suddenly yelled “Moose, stop” and everybody piled out of the truck. There she was just behind an old wooden rail fence with two moose calves! She was almost in our face. Our shutters were just clicking away when she decided she’d had enough and charged us stopping right at the fence and turning toward her calves. It never dawned on me what was going on until we were back in the truck! Holey Moley, she could have just walked through that fence if she had wanted to. We would all be packed and shipped around as moose’s’ burgers (they don’t waste ANYTHING up here). That’s the truth. If you kill an animal, you are obligated by law to report it immediately so the folks that do it can come harvest the meat! They cook it up and serve it at soup kitchens and such. That’s hundreds of pounds of meat, you know. You do what you have to do. Eeehhhhh.
We did get out of Hope alive, of course, or you wouldn’t be reading this. The adventure REALLY began looking for the gold mine. We drove and drove and drove up the side of a mountain on a road that was gravel and had no shoulders. It offered no hope if you slipped off the road, cause it fell straight down. By this time we were above the tree line and eye to eye with huge patches of snow. Old Bill had said it was past the Cour d’Alene Campground. We didn’t see anything that would translate into a campground until we became aware of these little scratched out spots with timbers buried just before you’d fall over the mountainside. Could those be boon docking spaces? We kept seeing them - very, very few and far between so by this time the majority of us decided Cour d’Alene Campground was spread out all over the mountainside. Wow, how spooky. But then the road ended, and a rough hiking trail resumed. Out we all piled and readied ourselves for a little hike! We hiked up and up and around and around over streams alongside creeks until I was sure I was showing signs of High Altitude Illness. Then suddenly, the trail sort of stopped. Well it stopped because there was a creek too wide to hike across without waders. It resumed beyond the water. We looked around, and yes there were some signs of SOMETHING have been there. An old the tin roof of a building, various pipes and implements, someone’s old water heater (!), and a substantial white cross that someone had try to set ablaze with stones around it. Okay, dokey. We took lots of pictures, peered closely in every trickle of water, turned over lots of stones, but alas, we found no gold.
…..sigh. I had so hoped!. With that, we motored back to the homestead!
I was so tired, I had to wind things up and go to bed!! Barry, on the other hand was ready to tie up one loose end…a trip to Whittier. He and PanL went and a lot of driving to and fro. I was asleep when they got back. Whittier, evidently, was a non-town still on the map. Pictures will tell it all. It’s on to Talkeetna in the AM, so for now
That’s it from the MABarry - over and out!
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