As the wagon rounded another bend, the wide rock-strewn area lay before them. They began crossing the fan of a flood plain. All the rocks were a rusty color. Henry pointed toward a ridge ahead. Because of its color, the barracks blended in with the surrounding rock amazingly well. Then they saw it. “That’s it? It looks as if it’s growing out of the side of the mountain, like it belongs there. That’s a long way up there, Henry.”
“Doesn’t it? We still have a distance to go to reach it.” Henry stopped the wagon while a large porcupine worked its way across the trail. They heard rocks crashing in the distance. “The earth around these parts is noisy. Rocks are always falling up there. It’s amazing that there are any hills left at all considering all the erosion going on.” They had a clear view up a wide gulch with a rapid incline leading toward the large rock glacier. The sound of rocks falling stopped. Then it started again. The ice fall came into view as the wagon left the Amazon flood plain. This was a massive, irregular, white wall reaching thousands of feet upwards from the head of Root Glacier to a point well above the height of the northwesterly-running ridge ending at Erie. “This is it. Look at that tram line,” Henry said. It was a gas motor-powered tram serving as the supply line. Reminiscent of the Green Butte tram, the men could barely see the covered adit near the head of the waste ore dump. A snowshed extended from the adit to a small building near the barracks. The waste ore dump was a huge light-colored rubble pile extending from the tram base nearly to the adit over a thousand feet above. Henry jumped off the wagon and grabbed the phone at the tram terminal. He spoke a few words into it and then turned to the two Indians.
“We have to sling this wagon load of material up this tram line.” Henry pulled the tarp back. “See the black rolls? That’s the tar paper you’ll be working with. You two will be applying it to the building exterior and the new part of the roof. I also brought the lathe sticks and three buckets of nails. Help me unload all this off the wagon. Then we can begin making up the slings to send it all off. Once we have it all up there, I’ll send you two, and then I’ll be on my way. ” “I sure hope they have some kind of lunch up there ready for us. We’ll be ready for it by the time we unload all this material. Johnny, let’s rush this us, I want to eat.” “You’re not the only one, Cap. Henry, you didn’t tell us we’d be doing this. When did you have time to load it all?” “I had the men load it up early this morning. It didn’t take as long as you’d think. There’s more material up there, but Chris wanted to make sure you didn’t run short of supplies.” “He could have at least sent lunch.” “Sorry, guys. You know how it goes Loading and unloading is my business. If you’re around me, expect to work hard. “We want to send the entire load up first, or else every hundred feet it will stop and leave you dangling out there while the men above unload the freight.” Henry called the tram tender on the head end and the three of them watched as the load advanced in stages until all of it was finally clear of the tram. “Now it’s your turn.” “What about you? Don’t you want lunch?” “Brought my own. I’ll eat on the way back. So who’s going first?” “I always let Johnny go first,” Cap said. Johnny pulled himself into the next empty ore bucket on the seventy-degree angle line, then Henry advanced the tram just like a clothesline until the next bucket was in line for Cap. He signaled to the top one last time. The tram began to work its way up. Cap looked back as Henry waved them off. The two of them were dangling close to the steep cliff, rising steadily to the tram head. As they approached the top, Henry and his wagon turned and left. The ice fall disappeared behind the ridge as the tram continued up into the gulch advancing toward the Erie main portal level. Cap’s bucket stopped, causing it to swing, dangling him a thousand feet above the ground. He looked up. Johnny was out of sight. He was being helped off the ore bucket.
The tram head was next to a small transformer station at the head of the power line. At the platform were other buildings covered with tarpaper and lath sticks. Cap saw the portal to the north, but he was much more interested in the mess hall to the south, which was in the unfinished forty man barracks. Johnny helped him off at the top and pointed toward the rear barracks door. “You don’t need to tell me where the food is, Johnny. I can smell it from here. Let’s eat.” The path to the barrack was an elevated, covered wooden walkway, open except for a railing on both sides. The distance to the tram base was about the same as that at Green Butte, but the angle of the tram was steeper. The tram motor operator directed the two newcomers inside. “The lunch room is in the barrack. You’ll find food set out. We’ve been expecting you. Aren’t one of you the boxing champ? Everyone heard about that.” “That’s me. I’m Cap. I just want to eat.” “Great to meet you, Cap. See the boss inside. He’s waiting.” Cap looked across toward Donohoe Peak across the glacier gorge to the immediate southwest. Erie was truly an eagle’s nest with a magnificent view. “I thought the view at the top of Green Butte was something. I’ve never seen anything like this before--not where someone has built a full-sized camp anyway.”
“What do you suppose was the meaning of those four ravens, Cap.” “Saghanni ggaay. I’d forgotten about them, Sla’cheen. Look ! They’re still out there.” There they were. Four ravens were riding the top of a cold mass of air right in front of Erie. “They’re not for us, Sla’cheen. But something bad is going to happen. When four of them fly together like that, it always means something engii. “As long as they don’t land here, we’re okay.” The high circular path of the ravens worked its way south toward Kennecott. “That’s good, Cap. For a moment I thought they’d start landing on the power lines above us. Let’s forget them and get some lunch. It’s too high up here to start thinking engii.” |
06 February 2011
Chapter 28: "Reassignment to Erie-1924," Pt 2
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