Looking over the ruined generators and turbines on the site of the burned-out power plant, July 1924: in the background are some of the north Kennecott cottages that were built in 1914
Chitina Local No. 71 was steaming up in preparation for pulling out of Kennecott with the usual load of thirty-five cars of bagged ore and a Pullman combination passenger and baggage coach up front. It was late in October. The snow which sat for three weeks at the level of Jumbo had finally dropped 4,000 feet down to Kennecott. At first it was just a light dusting, but a snow squall moved in to reinforce the first light layer. The storm began to intensify as morning moved toward the afternoon. It began to turn dark earlier than usual. The spectacular view of the nearby glacier dimmed until only a hint of the enormous mounds could be seen. At the front of the Pullman combine was the baggage compartment. On its floor sat the coffin of the late Emil Gadanski, father of Johnny, the son who stood on the high coach floor just inside the open sliding door.
A large group of men from the many crews of the lower camp, as well as several of the engineers from the office staff stood near the tracks in front of the west barrack and company store in a silent tribute to the man who had worked at Kennecott since the railroad arrived in 1911. It was thirteen years later. In those few years, only a handful could claim to have been at camp from the very beginning. A man who had become well known among the mill site crews was taking his final journey home to Chitina, accompanied by a son and an in-law who had worked a brief time with him as his life came to a close in this remote camp of the lower slopes of the Wrangells. The group had assembled on a very short notice. Johnny Gadanski wanted to leave immediately, but Bill Douglass held up the train long enough for the group to perform a small memorial ceremony at the station for a man who was very well liked. John Bittner played Amazing Grace on his trumpet, causing all the women present and several of the men to break down. Johnny was moved by this unexpected show of emotion for this man who was his father. He would leave seeing these residents of Kennecott in a much different light. The group was saying goodbye to one of their own. The camp always rallied behind its own. It was a temporary camp. Yet it had a permanent look. The people who lived there became one large family. It was the odd magic of Kennecott which united them. Superintendent Douglass and Frank Buckner had come down to the front of the train to see the late Emil off and to say farewell to Johnny and Cap. Even Bill Morris and Eldon Johnson had come down from the mines to pay their respects. Chris Jensen came over to shake the hand of Johnny and say a few words of remembrance for Emil, who had worked under him, as well as some words of appreciation to the son who was now there to escort the body to its final resting place. Johnny asked Frank to send a telegraph to McCarthy to alert Rose that he would be coming through. He hoped to convince her to accompany him to Chitina. The air turned even colder as the glacier valley darkened. Heavy, fresh, wet snow began to whip around, splattering everything. Engine 71 built up a large head of steam and blasted a single, loud whistle signal. The crowd backed away from the rails as the locomotive began to pull forward, its valves steaming loudly as it strained against the nearly 4000-ton load. There were no other passengers aboard. The coach attendant moved to the separate passenger area, as Johnny and Cap stood at the open cargo door, waving at Frank Buckner, Bill Douglass, Chris Jensen and all the others who stood by until the train moved out of sight, while the others began returning to the warmth of the various buildings. It was becoming too nasty to remain outdoors. The attendant returned to the front and closed the first of the two cargo doors. Cap closed the second, snapping the latch into its locked position. They moved to the stove in the baggage compartment, but it was cold. “The stove in the rear is hot. You might as well come on back, boys. You’ve already done your part up here. It’s too cold here for the living.” The Indians walked all the way to the rear of the fifty-five foot-long coach. The train had begun its 600-foot descent into McCarthy. It would arrive in a matter of minutes. The Indians warmed their hands with the heat of the coal pot-belly stove. “I never thought I’d see anything like this, Cap. They came out in the cold to see Dad off. It made me feel very special to be a part of what just happened back there. Those people were genuine. I feel humbled.” “They do come together for one of their own, don’t they? It’s hard not to be affected by what just happened. It was good to be there. Thank you for this experience, Sla’cheen. We did what we said we would.” “I wish we could have brought Dad back to Chitina alive so Mom could have taken care of him, like we planned. We stayed too long. No one seemed to realize just how sick he was. I think he knew when he talked to me over the phone that last time, but he wanted me to stay on at Erie. What do you make of that, Cap?”
“Sla’cheen, his real home was not Chitina. It was Kennecott. He died where he wanted to die. He never wanted to leave there. It was his choice. We’re taking him to our home because it makes us feel better, but your father is already home.” Cap looked in the direction of the glacier, but saw nothing but snow swirling as the winds continued to swirl the snow around in no particular direction. The first snow storm of the season seemed to be an unusually large one. “It seems to fit, Johnny. It’s the sloo-elth’chee--the wind coming off the glacier. It’s as if the Great Creator himself is greeting your father.” He remained silent for the remainder of the brief trip into the junction. “It is our time to go. We made our point just as we set out to do. We even had a good time doing it. I may return someday. But this is not my life. It was just an experience. It will be good to be home again.” Johnny did not reply. Cap continued. “What about Rose? Do you think she’ll be coming along?” “Who knows? I want her to come with me back to Chitina. We’ll have time to leave the train at McCarthy and check on her anyway. I have a dog to pick up. I hope Kay-yew-nee is still there.” “Oh that’s right. Yew nee! I’ll bet he wondered what happened to us. I’d like to use him on my trap line this winter.” “Why don’t you do that, Cap? The dog likes the wilds better than being in town anyway. He’s just like you. Wild, but solid and reliable.” There was no more conversation until the train reached Shushanna Junction near McCarthy. Both young men stood up, straining to see ahead beyond the blowing snows toward the station platform. Sure enough, the lean dark figure of Rose was there, well dressed with a large hat held in place by a bandanna. Right beside her was the Siberian mutt, happily waving his tail with his ears straight up in eager anticipation. It was as if he knew his old masters were returning. Johnny and Rose hugged for a long time on the platform and then kissed while Cap idly played with the dog. Cap was hoping this would not go on too long. He wanted to get on with the trip. He hoped that he would not end up overnight in McCarthy simply because Rose was unable to make up her mind about leaving with Johnny. He began to feel a sense of despondency. He knew that after he arrived at Chitina, the long standing team would finally end. Cap found himself already regretting something which had not yet happened. Maybe I better concentrate on doing my winter trapping. If I’m lucky, I’ll find one of the local girls to come along with me for the winter--maybe Shirley or even Violet. No, not Violet. I’d like to run a trapping line near Tonsina like I did years ago with my father. Haven’t heard anything about him since I left. He must still be in good health. Maybe I’ll stay with him in Tonsina while I’m getting ready to trap. First I’d like to have a good time at the billiards hall. I think I could use a stiff drink. There’s usually good female company in the saloon next door.
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07 February 2011
Chapter 32: "Return to Chitina," Pt 1
06 February 2011
Chapter 31: "Departing the Camp," Pt 3
Neither Johnny nor Cap had ridden on this type of tram before. The tram operator emphasized the need to duck on approaching the support towers “. . . so as to keep your head from being whacked off.” The aerial tram had a deadly reputation. The trams would kill or injure considerably more men than was ever the case within the underground workings. The tram operator went on with his brief safety lecture.
“People have fallen off or lost their heads or been otherwise mangled so frequently that there were times when management banned the use of the trams by us miners. But this tram and the one at Bonanza are the only practical way to get back and forth. So be very careful out there--and don’t look down. Always look up and foreword, especially near the tram towers.” He ushered them aboard, one at a time. Johnny was the first one on. Frank was the last. The operator separated the empty buckets by only one hundred feet. When the buckets left the 1,800 tunnel, the tram line immediately passed through a long, heavily reinforced timber breakover. Once the riders were free of the break-over, they had a brief glimpse of the three main barracks lined up in a crooked row as they overlooked the Jumbo rock glacier. The cables inclined slightly as they passed over the rock glacier, thus allowing this brief view. Johnny sunk down low into his bucket, pulling his heavy woolen Hudson Bay blanket around himself. It was very brisk out in the open. Then he realized it was bright white everywhere. The snow which fell over the Jumbo mine site three weeks ago was still there. He looked back, noticing the row of three narrow, two-story frame structures. They appeared to be leaning slightly in the direction of the glacier. There were several smaller structures on the slopes above them. He turned completely around. There was Castle Rock, lightly capped in bright white snow a thousand feet above the camp. The skies were turning gray, and the wind was picking up. His steel bucket began swinging as it was hit by a series of heavy gusts, giving him a sudden case of nervousness. One-hundred feet back he saw Cap’s bucket emerge from the break-over. Cap waved and smiled. Johnny felt better. Then the tram took a sudden, heart-stopping dip into a very sharp decline as it began a rapid descent through a narrow opening between two peaks on its way toward the Junction Station, about 8,000 feet down the line from Jumbo. Johnny felt his stomach drop out of himself as his bucket took that quick plunge. Knowing he shouldn’t, he closed his eyes. Fearing sudden death more than the heights, Johnny opened his eyes in time to see that his bucket was on the path of an enormously steep drop-off heading through a series of wooden towers. He didn’t feel so brave today. Below him the snow cover had given way to bare rock. The men would leave the small ore buckets at the mid-point of station no. 3, then take another set of buckets for the remainder of the ride to the mill base. The Glacier tram intersected the Jumbo tram at the station. During most of the 1920s, low-grade ore came down the Glacier tram from the Glacier surface mine during the summertime. The Glacier Mine was an open-pit operation. William Douglass decided to run a Bagley scraper during the three warm months to remove ore which had eroded from the high-grade Bonanza outcropping a thousand feet above the rock glacier. The ore had fallen away from its exposed southern end, which was revealed within the high wall of an old glacial cirque. The copper was mixed with broken host-rock limestone and the ice of a rapidly melting mountain glacier hundreds of feet below. It was this exposed ore which Smith and Warner first discovered a quarter century before, naming it the Bonanza.
Altogether it was a forty-five minute ride to the tram base at the top of the mill. The party arrived one-by-one on the large loading dock near the top of the mill on the twelfth level. The Chitina Indians had never been through the mill. They stood waiting on the landing until Frank’s bucket arrived. He led them toward the front end of the mill where the steep stairway followed a winding route to the Hancock Jig floor, six levels below. This was the center-point of the mill. The Hancock Jig extended out of the long south-face of the mill as an annex. It had a double-door exit with a machine hoist and an exterior stairway leading straight down to the office. The sidewalk continued past the office to the hospital. Frank watched as the two Indians continued on to the hospital. Seeing no reason to follow the two into the hospital, Frank returned to the office. He told John Bittner to begin filling out the paperwork discharging the two men. He heard the phone ring in the next office. The young receptionist came out to Bittner’s window near the main door. “Frank, you better head down there to the hospital to help. Emil has already passed away. Doctor Gillespie tells me that Johnny is beside himself.” Frank sat down for a few moments to fully catch his breath. It had been a record-breaking trip from Erie to the office. Frank looked at his watch. They had made the trip all the way from Erie in barely more than an hour, but they had arrived too late. Now it was left to Frank to somehow comfort Johnny. “Why me ? I’m an engineer.” “You’re their sponsor. You’ve been their friend from the beginning. You took on the responsibility yourself. Now, you’re the one who has to see this through.” It was Bill Douglass’s voice. “Son, I know you’ve been through this before as an officer. You can manage it. Go down there and see what needs to be done. You’ll do the right thing. You’ll do fine.” Russell had slipped quietly down the narrow stairwell from the map room above. “I don’t envy you, Frank. Sorry you had to rush back under these circumstances. Good luck down there.” “Thanks, Russell. When is the Chitina Local leaving?” Bill Douglass spoke up. “We won’t make it today, even though Chris Jensen already has a casket made up. Their Dad’s room at west barrack is available for them. We’ll have to put them up there until tomorrow’s train.” “I’ll walk over there with them, boss.” “Did they bring back their belongings from camp?” “Yes sir. All they have is their bedrolls. They’re Hudson Bay blankets. I think that’s all they brought to Kennecott when they first got here.” Frank stepped outside and noticed that Old Glory was whipping around angrily. It had turned from mildly windy to dark gray and gusty. A movement caught his eye. He looked up above the roof line of the hospital. Four very large ravens were circling high above the hospital, riding the first cold winds of a rapidly approaching winter.
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Chapter 31: "Departing the Camp," Pt 2
Frank walked down the hall of the old building. It was one of the two oldest on the site and was primitive, dark and drafty. The engineers and foremen maintained offices and rooms there. Several years ago the company moved most of the men in the much newer and larger Barracks No. 4. The management and support staff remained in the oldest building. Frank walked down the narrow hallway with the creaking floor to the office in a front corner looking toward the aerial tram. Bill Morris was seated at his large desk examining one of Frank’s engineering drawings.
“Frank. I was just looking at these. It sure doesn’t look like much after what we’re used to here at Jumbo, does it?” “No. There’s not really much out there, Bill. I’ll probably want your men to run some prospect tunnels into each one of them, starting with this third one. It looks like the most promising of the four. “Bill, I got a phone call from the office. I need the battery locomotive ready. Could you call down there and have it waiting for me at the landing? I’m heading to the incline now. Have to go over to the Erie side and bring back the Indians.” “It’s over?” “Looks like it to me, Bill. I’m escorting them back to camp. Emil’s probably not going to make it.” It took ten minutes for Frank to reach the 1,500 level of the Jumbo incline. The operator stood ready with the new rechargeable Westinghouse locomotive pulling five large, empty ore cars. It took another twelve minutes to reach the Erie incline close to the main portal of the camp. Johnny and Cap were working down the new incline near the 300 level where one of the tunnels led to an adit at the surface on a high cliff above Root Glacier. The tunnel opening kept the area well ventilated. Like the other inclines, this one had a stairwell compartment paralleling a set of thirty-inch skip tracks. It proved to be quite a long run down the stairs to the working level at its base. Eldon Johnson was near the landing, supervising the incline extension work crew. “Frank, what a surprise to see you here. Thought you’d be working up on the main level in the new prospect area. Is there a problem?” “Actually, Eldon, there is. I need to have you release Johnny Gadanski and Cap Goodlataw for me. I’ve come to notify him that his father is very ill. We don’t expect him to last. I imagine both he and Cap will be leaving the job for the season under these circumstances. I’ll be escorting them out of here.” “Sorry about Emil. I’ve heard many good things about him, though I don’t personally know the man. I regret even more that we’ll probably lose two of my best men. Oh well, these things happen. I’ll summon them for you and let you tell them.” Eldon turned and headed farther into the darkness of the shaft. Somewhere out of Frank’s sight he could hear Eldon yell out for the two. Like the other miners and muckers, these men were dressed in heavy work clothing and rubber boots suitable for the deep mining environment with its below-freezing temperatures and constant winds running throughout the tunnels. With the helmets they were wearing and the light-colored grime covering them, they were indistinguishable from anyone else in the workings.
“Hello, guys. I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, Johnny, but your father has turned gravely ill. Doctor Gillespie does not expect him to last much longer. The suddenness of it is a surprise to all of us. He’s having extreme trouble breathing. We don’t think he’ll leave the hospital alive.” Johnny stared at Frank, his mouth slowly opening, then he darted straight for the incline shaft, not waiting for Frank. Cap followed. As he brushed past the engineer, he yelled back. “Bastards, you should have told me sooner.” Eldon emerged from the darkness. “We’ll take care of the paperwork at the office. I’m quite sure they won’t be back. I’ve got a long run back up those stairs to catch up with them. They don’t know how to get back to camp the fast way.” Frank rushed back up the incline stairs. Somewhere far ahead he could hear Johnny and Cap running up the thirty-degree shaft toward the main level. It was a long exhausting trek up the new stairwell. Frank sprinted all the way up. By the time the engineer reached the top, he found the two out of breath at the 100 level landing. “Look, Johnny, no one realized how ill your father is. He was still working a few days ago. Then he told us he needed to take some time off. It never occurred to anyone to have him checked. When someone finally found him in his room we rushed him over to the hospital.” Cap, standing behind Johnny, looked toward Frank and signaled with a silent okay sign. Johnny looks very depressed. He seems to have lost his energy. As usual, the two balance each other well. Johnny is far more subject to stress than Cap, I would guess. Cap seems to serve as a buffer to Johnny. Similarly, I’ve seen Johnny hold Cap back from engaging in an unnecessary confrontation with some of the loudmouths we occasionally have working here. “Look, you guys, leaving the mining outfits in the changing room, then get your gear together. I’ll return with you to camp. The fastest way back is not the way you arrived here over the glacier trail. I’ve already got a mine locomotive standing by at the Erie portal. Those iron rails your sitting on that head into the darkness away from Erie extend all the way to the Jumbo incline and beyond. We’ll ride them and hoist to the surface and then ride the aerial tram back down to Kennecott.” Cap looked puzzled. He had never heard of underground locomotives. No one on the present crew had ever seen it. The battery-powered engine would soon begin making regular runs once the Erie incline began sending ore to the 100 level. But Cap nodded and followed Johnny toward the barracks rooms. Frank followed. Up ahead, as the tunnel veered left, the line of five cars stood by. The operator had turned the locomotive around and had moved it to the front, so he could use the headlamp for the return trip. Cap and Johnny both stopped long enough to look at the curiosity, then they rushed off to the barrack. The two Indians showed up at Eldon’s office, where Frank patiently waited. They still had light-colored mine dust grime on their faces. Johnny came in and slumped down into the chair. Cap moved in place behind him. “I’m sorry, Frank. I didn’t mean to swear at you like that. I’m sure you can understand. We have our potlatch blankets, which is all we brought with us, and now we need to get back to camp by the fastest way we can. Did you say something to Cap about using the underground locomotive?” “That’s the one you just passed. It’s there just for us, so we can make a fast run to the Jumbo inline, which leads to the surface where an aerial tram will bring us back to camp.” “Then, let’s go.” The two were out the second story door and down the stairs in a flash. They rushed down the covered, elevated board walk for the portal. Inside they passed through a winding corridor, cut very unevenly because it was originally just a prospect hole. The first several hundred feet ran a very crooked line around winzes, raises and prospect drifts before reaching the main haulage tunnel.
The operator waved them aboard. He started to pull out as they boarded, gaining speed until it was silently racing down the long quiet tunnels. The company still had not finished installing the overhead lighting on the Erie end of the new cross-cut. The tunnel was illuminated entirely by the large front-facing lamp as it whirred toward the Jumbo incline 1500 level landing. Frank Buckner had been involved in shooting the line for the new cross-cut connection from the Erie 100 level side on the extreme northwest. The tunnel would have been shot in a straight line except for the presence of the Amazon Gulch rock glacier somewhere overhead. To avoid any problems with the natural grinding glacier action, the engineers veered the tunnel north outside the preferred path. This caused the tunnel to temporarily leave the desired level near the contact zone. Finally the tunnel swung back into place. Somewhere directly ahead in the darkness was the Jumbo incline. The top speed of the battery vehicle was just over ten miles per hour. The group arrived at their destination in ten minutes, even though the tunnel seemed to go on and on. “How much farther does it go, Frank?”
“This tunnel ? When we’re done with it, Cap, this tunnel will end on the far side of the ridge. It’ll be over four miles long, coming out somewhere above McCarthy Creek in a place known as Independence Gulch. It’ll be the longest tunnel in Alaska. Frank, like Johnny and Cap, found himself wanting to get out of the mines as quickly as possible. The Jumbo had a very large incline which dwarfed the one being built at Erie. It was double-tracked so it could hoist in balance. This was necessary due to the projected length of the incline, which was expected to continue down another thousand vertical feet, making it the longest of the incline shafts at over a mile in rail distance. That would be an impossibly long run for a single-track system. Even down to the 1,500 level, the run was considered a long one, as it was over half a mile long. With the hoist-in-balance system, one set of loaded ore buckets moved toward the surface while the other set returned to the ore stopes, which was the working area. The special man-skips were in place when the three men arrived. An attendant was on hand to see them aboard.
He signaled the hoist operator 1,550 feet above. It took another ten minutes to reach the surface, which was the 180 level tunnel. The was the new main adit level, where a large conveyor transported the ore from the end of the skip dump to the ore bins at the back end of the top of the aerial tram. The tram terminus had been moved underground in 1919 to protect the men from the heavy winds and extreme cold temperatures at the surface and to otherwise speed up the tram-bucket loading operation. The men off-loaded from the personnel skip at the upper level and followed the ore conveyor belt to a point near the surface where the top of the Jumbo tram was set to haul ore to the mill. Loaded ore buckets were already on the line ahead of them, moving out in two-hundred-foot intervals. It is the weight of those loads which caused the tram to move down at the proper speed of about five miles per hour. An operator waited at the platform to help them on board. |
Chapter 31: "Departing the Camp," Pt 1
The Indian team completed the work on the Erie barracks in five days--well ahead of the time anyone had estimated for completing the work. “It’s over, Cap. Now we have to decide if we’re staying. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to check on Dad. If he’s okay, I want to stay on here for a while.” “I’m ready to work another month here. Maybe more. It’s been easy to live here since I knocked Sharkey down. They’d rather try to beat us on the table. By my count, Sla’cheen, we’re still ahead.” “We’ve got some good competition, but we’re still the team to beat, Cap. Better to be known as billiards champs than as the men to fight. I think they know about your boxing match, even though no one has said anything.” “Maybe it’s better that way.” “I’m going down the hall to Eldon’s office to see if he can phone camp for me. He wants a decision from us tonight, since all we have left to do is disassemble the scaffolding and do the other cleanup work.” “I’ve got this book one of the men loaned me that I want to read tonight. I’ll be here, Sla’cheen.” “Really ? What’ve you got?” “The Iron Trail. It’s about our very own railroad, except the author calls it the Salmon River and Northwestern Railway. Imagine that. We’re so far from anything else, who’d have thought someone would write a novel about our railroad? We’re not even close to Anchorage or Fairbanks or even Juneau.” “Let me see that. Rex Beach? Never heard of him. Hmm . . . it says ‘The raging elements--uncontrollable torrents and massive approaching glaciers--were not the only enemies in Alaska at the turn of the century . . .’ I’ll say. If they only knew. I may have to stick around camp just so I can read this book you borrowed. Got to go see the foreman.” The foreman’s office and adjoining living quarters were on the south end of the building on the same floor. “Johnny ! What can I do for you this evening ? Have you two decided if you want to stay on ?” “Could you get ahold of Dad for me ? I need to know his condition before I decide anything.” “Oh, yes. Certainly. I’ll call down to the office and get back with you. You’ll be in your room ?” “Yes. I’ve got to write a letter to Mom.” “Very fine. I’ll get back to you when I have him on the line.” Johnny returned to the room to find Cap concentrating on the novel. “There don’t seem to be any Indians in this, but I’m working through it anyway. Mostly it seems to take place around the great bridge at forty-nine mile.” “I’m waiting to hear back from Eldon. He’s phoning down to the office to see if someone can find Dad.”
He sat down on his lower bunk and began to write to Helen Nicolai. Dear Mom, Whoever is reading this, make sure it is brother Charles. This is family business. I know I haven’t written since we arrived at Kennecott. We thought we were leaving, but we have new work at Erie. You don’t want to know. Cap is doing fine. Tell his father Cap is okay. Dad is not doing well at all. I wrote you that he wanted to buy his own cabin. I think he should live with you in grandfather’s old place. He needs you to take care of him. I told him you would. We will bring him back with us when we come home. It should be soon now. Love, your son . . . There was a knock at the door. It was Eldon. “Johnny, I have Frank on the phone. He wants to talk to you.” Johnny hurried the brief distance down the hall to Eldon’s corner office. It contained two desks facing each other. On top of one of them were stacks of flattened engineering drawings of mine workings. The corner windows looked upon Root Glacier and Donohoe Peak, but it was too dark to see anything except the last light in an ever-darkening sky. “Frank, is that you? You have Dad there? Would you put him on ?” “Dad, good to hear your voice. You’re doing fine ? Are you sure ? I’m done with the job here, but . . . Oh, you know already. That’s fine with you ? Will you be okay for a little longer ? Take care of yourself, Dad. We’ll be down soon. I’ll call you again. I already wrote Mom we’re coming home soon.” “He says he’s okay, Mr. Johnson. Says he wants me to continue up here, if that’s what I want. I need to talk with Cap one more time, then I’ll let you know.”
The men had been at work two weeks working in the new Erie incline shaft at the 300 level. Frank Buckner had already been reassigned to the Jumbo to continue his mineral evaluations along the new cross-cut tunnel. He was in barracks No. 2 when the phone call came. “Frank, this is Bill. I have bad news. Emil Gadanski is in the hospital. Gillespie does not expect him to survive. Not much time. Better notify his son immediately. You’ll need to escort him back to camp. Don’t call him, go there and bring him back. Yes, bring Cap too. Thanks, Frank.” |
Chapter 30: "The Erie Job," Pt 2
“I’d say that he’s the real voice of the mine, Sla’cheen. That’s a dangerous man, there. Whatever we do, we need to stay clear of him.” “I think you’re right. He must be the real power around here.” “Where’s Bill? He left already? I thought he wanted to talk.” “He talked. He left.” “Oh. Well, here are the old original plans. As you can see, it was a very small barracks. It looks more suitable for a small family operation than that of Kennecott. The barrack has been enlarged to more than triple its original size. It measures about eighty feet by thirty-two. That’s the widest part on the kitchen end. As you can see, this is no longer a small building.” “This is more of a job than I had imagined. It doesn’t seem to be as large as these plans show it is.” “It’s a substantial building. I wanted you to understand just how big and important your job is here. Now let me show you from these drawings how I want you to proceed.” Eldon carefully laid out his plan for finishing the structure. After he finished the three men climbed up to the roof. The view up there was dramatic. The glacier and ice fall were shockingly close. The effect is dizzying. “I can readily see where some people would become very light-headed from this vantage point. Of course, neither Cap nor I have that problem.” “Well, I do. You can have this job. I’m out of here. See you downstairs.” The Indians took a moment to appreciate the spectacular view, then we went about their business. A sharp gust blew over the roof. It followed the sheer wall from the glacier, much like an ocean wave moving along a shallow sand bar rising out of the water. It sent both men spinning. Cap caught Johnny before he slipped and pulled him down flat. “So much for appreciating the sheer beauty of this place, Cap. This could easily turn into something more like sheer terror. Look at that enormous void in front of us. I don’t feel quite as confident in myself as I did before. What about you, Cap? Cap?” Cap lay on his side on the roof, facing Johnny in silence, looking toward the thousand feet of void. “I thought I’d lost you for a moment, Sla’cheen. You could have rolled off the roof onto the rocks. Not all the way down, I know. But it’s still two stories to those rocks. It could have hurt you badly.” “I’m fine, Cap. I don’t feel so fine. But I’m okay. We can’t let one little gust of wind unnerve us, can we? What do you think Morris and others like him would say if we gave up now? Think they’d ever let any Indians back in here? We’re stuck, Cap. We’re really committed now. You know that. Let’s get ourselves together and start the job.” After taking some time to regain their courage, they began to survey the job. There were large canvass sheets to remove. These were secured by nails and wood strips. “Why do you suppose they didn’t just run the tarpaper while they were up here, Cap? It would have been almost as easy. As it is, there’s a lot of tarp to remove without letting the large pieces turn into wind sails which could pull us off the roof and drop us into that chasm.” “I don’t want to hear any more about that, Sla’cheen.” “Why are you so unnerved, Cap. You’re the one who stopped me from rolling off this roof, remember? I’m fine. You take it easy. We’ll get past this. Looks like two or three days, if weather permits, to run the tar paper rolls and properly secure this roof. Then we’re off of it. “As for the walls, I’d say less than a week to complete that part, including disassembling the scaffolding. Cap, why don’t you go down and begin slinging the tar paper, lath sticks and nails so I can begin hoisting them up.” The sound of the dinner bell interrupted the work. “Should we head down now, Sla’cheen?” “I’ve had enough of this, Cap. Let’s save it for tomorrow. We have enough hoisted up there to give us a good start.” The two came off the single-story ladder to the center door of the main floor. It led directly into the dining area. The two entered the chow line. One of the larger men approached Cap and revealed his bias without leaving any doubt. “This is no place for you sissy siwash boys. They call me Sharkey, because I eat crumbs like you for breakfast. Why don’t you go back to your igloo or teepee where you belong?” Sharkey knocked Cap off his feet. Johnny grabbed Cap, before he landed. Cap recovered his balance and immediately knocked the much larger man to his knees. Johnny looked around quickly to see if he would have to help Cap fight his way out of this. Everyone else stood still, completely stunned. The man jumped uncertainly to his feet, only to find himself once again on the floor. This time he was down on his back. Then came the booming words from Eldon. “Sharkey, you jackass. Hey, guys, these Indians are my men. I hired them. You mess with them, you’ll answer to me. Pick yourself up, Sharkey, and get off my site. I won’t put up with this kind of behavior from anyone. The rest of you men, back off. If any of you have a problem with these two men, you have a real problem with me. Sharkey, you’re fired. Get out of here. I’ll call for a wagon to pick you up. Head down that tram line and start walking back to main camp. Anyone else want to challenge me?” The room was completely silent, as it had been since Cap effortlessly brought Sharkey down twice. Johnny relaxed slightly, hoping that this was going to be the end of it. The other men returned to the food line. One of them walked up to Cap. “Look, I don’t know you or what you’re about. Most of us are not like Sharkey. Don’t think we’re all like that jerk.” Another man came up and reached out to shake Cap’s hand. “I don’t know you either, but you sure can take care of yourself. Let me shake your hand. I’m Avery, glad to meet you. You’re that boxer, aren’t you?” Cap silently nodded, shook Avery’s hand, picked up his tray and joined Johnny in the food line. “I wish I had a chance at him.” “Well, you didn’t Johnny. That one was mine. I guess it was just my turn this time. Maybe next time it will be yours. ” Avery sat next to them. He introduced himself to Johnny. “So where are you guys from?” Cap did not want to talk. Johnny answered. “Cap and I are from Chitina. We’re closely related and have worked together a long time. We resent being told where we’re not welcome since we don’t recall any of our people inviting any of you people up here. We will both be happy if none of you show such disrespect for us again. “One other thing. We’re not here to make friends with anyone. We’re here to work. That’s it. Thank you for telling us that you’re somehow different from Sharkey, but that is something which remains to be seen. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’d like to eat alone. We always eat alone.”
After dinner, the two found themselves assigned to their own room. “These men are not with us, Sla’cheen. “I know. I suspect that many of these men are only dimly aware that they’ve trampled all over Indian ground. Yet they would continue to treat us like we don’t belong here.” “You’re right, Johnny. We’re not here to make friends.” “You made the point for both of us, Cap.” “No Sla’cheen, you just did.” “I didn’t want to listen to that guy Avery, or answer his stupid questions.” “What do you think now about working in the mines after our job is finished here, Cap.” “None of this changes how I see things. If you want to stay, I’ll back you up. If you want to go, then it’s time to go. You know that. I’d like to get back to Chitina, but even more than that, I want to let those white men know they can’t run us off. I want them to understand we’re as good or better than any of them. That’s why we’re here, Sla’cheen. How many times have we gone over this?” “We need to go over this every time, just to be sure of ourselves, Cap. I don’t want it to look like we’re backing down, either. If you’re willing to stay on, I’d like to give it a try. “One thing Eldon proved is that he will back us up. That is, as long as that guy Jim Morris doesn’t find out. Since we’re this far along, I’d like to stay longer. We’ll never have this chance again. There’s still time to think about it. It looks like it’ll take about a week or more to finish laying that heavy tarpaper.” “Don’t trust Eldon, or Frank, or anyone else. You should know better by now, Sla’cheen. It’s a good thing no one wanted to back Sharkey. We were badly outnumbered, by about two-dozen to two, I’d say.” “I was about ready to wade into it with you, regardless. I think we could have given them a good run for their money.” “I know that. But this is getting a little old. I feel like I’m always at war out here, even when everyone seems to be friendly. I just can’t quite trust them. They don’t understand us or even care. Maybe that’s the worst part. Sometimes it’s like we’re not even there.” “We’re the first and only ones here, Cap They don’t know how to take us. We knew that when we left the railroad for the mines.” Johnny slept only with great difficulty that night. He was finding the situation greatly disturbing. It would be only too easy to call it quits. In the bunk across the small room he could hear Cap sleeping as though nothing upsetting had happened. Cap’s ability to handle almost anything always amazes me. I am blessed. Here I am with the one person who is always there with his quiet friendship. We don’t say much between us, but we know how to talk to each other silently. Cap keeps me sane in this strange world. But now I have to wonder why I’m here, always putting my sla’cheen at risk for me. I must be out of my mind. I wonder if Rose will be there for me like Cap has always been. I’ll find out soon enough. No matter what happens, our time up here is definitely limited. I know Cap is just about fed up with it. I don’t want to push him too far. I want to see Rose and stay with her and make her part of my life. But when I really think about it, I don’t know one thing she had said or did which tells me she really feels the same way about me. Maybe I’m just chasing rainbows. Then Johnny began reflecting on an earlier part of his life. He thought of Maggie, a stunning girl from the village of Eyak. She had tried for so long to live with him in Chittyna, even though he had acted much too brash, fooling around while pretending that their relationship was exclusive. He had a daughter by her who carried the same name as her mother, but Maggie tired of living among his people. The Chittyna village Natives never really accepted Maggie. She finally had enough of Johnny’s wandering ways as well as the hostility of his people. She gave up and moved back to her mother’s home in Eyak, taking Johnny’s daughter with her. Grandfather told me that I would lose Maggie and my daughter if I did’nt take care of them properly. I guess I got what I deserved. All this thinking is getting me nowhere and keeping me awake. Maybe that’s why I’m really here in this remote place away from home. Could it be I’m not here so much to prove a point as to run from myself? Am I really running from my own foolishness? Now I have Cap involved. He trusts me completely. I don’t deserve that kind of loyalty. I don’t want to hurt him as well. I know he has stuck with me when he’d rather just pack up and leave. Maybe it really is time to leave. Cap startled Johnny by suddenly sitting up in his bed. Johnny thought he was sleeping. It was too dark in the room to see anything but the dark form of Cap as he spoke. His black outline and even his strong, low voice eerily reminded Johnny of Schee-ya Nicolai. “Sla’cheen, I can hear you thinking too loudly. Stop it. Don’t worry. Go to sleep. Everything will be all right. I’m still here. Nicolai told us as long as we’re together, we’ll be strong and safe. They can’t beat us as long as they’re we are one. Just like they can’t beat our people as long as they are one. I’m your sla’cheen. I won’t let you down.”
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