Digital Bob Archive
Take Trail and Pine Creek Gold Discovery
Days Of Yore
- 06/17/1989
BIG GOLD STRIKE ON PINE CREEK. That was the banner headline in The Alaska Miner at Juneau on August 13, 1898, and it marked the beginning of a stampede to the Atlin area where George Miller of Juneau had first found gold on July 4, 1896.
The Juneau Chamber of Commerce lost no time. A trail committee headed by E.P.
Pond, the photographer, was sent up the Taku. This was its report, delivered at a special meeting on September 6:
\"We agree with Schwatka and Civil Engineer W.A. Pratt who reported that river steamers could safely ascent to the confluence of the Inklin and Nakina Rivers, approximately 43 miles from the wharf site at the head of Taku Inlet. From there to the mouth of the Cloclohene [today's Sloko] it is six miles and a good trail can be constructed at small outlay.
\"A bridge is needed over the Cloclohene, but good timber is available.
Arriving at Nakana village we went up the Cloclohene to the junction with the Nakonake [Tahi Creek on some maps], but found this route impractical. We started again from Nakana village and directed our course up the Nakina and Silver Salmon to the small lakes on the summit, then down the Pike River to Atlin Lake, following the old Indian trail.
\"The altitude at Nakana village is 600 feet and at the junction of the Silver Salmon, a distance of 14 miles, it is 1000 feet. From there the grade does not exceed three per cent. In the construction of a trail the greater part of the work will be necessary on the west side of the Nakina to the Sliver Salmon. From that point to the lake you pass over a natural trail the entire distance.\"
The Chamber of Commerce at once began raising funds for trail work and on October 15 a news report said, \"A party is at work on the Taku Trail, directed by Engineer Johnson.\" And on October 29 it was reported that the new trail was finished and that Engineer Johnson and his party were back in town.
\"There is no need to make the long journey via Skagway,\" a Chamber of Commerce release stated. \"From Juneau to Lake Atlin is only 129 miles.\" The item said also, \"We are preparing a book dealing with the Atlin mines, their proximity to Juneau, and the advantages of the Taku Trail,\" but if the book was published it has apparently not survived.
Another inducement was presented in the fall of 1898 for using the Taku Trail.
According to the Chamber, Canadian Customs had stationed men at Log Cabin to collect duty on all outfits going to Atlin from Skagway or Dyea, but as yet there were no Customs men on the Taku. Atlin was favored over the Klondike, too, in that the Canadian Mounties were still requiring men going to Dawson to take along at least a thousand pounds of food. That was not required of men going to Atlin.
Serving on the Taku Trail committee of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce in 1898 started E. Percy Pond on a quarter century of promoting the Taku route, for a trail, a road and a railroad.