Digital Bob Archive

The Thousand Prospectors the Juneau Chamber of Commerce feared might invade the Taku Valley in 1930 actually dwindled to something less than 200, but even so there was plenty of activity up that way, especially along the Tulsequah, the first major tributary to the Taku on the Canadian side of the boundary.

The Canadian government established a post office with the name Tulsequah near the mouth of the Tulsequah River, and stationed a Customs officer at the same place.

Captain William Strong, who had run boats on the Taku ever since 1917 and had a trading post just above the mouth of another tributary, the Inklin, now opened a store and a restaurant near the post office.

There was enough business, or promise of business, to attract another river boat. This one was the Taku River, a 45-footer, owned by the Taku Transportation and Trading Company which appears to have been a subsidiary of the Pacific Steam Dredging Company of Vancouver, British Columbia. The boat, in command of Captain L.H. Fraser, first appeared in the river in May 1930. Just how much business the company was able to do is unknown, but the venture came to a sudden end on August 9, 1932. The Taku River was bound downstream when it struck a snag a couple of miles below the mouth of the Tulsequah. Captain S. Lingard, who was then in command, and his crew of one escaped in the skiff as the boat sank to the bottom, but the current carried the vessel on downstream for another half mile or so. Presumably it broke up as nothing further was heard of it.

The Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company put several crews in the Tulsequah area in 1930 to investigate the Big Bull group and other claims that showed promise. \"We are actively engaged in trying to develop a mine up there,? Philip R. Bradley of the Alaska Juneau told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce in June of 1930. He said there was hope that one and possibly two mines could be developed in the Taku district.

But that hope was soon shattered. In August it was announced that the Alaska Juneau was ceasing work on the Big Bull property, was removing all machinery and equipment and was surrendering the option it had taken on the property the previous year. According to the news story, the company had spent $200,000 on the Big Bull group and $50,000 on other claims in the area.

Despite the pull-back of the Alaska Juneau, the Tulsequah picture was not entirely bleak. One of the most promising properties was a cluster of claims known as the Whitewater group, owned by D.J. McDougall, Walter Barron, Ray Walker, William Strong, Arthur Hedman, Jack Koby and Ray Rice. Some development work was done on them during the summers of 1930 and 1931 and the showing was sufficiently good that they were sold in November of 1931 for $125,000 to what was called the Wadsworth interest of Canada. The property was eventually acquired jointly by a noted mine developer, Edward Chester Congdon of Duluth, Minnesota, and some of the owners of the Marshall Wells Hardware Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And on them, in time, was developed the Polaris-Taku mine.