The Big Alaska 1904: The Trail

This is the second book of the trilogy in which the colorful, cast of characters disembark from the steamship “The Jefferson” and begin their journey overland from the coast of Alaska and the port of Valdez to Fairbanks which is located almost four hundred wilderness miles to the north.

The trail as it were, was treacherous and in some places almost nonexistent. The characters are destined to contend with narrow cliff trails hundreds of feet above the floor of the canyons, bears, rogues, icy rivers and streams as well as voracious mosquitoes, which on the face of it may not sound like much of a problem until you have to fight the blood sucking swarms for two or three weeks straight.

In the year 1904 the trail from the Glenallen cutoff to Fairbanks consisted mainly of just axe blaze marks on trees to mark the way. Until just a year or so before, the gold rush city of Fairbanks located a few miles distant from the confluence of the Tanana River and the Chena did not exist.

The roadhouses were far and few between in 1904 so anyone who traveled this route through the Alaskan wilderness did so at their own risk and were required to be by nature, of hardy stock.

Luckily, the small group of fortune seekers, while in, Valdez make the acquaintance of a man by the name of Wade Tucker. Wade appears on the scene suddenly after being kicked through a livery stable wall by his drunken mule Beelzebub. Wade had elected to winter on the coast in Valdez and was heading back to his claim in Fox which was and still is just a little northeast of Fairbanks. Wade helps not only with guiding along the trail but with the side splitting humor as well.

Like the first book there is no boredom written into this volume and it is nonstop with real historical fact, fast-paced action and nonstop humor.

Enjoy “The Trail”!