We expect some of the artifacts we find to be gold!

Looking ahead to summer ... an update.

There has been a change of plans since the last "Looking ahead to summer" post. We recently spent a week in Yuma, Arizona with Jim Crabb, owner/operator of Nugget Gulch. We reviewed our plans for this coming summer and decided not to have four digs.

We are going on one dig this summer in the Circle Mining District, established in 1893.

This dig is for everyone who:

• can get to Nugget Gulch or Central Corner (see locations below),
• has or has a ride on a 4-wheeler-ATV,
• and has registered,
  

Please note: There will be a small registration fee (yet to be determined) to help us to keep track of the registered participants when we are out in the bush.

Couple of items still in the planning hopper: when and where.

• We will announce when the dig will be held as soon as Jim decides. The announcement will be before May 1st if everything lines up. We are planning to hold the dig over a weekend from Saturday morning to Monday evening.
• Where is another matter. It won't be announced until the participants are ready to start out on the first morning of the dig. It should be obvious that announcing the location of the dig beforehand simply invites others to get there first and take the "low hanging fruit."

Each morning Jim will lead the "expedition" from Nugget Gulch, located at Circle Hot Springs—7+ miles up the Circle Hot Springs Road from Central on the Steese Highway. Central is just past 127 Mile. He will gather the remaining participants from Central Corner, at the corner of the Steese Highway and Circle Hot Springs Road, where folks can get breakfast for themselves and gas for their 4-wheelers.

Each evening the group will return to Nugget Gulch or Central Corner for the night.

The dig itself will be over three days and two nights. Participants can join for any part of the dig: one, two, or all three days, and in the nighttime activities at Nugget Gulch and Central Corner.

Participants in the dig will search for artifacts left behind by the gold rush miners in Interior Alaska's Circle Mining District from the late 1800's on. Besides gold, bottles, tools, and coins are some of the items we expect to find. In the process we will be guided by archaeological methods as much as practical. Please Note: You can read about Archaeology and its methods in: Wikipedia.

Jim will make a "go or no go" decision by March 31st. We will announce his decision here.

If you are interested in going on the dig if it's a "go", please contact us at hglindquist@gmail.com. We'll put up direct contact info when and if it's a go. We would encourage and welcome any inquiries from anyone interested in archaeology and its methods, such as students, amateurs, professionals, and simply those eager to learn more about it.

Into the wild ... with Mark DeLoach

Note: The following was written by Mark DeLoach as way to answer the many inquiries he is receiving with the release of Sean Penn's film INTO THE WILD. Mark lives in the neighborhood. 

I know the book "Into the Wild" was a best seller in the States, but here it was a complete flop. The book stores had piles of them on the shelves with no sales that amounted to anything in Alaska as a whole.

The bus was taken out there years ago by either a mining or construction company back in the early 60's or late 50's and has been used by hunters as a camp for years since then.

After his story hit the presses, people came here to "Pilgrimage" to see the bus and where he died. My son and I on a couple of occasions ran into hikers headed that way and was astounded at what they were doing and that they had no idea of where they were headed. The fact that the river they had to cross was running high made very little impact on them either and I doubt they made it to the bus because of that issue alone.

Many people come to Alaska with that same kid's assumption of an adventure, and for that I can't fault them, but for the fact of the "Stupid" level is so high, that kind of balances out the adventure part a couple of fold. This is a good example where a little knowledge goes a long way and not enough can kill you.

Since this is in my back yard (about 40 miles from the house, about 12 from my fly-in cabin), I look at it as just another place to go to around here, and I know what to expect when I go there and what to look out for. Needless to say, so do most Alaskans and that is why the book had so poor of a sales run here.

My going to the big city like LA for "Adventure" while coming from a place like here where "Into the Wild" was filmed, would be "Ho Hum" for most city dwellers and they would be amazed at my stupidity of something that they take for granted.

To me, it is normal for wolves to look into my yard and size up my dogs for dinner, a moose grazing off the grass or having a grizzly knock over my burn barrel looking for something to snack on (there isn't anything in them to eat because of that problem), and it is not always a welcome thrill.

I assume that the movie "Into the Wild" will be a big hit, but then again of those that go to see it, most will have no clue to what it is like to be stupid enough to put yourself into that position in the first place to endanger their life or in Timothy Treadwell's example (The Grizzly Man), his and the life of others.

In Timothy Treadwell's opinion and own words, the bears "accepted" him. What he was too "Stupid" to know is that they accepted him because the coastal bears are well fed. They ignored him because of a full belly and he didn't appear to be a current threat at the time. Interior bears are not so forgiving because they have to work a lot harder for meals and guard them until they are gone and anything that threatens that is a threat. When he did encounter a bear that didn't tolerate him, he paid for his arrogance as well as the life of another that thought Mr. Treadwell knew what he was doing.

Anyway, I am here in the Prudhoe Bay area again watching out for the Polar Bears that never got the word that Global Warming is a threat to them.... They still keep swimming out to the pack ice and back with no idea that they aren't suppose to be able to do that.


Mark
www.fogtender.com
Oil spills will never be the same...

Steep yourself in Alaska's wilderness ...

If all you want is to be able to say, "I've been to Alaska!", and have some pictures in a photo album to prove it ... this ain't the place.

This blog is for those of you who want Alaska to permeate your soul ... who read Robert Service's poem, The Spell of the Yukon ... and get tingles up and down your spine.

No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth — and I'm one.

We of the Steese Review have a special love for winter in Interior Alaska, again the words of Robert Service express it best:

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I've bade 'em good-by — but I can't.

And if this site doesn't get updated as quickly as would like, it's because we like to keep doing stuff. We'll always get back here ... at some point. -hgl

Give it your best shot ...

“Twenty or so miles due west of Healy, not far from the boundary of Denali National Park, a derelict bus--a blue and white, 1940s-vintage International from the Fairbanks City Transit System--rusts incongruously in the fireweed beside the Stampede Trail.”- from original “Death of an Innocent” by Jon Krakauer, author of INTO THE WILD

With the release of Sean Penn's film INTO THE WILD, the Steese Review is introduced a new adventure travel destination designation: Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc.

The film's release, based on the nonfiction book of the same title (1996) by Jon Krakauer, contributed to public interest in this vast wilderness area ... which can be described with an equally vast array of superlatives ... from the edge of Denali National Park & Preserve around the bend in the Yukon River--creating the "arc"--to beyond the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.

Come and enjoy by learning to survive at the level of your own skill and durability ... even those with impairments and disabilities can find wilderness adventures they can master in Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc, and there is no limit to the level of challenge you can choose.

Into the Wild

Renewed interest in Alaska's wilderness will grow with the release of Sean Penn's movie from the nonfiction book Into the Wild (1996) by Jon Krakauer, "a best-selling non-fiction book about the life and the death of Christopher McCandless." (quoting wikipedia.com)

Contrary to any fear that story may invoke, those of us who know today's Alaska's wilderness also know that experiencing one's own personal challenges in Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc can be both rationally safe AND profoundly exhilerating when matched to our individual ability and experience ... reality's big one ... at all levels.

Come to Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc and link up with one or more of the many credible service providers and guides ... for adventure travel equal to or surpassing anything available elsewhere ...

Here at Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc website we will identify wilderness "access base camps" ... ABC's ... for getting out into the wilderness with the help of the folks who know the wilderness ... they live and work here.

One of most satisfying experiences of being an adventure traveler is getting to know the people who own, operate, and work and live in the area ... providing the supplies and services the traveler needs and uses ... and creating the social ambiance, the life-style of the region.

Come to Alaska's wilderness. Come to Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc!

Map of Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc

The concept of the Yukon Wilderness Arc in Alaska came to me as we were looking at the map of Alaska in The Milepost. Thinking of the highway connection between Nenana on the Parks Highway through Fairbanks to Central on the Steese Highway as a base line, we recognized the area north of that base line as a wilderness arc reaching up into the Yukon Flats and extending from the edge of the Denali National Park and Preserve up through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve ... and over to Eagle and Chicken.

The base line and and arc are roughly drawn on The Milepost's map above and preserved as the original marking of the area by the Steese Review.

Liability disclaimer

The nature of adventure travel and the sport of geocaching are such that trails, locations, and game pieces are often at the mercy of the elements, the public and other participants including animals. All participants must understand that hiking, backpacking and other outdoor activities, as well as geocaching involve risk to both persons and property. There are many variables including, but not limited to, weather, fitness level, terrain features and outdoor experience including encounters with wild animals, that must be considered prior to adventure travel or seeking a cache. Be prepared for your journey and be sure to check the current weather and conditions before heading outdoors. Always exercise common sense and caution.

In no way shall the Steese Review nor any agent, officer, employee or volunteer be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, or consequential damages arising out of, or in any way connected with the information provided for adventure travel, geocaching, or any other projects in Alaska's Yukon Wilderness Arc or elsewhere.

Please note: This disclaimer was posted on June 20, 2008, in the Steese Review and assigned this date and time next to the end of the blog as a reference.