Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska adventure — Part 7

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 16, 1898, Brooklynite Mary L. Penney and the rest of the Kings County Mining Company anchored in Kachemak Bay and soon began an arduous journey with all their gear through the foothills of the Kenai Mountains in an attempt to reach the gold fields of Hope and Sunrise. Like much of their long trip from Brooklyn and around the tip of South America, the effort had been anything but easy.

Many decades after the failed gold-mining expedition of 1898, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge backcountry ranger and avid historian, Gary Titus, was researching the Kings County Mining Company’s route, trying to determine the path the miners had taken. He had read reports that, for years after their journey, traces of their trail could still be seen from Kachemak Bay to Skilak Lake.

There were reports, too, that hunters, guides and other travelers through that country using the trail had discovered caches of company equipment, either discarded for good or possibly left with the intention of doubling back later to collect it.

Morris L. Parrish, who hunted the area in 1912 and wrote a 1913 memoir, said, “Our route was over the Kings County trail…. [All] along the trail even now, one finds parts of its outfit, old wheelbarrows, picks, parts of sledges, shovels, pans and other things.” Gary Titus hoped that one day he, too, would be fortunate to find at least one of those artifacts.

He searched and searched but without luck. Then one day, Titus received astonishing news from a central peninsula physician who had been hunting with a Boy Scout troop near the Marmot Lakes, headwaters for what is known today as King County Creek. One of the boys had spotted an old wheelbarrow where no wheelbarrow should be.

The scout informed the physician, and together they went back to investigate but could not relocate the item. So the doctor, who knew Titus had a passion for such history, did the next-best thing: He passed the word.

“I looked very hard for it, as that was my backyard for years,” Titus said, “and I have walked over most of that area, without finding anything.”

Titus and a hardy hiking companion also walked up King County Creek from its mouth at Skilak Lake to near timberline but found no artifacts or signs of activity. The passage of time, the ravages of wildfires and the continuing regrowth of vegetation had probably obliterated nearly every sign that the expedition ever occurred — with one exception, a cabin.

The Kings County Mining Company had hiked through the mountain benchlands at the advent of winter, hoping to reach the gold-mining areas of Hope and Sunrise. However, for reasons that may never be certain, they stopped at a then-unnamed stream that emptied into the south shore of Skilak Lake.

It may have been more a necessary choice than a popular one. It was likely early to mid-December. Daylight at that time of year was brief, the nights long and cold. Among the weary miners, there certainly had to have been disagreements, perhaps even recriminations.

The enormous lake in front of them must have seemed initially like an impassable barrier. So, they hunkered down.

Sojourn at Skilak

The only diary known to have been kept by anyone in the mining company was discovered inside the company’s cabin on King County Creek in the 1920s by Skilak Lake homesteader Hjalmar “Andy” Anderson.

Pages from the diary had been used by various cabin visitors as fire-starter, and Anderson decided not to save what remained. (He rescued the group charter and by-laws, and a list of officers and trustees, instead.) Consequently, the specifics of what happened at Skilak have been left largely to speculation and inference.

The miners settled in on a creek-side location, a grassy glen surrounded by birch and spruce trees about three-quarters of a mile inland from the stream mouth. Mature trees somewhat protected company members from winter winds, and the site offered a ready source of fresh water and relatively abundant firewood and cabin-building materials nearby.

It appears that they built just one log structure at the location. The use for this single-story cabin, which measured about 17 feet wide by 21 feet long, has been debated. Since it is likely that the miners, including the two women in the company, lived in canvas wall tents, the cabin might have been used solely for food storage and cooking, perhaps even for emergency shelter or medical needs.

There is no indication that any other long-term structures were built in the location until years later when the cabin began to be used by guides, hunters, trappers and fox farmers. By the mid-1910s, there was a log food cache and what might have been a large dog house on-site.

The earliest known outside reference to the plight of the mining company appeared in early April 1899. Eugene R. Bogart, the Kenai agent for the Alaska Commercial Company, included this note in a letter to one of his superiors in San Francisco: “The miners who have wintered here have had lots of provisions — and so (I) cannot say that trade has been increased any by their presence. Cash from all accounts has been tight with them, and they had sold (items) at close of winter to enable them to procure certain things necessary prior to their departure for Skillok (Skilak).”

This reference to miners wintering “here” may lend validity to the claim in a 1919 report by Hugh H. Bennett of the U.S. Geological Survey that “most of the (Kings County) party built boats of whipsawed lumber and descended the Kenai River.”

Bennett does not say, however, that the company built these boats right away or waited to do so until spring. But it is possible that some of the miners took advantage of open water on the lake and river and decided to float down to Kenai with as much gear as they could carry. The village offered few amenities in 1898, but it might have been preferable to a winter at Skilak.

If a large number of the Kings County group did overwinter in the village, Bogart’s comments take on more import, including a reduced need for infrastructure at the lake. On the other hand, Bogart’s use of “here” may have referred to the general area or, more broadly, to the central Kenai Peninsula. More evidence will be required to clarify the actual events.

It is known that most of the company did leave Alaska in the summer of 1899 and did go through Kenai, but why — back in the early spring — were they returning to Skilak Lake? Perhaps they planned a reunion of the company to decide, as a group, what to do next — either stay in Alaska and continue their mining plan or assemble in Kenai and await steamship passage to the States.

The company’s by-laws called for major company decisions to be voted on by the full group, with a two-thirds majority needed to pass. Each member of the company was a stockholder, and those who chose to leave the company prematurely (before the completion of its two-year mission or without permission) risked losing their financial stake.

In a June 22, 1899, letter, Eugene Bogart added another chapter to the story of the miners: “I can get no word from the Kings Co. Mining Co. I understand that there is a split up in the company, and the larger portion of them are going out. I sent Mr. (Alexander) Campbell’s letter forward and am awaiting an answer and will send word immediately upon receiving.”

On July 2, Bogart added that he had just received a letter from Alex Campbell, president of the Kings County Mining Company. Campbell discussed a bid on an itemized lot of “merchandise” but said he was going to have to wait to consummate any deal until the full company held a meeting scheduled for July 15. The meeting would help determine who planned to leave Alaska and who planned to stay.

Company member Mary L. Penney was one of those planning to leave. She could be home with her family before autumn, and she was ready to go.

Despite her initial enthusiasm for the gold-mining adventure, Penney, in the years after the expedition ended, rarely spoke of her trek to Alaska.

TO BE CONTINUED….