Diary of Lone Trapper Tells Story
of Hardships and Hunger; Another
Tragedy of the Northland Is Bared
r ‘My eves- rtre useless for huntings
the rest of my body aho is useless; 1
believe my, time has come,” are the
laist words written in the uiary of Vic
tor Swanson, whose skeleton, with a
44 caliber bullet hole between the eye
sockets, and the too of the skull miss
ing-, was found in his lonely cabin sixty
miles up the Alsek river.
The last entry in the diarv was made
on April 22, 1918, but the date April 24
was scratched- off the calendar, indicat
ing that he must have lived at least
two days after he. was too weak to
write, according to Charles Johnson,
who is making his first, visit to Juneau
in more- than thf-ee vears and who
brought a copv of the diary here with
him Mr. Johnson was in the Dry Bay
district at the time of the tragedy and
knew the victim.
Almost blind, starving, and with
only three cartridges left, Swanson is
believed to have planted a bullet in his
brain to end: an existenoe that had
been a torture lor months after he had
been halted by sickness the previons
fall in his trapping trip up the Alsek
river toward the interior.
The Alsek river empties into Dry
bay, which is on the Gulf of Alaska
more than a hundred - miles- west of
Juneau. The country is a wild one and
little frequented., but it presents an
operdingL-itMo the Yukon river country,
if the rapkls of the swift-running river
3;re negotiated safely.
According to Johnson, Swanson ar
rived at the bay and proceeded- to go
inland. He was man-shy, he says, and
seemed to be-trying to avoid people.
When men approached his< cabin he
had no desire to meet or speak to them.
Nothing is-, known of his history other
than it is thought he came from Ket
chikan.
Starts His Diary.
Swanson’s diary was started on Oc
tober 4, 1917, when he had reached a
spot about sixty miles above tide water
on the Alsek. The first entry said:
“Getting sick. Packing down, looking
me.
Tacotna
Pool Hall
Tacotna.
M. Pbjpdar Resort
Billy Jones *
Herb Kearney
/
Tacotna Headquarters
THE KUSKO TIMES"
m
for a place to camp. Cold in the lungs
with high fever.”
On October 10 he wrote: “Going to
build a house. Will not be able io pull
that canoe this fall. Going to wait for
ice.”
On October 13 he said he shot a gla
cier bear and on the following day two
goats. Swanson finished his house and
also built a smoke house. Before the
end of the month he had shot two more
goats, one lynx, a wolf and a bear cub.
Makes Bearskin Pants.
On November (ith Swanson wrote
that he bad made a pair of bearskin
pants, and on the 8th he said his sugar
was all gone. Between the 13th and
18th of'the month he made two pairs of
moccasirvs and a fur eoat. The coat
was made of bear, wolf and lynx skins.
On the 21st he finished a sleepvngbag
made of bear and goat skins, and ean
vas and blankets. On that day he com
plained for the first time that his eyes
were hurting him.
On December 1 he complained of
getting worse and that he had been
eating cold meat for several days. On
the Gth the diary noted that the river
had risen six feet in 24 hours. On the
loth Swanson said that it was getting
very ©old and that it was impossible to
be out without skin clothes on.
Grub Getting Low.
On December 19 he wrote as follow’s:
‘•Snowing-, but still very col 1. Riffles
at the bends in the river open and I
cin’t travel. I.don’t believe that there
will be any ioe for a mao to run a sled
over this winter. Very little grub now
and the snow too deep and soft for
hunting goats. Stomach balking at
straight meat diet, Ivnx especially.”
On the 21st- Swanson shot a goat and
said he had a line Christmas dinner.
In January Swanson wrote his health
was getting worse and that the lynx
were moving down the river in nuns
bers, but he was unable to get any, and
that the goats were going to the hills
I and out of reach.
[ On February 1 he said the lpnx were
| robbing his meat cache up the river
and he was getting short of tea and
salt and was growing weaker all the
time. On the 24th he said he was liv
ing entirely on dried meat and tallow.
On March 2 he shot a goat, and on
the 11th struck out for Dry bay in his
canoe, but after going for an hour
struck ice and was too weak to drag his
canoe over it. The remainder of March
Swanson tried to get back to his cabin
that was an hour’s run in the canoe.
Open river and perpendicular cliffs de
layed him at the place where he said
there was nothing to eat and his eyes
were getting bad.
Finally Reaches House.
On April 1 he reached his house and
t found that the wolverines had been
j eating his fur skins, including his bear
skin pants. They went into the cabin
: through the stovepipe hole and, while
he was in bed, showed fight when he
tried told rive them out.
On A>pril 3.; he said1 be was cooking
, his-last grab and that he bad no salt.
! ©to the next day he shot a goat, using
all but three of his shells, and could
not see the sights on the rifle any
more.
For the next several days Swanson
complained that the wolverines were
bothering him, eating his furs and had
carried his 30-30 rifle out into the
brash. They had chewed up his bed
ding and also one snowshoe. He also
complained of getting shaky in the
legs. On the 15th he wrote he was in
bed most of the time and his legs were
very shaky. His last grub was nearly
gone, being cooked on the 4th. On that
day Swanson made his will, leaving
everything he had to Joseph Pellerine,
of Dry Bay, and if the latter was not
alive his property was to go to Paul
Swartzkopf.
Skeleton Is Found.
In September Fred Castrow and Har
vey Trefger, thinking that something
might have gone wrong, made the long
trip up the river and found the skele
ton of Swanson, much mutilated by
wolverines, that had undoubtedly
stripped it of the flesh. That Swanson
did not wait for death to overtake him,
but met it by blowing the top of his
head oil with a bullet from a 44-calibre
revolver, was indicated by the frac
tured skull.
Swanson’s bocfv was buried near
where he had died and the last chapter
of another tragedy of the North was
finished.—Juneau Empire.
Would Consolidate
All Agencies Deal
ing With Veterans
Washington. — Tn record-breaking
time the Senate today passed the
Sweet bill,' which provides for the con
solidation of all Federal agencies deal
ing with veterans and extends addi
tional benefits to disabled former serv -
ice men.
PROFESSIONAL
W. F. Green—
M. D., D. D. S.
Office: McGrath, Aaa.
ATTORNEYS
Albrecht and Taylor
Gko. W. Albrecht, fditarod, Alaska.
Chas. E. Taylor, Seattle. Wash.
Practice in all the Courts.
Seattle Law Office: L. C. Smith Bldg
Elliott 1(542.
Our Stock of General Mer
chandise Has Arrived
Everything Fresh Prices [Right
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