Jul 21

Written by:
7/21/2005 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! This morning at 5:00 a.m., I peek outside my hooch to check the day’s weather, and find the day is absolutely beau-ti-ful!!! I dress quickly, eager to take a walk. Golden rays of sunshine light up the entire countryside for as far as I can see. The bright sky has a few glistening snow-white, ‘poofie’ clouds lazily swimming around in a veritable sea of blue, and the air is filled with birdsongs coming from every direction. The noisy crash of the wind and rain driven breakers on the beach, an all too common sound in the last several days, is gone. It has been replaced with a melodic and gentle wsssh, wssssh, wsssssh---sounding like all the water spirits of the Bering Sea are chuckling to themselves over the retelling of some well loved private joke. And the colors of the flowers and the tundra! The hues and shades of color are so bright you can almost taste them. Blueberry, lemon, butterscotch, raspberry and grape are for the glowing flowers of every size, shape, description and color. Kiwi, lime, lemon-lime and mint for the many yellow and green shades of the tundra. These many beautiful colors contrast with the light and dark chocolate of the living branches of the shrubs and bushes, as well as with the white chocolate of the sun-bleached wood washed up by old storms of the past. Just outside of camp is a veritable sweet feast for the eyes, ears, and spirit! And the air! The air is so pure and clean my whole body drinks it in through every pore, satisfying a hidden thirst I didn’t even realize I had. As I amble along, I walk through little pockets of warm air filled with delicate flowery scents. These tantalizing smells are so light and sweet as I approach Edward’s Creek, the fragrances become almost flirty. Now you get a teasing sniff of the flowery scents---now you don’t. The beauty of this exotic place settles around my shoulders like a soft cloak, and warms my very heart. I turn and walk back towards my hooch. Then in the distance I hear the growl of the camp’s generator as it awakens and starts to work. Somewhere else, also in camp, a trusty ATV coughs once---twice and then roars to life, getting ready for the busy day ahead. It’s 6:00 a.m. and the gold camp is waking up! People are teasing and laughing and calling their “good mornings” to each other. My walk over, I’m off to the warm chow hall for hot coffee, although I find myself a little reluctant to leave my peaceful ramblings and make the adjustments necessary to start a fresh new day. I TRULY LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

This week our camp has been a busy, bustling place. Jon Hagen has taken over the job as ‘Beach Master’ and the miner’s on their beach claims are excited and eager to see what riches they can wash out of the black, ruby and golden sands. On Monday a ‘beach nugget’ (nice picker) was found, which is bright gold on one side and almost a ruby red on the other side. Finding these larger pieces is a little unusual as most (but not all) gold found on the beach area is fine or flour gold. These fine grains from the beach still have all the important characteristics: heavy metal, colored in my favorite shade---GOLD---, and in the $400.00 an ounce category. And fine or not each piece of this gold adds more weight to your snuffer bottle! Large or small all gold is simply gorgeous. Nothing is nicer than watching your black mat turn to gold as you run material through the beach box, unless it’s finding a sprinkling of gold on bedrock as you are running your personal dredge. Well, except maybe winning NUMBER ONE NUGGET in the Friday Night Gold Draw. Unless it’s maybe finding a nice sized nugget just a sittin’ there twinkling on the floor when you go to do your laundry! Ooh doggies, I guess maybe finding GOLD is fun, no matter how you do it!

In the matter of another type of gold, Laverne and ‘Chip’ Yorde from Merrill Wi. celebrated their 49th Wedding Anniversary here at our camp this week. Chip recalls meeting her husband at her sister’s party in March 1953, and they were married in July 1956. Next year will be their GOLDEN Anniversary. In today’s society a forty-nine year loving commitment is something to be very proud of. Chip, also our very talented camp chef, is a woman of many other talents. One only has to look at the comfortable and homey way she has decorated her and Yorde’s (Laverne’s) hooch in camp to realize what a gem she truly is. Her husband Yorde is a lucky man. Yorde, states, “I really like her cooking, you only have to look at me to tell that.” Happy Anniversary to you both, may you have many, many more!!!!!

This seems to be the year for camp loves. There was a crew meeting held in the chapel, and after a short talk by Camp Manager Jim Arnold, Spike Littlejohn was asked to explain in detail our camp’s new fire prevention system. After only one or two brief remarks about the fire system, and in the middle of a sentence, Spike changed directions and asked Janice Marconi if Al Marconi was a ‘keeper’. Startled and somewhat confused by this abrupt change of topic, she still answered firmly that yes, her Al was definitely a keeper! Spike then spoke about their love and commitment for each other in what could only be described as a touching re-affirmation ceremony, Cripple River Style. Al spoke about his abiding love for Janice, and she spoke about her total love for him. Married June 21st 1980---this was their 25th or Silver Anniversary. After this sweet and tender if short ‘fire prevention meeting’ was over, everyone adjourned to the chow hall to celebrate this couple’s anniversary by eating the three tier 2nd wedding/25th anniversary cake baked and exquisitely decorated by Chip Yorde.

Fishing this year has passed great and is approaching fantastic! One couple who was fishing just yesterday caught and released over 50 fish in one hour not 500 yards from camp! The fishing is so good that many fisher-folks are complaining about sore muscles from fighting all these large fish. Maybe our trading post should stock fishing liniment. On the Sinuk River Trip today guided by Perry Massie over thirty fish were caught, and while most were released, some were guests of honor at the lunch. Two people caught (and released) Graylings. The Arctic Grayling, usually a lake bound or river roaming fish is rarely caught at the mouth of the Sinuk River. Perry Massie had photographs taken of this unusual event. An interesting note is that the largest Arctic Grayling caught in Alaska weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces and was caught in 1981 in the Ugashik Narrows.

There is so much going on here in camp, sometimes people forget this is primarily a gold mining camp. This week’s ATV trip to the Trommel to use the high bankers was a great success. The trails were mostly dry, with only a few bogs to liven up the trip. Perry Massie, our camp’s hands down favorite guide, led this adventuresome group of prospectors on the eighteen mile trip to the Trommel Camp and back. Everyone packed their own lunch, and took a bucket to bring their “cons” (concentrates from running the high-bankers) back with them. There were a lot of smiles the next day at our panning tub area, as the nice gold peeked out from under the dross material and was seen and collected by its’ new owner.

The weather has been so hot and sunny that we have quite a few red faced people running around camp. The sunburn bug is really biting this year, but interestingly enough, here in our main camp we really don’t have a lot of mosquitoes! This is true, and very unusual. However, this year I was told that there is not a single mosquito at any of our outer camps either! I was told that in the outer camps all the mosquitoes are married and have HUGE families of hungry children and relatives!!! So be sure to take your bug goop with you if you leave camp!

Don Jones from Brighton Mi. has been in camp for five weeks and leaves on the 6th of August. In his time here he has been trying to do everything! Don says, “It is fun just being here. I laugh at the people who call this primitive camping, as it is the most luxurious ‘primitive’ camping I have ever experienced in my life. With three hot meals a day, hot showers and washers and dryers, this camp is anything but primitive. It is exciting to see the amount of gold here. You can throw a shovel or two of sand from almost anywhere into a beach box and get at least a little bit of gold! I went to the trommel and found some nice coarse gold, but I didn’t get any nuggets. I also really liked Nome. It doesn’t look all that impressive, no big buildings or anything, but the people are nice and friendly. I never met a rude person in the whole town. It was great! I plan to come back to Cripple River and bring my wife Dawn with me.” Don, who had not played pinochle since high school played in our pinochle tournament last week and won FIRST place! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!

Tom Massie again is hosting his now annual (?) Cripple River Gold Camp Treasure Hunt! And boy, are people in camp ever hunting for treasure! He has hidden in and around camp, many small metal boxes with treasures inside. The treasures include some of the following: gold nuggets or pickers, walrus ivory carvings, gold coins, jade, tickets for hats, nice garnets, or other nifty things to find. Not all of these boxes have been found, and in fact there were six treasure tins left hidden from last year. The treasures are in areas of public access only, and are NOT hidden in hooch’s, work shops, or private areas. Some are in plain sight, others buried in the ground, so don’t forget to metal detect. Happy hunting!

Bob Johnstone from Akron Oh. has personally met one of the “Bog Monsters”! He and a fellow prospecting buddy, Ken Kirby from Athens Oh., were riding their rental ATV’s to one of our outermost camps, the Stella Camp. As this is a distant and truly primitive camp they decided to ride along with Donna and Richard Fairless, and the group they led, as far as the Ketchmark Camp, and from there strike out on their own to Stella. On the trail to Ketchmark Bob ran into a deep bog. This was a “boot sucking” bog of the worst variety. When Bob high centered his ATV, Ken carefully rode around the bog jumped off his ATV and went to his friends rescue. Imagine Bob’s surprise when the mud of the bog sucked the boot right off his friend Ken’s foot! Several other people came to help and soon the “convoy” was on the road again. Bob and Ken enjoyed their trip very much, except for the Bog Monster. Both men were heard to say, “We found some nice gold, saw lots of “wild” animals and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. If you ever go to Ketchmark or beyond, take a metal detector.”

Today is so glorious, I KNOW I hear the gold calling out to me, inviting me to a game of prospector hide and seek. I’m off to prospect in Edward’s Creek. Until next time, may your life and the bottom of your pan turn golden.

Your friend, Arctic Annie