Show inheres interesting ting letter from alaska the past week the follow following ing letter was vas rece vied by miss both beth nielson Nl elson instructor tor in our public schools from miss ruth 0 allen alien a former well known resident of our city and tor for three years or more a popular instructor at the jefferson school this city the young lady i Is now teaching school at seward beward alas lea ica and the letter will be read with interest by her many park city friends seward alaska january 14 1932 my dear beth at last I 1 believe im going to get that I 1 long thought of letter off to you 1 perhaps id better start in by telling you something about the school where and this ive been I 1 teach both last year th grade third AT nd td fourth teaching lee rome home a live in the jesse limits out of the city limits i a 01 of f miles mile couple coup the board ot of by supported ported the home I 1 is BUp ot of the M E church missions giona Mis ho home me there children T there ere are about to I 1 ranging in age from a few months toj the school la is en ell years about twenty most of oti from the home separate blood part the children a are ot of mixed ini in they vary and scandinavian scandinavia I 1 aleut from decided blonde to do dark rk coloring brown they are blower and more dellb l than white children chill dren it if you give erate elate to almost manage them time enough they get thel their r lessons right they are all very good in music and are very artistic this last summer I 1 took ft a trip which interesting and ad so BO tar far unparalleled was very in the hietz ot of alaska with two wo other teachers I 1 took too k a trip into the interior a distance altogether 0 ol 01 I 1 about 1500 miles about one third ot of it by train another third by river boat and the other third by bicycle yes bicycle bus travel ravel over the highways seem seemed I 1 d thao too tc expensive e x tor for us so we conceived CO elved the th idea ide ot of getting bicycles from sears bears roebuck and shipping them to circle city where we intended to start and bite bike down to the coast again after school was out we spent some time learning to master the brutes had we wished to reduce the exercise would have been wonderful because it Is remarkable the way one tails falls off people around here nicknamed us the bicycle triplets and the name followed us all summer bummer even now we get cards addressed to the triplets we left seward on june ath taking the train to jenans nenana Ne nans where we waited three days tor for the river steamer yukon to take us to dawson the days were getting much longer and it was hard to go to sleep at night nenana benana Is an interesting te little town full ot of natives with their dogs and caches and dried salmon we saw the place on the nenana benana river where the ice breaks every spring there ts is a great amount ot of betting as to the exact minute when the ice moves the 1 gamble Is called the nenana benana ice pool the person guessing the exact minute gets the money in the pool it is usually about dollars the steamer yukon Is an old stern wheeler heeler similar to those used on the tee MI mississippi sIs sippi it is the pride of 0 a vanishing fleet once used on the tha yukon during the gold rush days we sailed down the nenana benana river to tanana where we swung out into the broad yukon the boat of otten gets stuck on a sand bar there and we were having such a good time we hoped to get stranded a few days but no such luck we made the trip on scheduled time the steamer burns wood and so it was necessary to tie up to the bank several times a day to load wood it was always interesting to see the deck hands don mosquito nets and trundle wood into the hold the te boat burns about a cord all aa hour the officers and crew were all old timers in the country and adept at spinning yarns to keep us entertained pacing the deck always gave us a good appetite tor for the delicious meals andl and dancing in the evening enabled us to enjoy french jos late evening lunches we were now almost within the arctic circle and close to the longest day so there was almost no darkness it would have been hard to miss anything however small we could see along the bank where the ice had out great pieces ot of soil and torn up trees when it 1 broke in the spring some of the stops we made were to deliver mall mail to the trappers living along the river at one I 1 I 1 place along the bank we saw a statue of the devil it seems that two men settled there in the early days and agreed it was a hell of a place to live so named it purgatory and erected a statue of their patron saint they have it teed fixed so they can pull a rope and the statue will raise its arm and wave a white flag at the approaching pro aching steamer we were in the yukon flats two das dabs I 1 and nights the surrounding country Is very level there so it was possible to get a good view of 01 the midnight sun it Is remarkable to see the sun slowly sink ilk t to 0 the horizon at midnight and then g gm lR dually begin to rise imagine seeing the rosy tints of sunset change to the fiery hues of sunrise right before your I 1 I 1 very eyes they say that one tourist gazed at the midnight sun tor for awhile I 1 then turned to the captain and said now just when does the regular sun lun come up I 1 we crocked at fort yukon within the arctic circle about two in the morning and went ashore we walked about the town picking all kinds kind of wild flowers blue bells forget me bots nots and shooting stars and many others that I 1 did not know the next day we reached circle city which used to be the largest log cabin town in the world at on one time it had a population of some now there are not twenty white people who live there the river trip was so enjoyable we decided to make the complete trip to dawson and return to circle the steamer chunked chucked and chugged along up the river we passed forty mile where gold geld was first discovered in alaska and soon found ourselves in the yukon territory of canada I 1 it has taken us eight days t to 0 go from benana nenana to dawson dawson Is certainly a town ton that has seen better days every building was dilapidated delapl delapi dated and d almost every other one vacant aou we ll 11 had 0 d been warned while on oil the bo boat at of the d danger anger of scarlet lever fever while in dawson but we did not fully realize our peril until we e laid eyes on the scarlet costs coats of the royal hoyal northwest mounted police they are certainly a bright spot on the horizon during the three days we were in dalbon wo we visited the klondike gold diggings saw the dredging and hydras licking on the creeks saw the cabin where robert service lived and visited the settlement of hide Ird indians ians i Ws we to circle on the yukon and immediately began to prepare lor for tb the first lap lan of our bicycle journey we left circle early in the morning slid and started tor for central roadhouse road bouse abich was vas located somo some thirty three miles down the steele highway the mosquitoes were terrific in sat eplite ot of headsets head nets and gauntlet gloves wool socks and skeeter scoot they gorged e d themselves they bit through our cocks bocks ana crawled up our shirt sleeves and their buzzing was enough to drive one mad I 1 had heard some pretty wild toles tales about them being so EO thick you ste see th the trees and I 1 belleve believe it now any ally exaggeration gos gc s with me the e r road od vas freshly graveled and some of t the i is hilla had not been ironed out enough crough for bicycles along with the mosquitoes and deep gravel we suffered with the heat too t 00 so 80 took a three hour ret re t in the middle of the day dav at a n road houes F along the way we reached central obo about t tea in the evening it t take UK long to get into bed but not however e v e until we had started a smudge of I 1 bubach Buhi ich a cora compound used to keep away mosquitoes it Is the only thing alaskans Alas Ala kana have h 1 fo l towi that will vm arl earlc e then them away the next day we had only eight miles to go 90 to reach the springs where expected to several days tile the we 1 t kip tv w we L were coming ald I 1 in t true ue Alas alaskan kai style etyle sent bent an all old alme I 1 out it lu ill or an ancient ford to meet us ire e soon noon got nicely n toed thre and the springs so well we stared six weeks the nave have a natural nat lural now of hot water averaging about 3 gilloly per minute the water nater has medicinal properties and so Is a mecca for all sour boughs suffering buffering from the rheu matlz we met lots of interesting characters there and liked to listen to their toles tales ot of old times we spent the time walking hiking or picking wild flowers after dinner in the evening we usually played cards until about midnight when we went outside and spent an hour or two oh ing and alling all ah ing over the gorgeous colors of the sunset and rise in the northern sky one night a bunch of us went to a nearby lake and watched for moose along t the a 0 shore before we went home we had seen seven grazing peacefully once on the road we saw a small brown bear later while hiking biking we saw raw a group of about 50 caribou the fore runners of the thousands which migrate south every tall fall they rushed up a little hill and stood gazing at us with their long horns tossing I 1 about the first of august we plucked up our courage and decided to hit the trail the mosquito season was over and we thought we could bike fast enough to escape the gnats which start in where the mosquitoes leave off it was about miles ties to fairbanks and we made it in tour four days we climbed eagle summit the highest point on the highways as well as other long grades where we had to push our bikes up two days we trudged on through the rain the roadhouses here on the way to fairbanks were f ere in the last stages of decay but nevertheless proved a welcome shelter the beds were awful and the food was cooked by men whose culinary knowledge extend beyond using a 0 trying frying pan at fairbanks we were delayed six days on account of rain we visited the alaska college where we saw an in interesting t er esting exhibit of indian and eskimo relics we also saw some musk oxen and wild mountain sheep which the government Is using tor for experimental purposes As soon eoon as the weather r permitted we left fairbanks taking the richardson highway to valdez a distance of miles it tool took us about ten days to go that distance the seco second nd day out of Milr fairbanks banks we struck bad roads and had to drag our bikes over some muddy roads that would have been good hiking biking otherwise early tall fall rains had washed out bridges and caused glacier streams to leave their courses and rush pell mell over the road in most inconvenient places kind hearted road commission men stationed along the road came to our assistance and piloted us bikes and all over the worst and set us lis on our way rejoicing when we were about miles from the const coast the monotonous scenery began to give way to some very beau scenes the mountains were closer and the timber was taller and of spruce the soil in the interior does not support rauch much vegetation because it never thaws down farther than a fo foot oni only y a short growth of birch or willow willo Is found ula t there the last day we had 52 miles to go because the roadhouses are very tar far apart near the coast it was a beautiful day and we started early the roads were good and the sun was shining it was the most pleasant day we had had about six that evening we found ourselves at the top ol of thompson pass twenty mil miles es out of and the rest of the way down hill practically you bet we were glad we have to pump any more or walk up any more hills we put nut on the brak brake and started down I 1 believe that is the steepest road I 1 have even seeli ell our feet soon began to ache from braking so hard P and nd we had to stop and na rest occasionally it was beginning to ret pet dark and we began to wonder about bears and what the shadows were on tle the sides of 0 tile the toad road we crossed no lefta than 1 thirty y bridges trl de ow over the tide late flats ats the th last t three miles alles mlles into valdez we were simply dead tired and hasten harten hoefel room one of the girls carl talked in her sleep about rands watt pl fd v alth ith gold eoll t wt we ha haal d three days to W wait mt th there tor for r the steamship to take V Vs ue 8 baix to deuard d we ml all decided tant thai 1 1 pita of hardships we had had a vou darful trip and would like to take it over again sometime the three ot of us have rented a house and are living together this year we like it much better than an apartment this winter inter has been much more severe revere than last we have not had as much rain but more wind it if that Is possible and more snow the tempe temperature ratu to has b been een as low as three below and that together r with the wind makes it very cold in the interior it has been 30 and 40 below but they do not have so much wind there so the cold Is not so noticeable the last week the snow has drifted over the road so 60 much I 1 am seriously considering using snowshoes monday at least im going to try them out tomorrow and may take a few pictures of my first attempt please excuse the mistakes I 1 have made on oil this machine but I 1 find typing much taster faster even with my limited knowledge than long hand band be ba sure and let the deac teachers hers at jefferson read this also mrs pike and mrs olson give my best regards to all my friends and acquaintances mrs miss johnson and the rest Is susie married if so please tell her I 1 send my lest best wishes and it if she well I 1 send them anyway where are the allreds alfreds All reds I 1 received a card from mr and mrs alston and children the last rather puzzled have they more than one chi child id no now W I 1 would like to hear from all of you just any old time give my regards to your parents beth and now ill close with best wishes to all sincerely RUTH ALLEN |