Document 74: Excerpts from Diary of Tom Boldrick
Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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Up the White River, Yukon Territory.
June 15, 1898.....it is a hard job going up this river the current is so swift & the quick sand is so bad I am afraid of the quick sand
we sometimes sink in 6 inches & it is quite hard to pull out some times we have to help pull one another out
we get stuck so fast a fellow has to take short steps & very quick we have not made over 10 miles in the two days pulling & dragging the boat with ropes & we have worked very hard....
this river must be a terrible river when full of water it is now literally filled with drift wood & torn up trees by the thousands showing the tremendous force of the rapid waters
it is something terrifying to look it over & see the force that it has taken to do this....
sometimes the mountains come right up to the river at other times the banks are nothing but marshes coverd with thick brush & moss....
June 16, 1898. We camped last night on a sand bar in the middle of White river & thought we had a most elegant place which would be free of mosquitoes but about 9 o'clock here they came & it would seem that was their rendezvous as they came in countless millions & we put in a very miserable night
they would get in under our blankets in spite of us
We are trying to make it up to the LaDu creek the map shows it about 15 miles from the mouth of White river
we have toiled hard & have not got in sight of it yet