From Nevada Evening Journal July 26, 1958 (page 1)
Around the Town With Nell
A. W. Banks, who is retiring this week after 23 years of service to the City of Nevada - the past 14 night man at the Nevada Pumping Station and previous to that, as Nevada City Policeman, cannot help but have had many early day memories of 60 years ago brought into sharp focus by interest show in the coming statehood of Alaska.
For not since the Klondike Gold Rush, in which Mr. Banks participated officially in 1900, has the spotlight of interest shown so brightly upon Alaska.
Back in 1898 like many thousands of Americans a number of Nevada and other Story County citizens, prompted by the lure of gold turned their eyes toward Alaska and early developed "Klongdike Fever" as it was called and made ready to go thousands of miles to the Alaskan Gold Fields.
+ + +
Mr. Banks, then a young man, employed at the Boardman Produce in Nevada was not among the gold seekers, but it was quite likely he was among the 400 Story Countians who gathered in Nevada enmasse at the Northwestern depot, to wish good luck and God-speed to the members of Kotzebue Gold Mining Company who left for the gold fields April 24, 1898.
However, two years later the name of Arthur Banks was on the Nevada-Alaska roster. Banks and Len Gillespie (now a Des Moines attorney) then taking law at Iowa City, were hired to go to Nome, Alaska, to protect the claims and other interests of the Ashford, Greenwalt, Swayzee company which had gone to Alaska in 1898.
+ + +
Banks tells us today: "It was the for part of May, 1900 that Greenwalt, Gillispie and myself left Nevada over the Great Northern, via Minneapolis for Seattle where we arrived after three days and nights. Here we were met by several others of the party with whom we were to leave for Alaska... This group included Jim Curtis, Bert Ashford, George Ashford, Gillespie, Greenwalt and myself for several of whom it was a second trip. Two days before we were to sail from Seattle, health officers seized Bert Ashford and sent him to the pest house with small pox.
+ + +
"All of our party had obtained passage on the 'Gargonne'--a steel boat converted from a transport that had been used to carry mules to the Phillipines during the Spanish American War.
+ + +
"The average passenger boat at that time would have made the trip from Seattle to Nome in about 14 days, but we got into an ice pack in the Bering Sea and were four days trying unsuccessfully to get through it.
+ + +
"There were three wooden passenger boats within sight of our boat which did work their way through the ice... Our steel boat would more easily be punctured by the ice that the wooden boats... We finally had to return about 300 miles to Dutch Harbor to refuel and get more provisions. We were in Dutch Harbor eight days and by the time we returned to the Bering Sea, the ice was out.
+ + +
"It was the first of July when we landed in the tented city of Nome--originally a town of 2,000, now swelled to 30,000 and extending down the coast for ten or twelve miles... Imagine our surprise and delight to see--standing on the shore and awaiting our arrival--Bert Ashford who had spent two weeks in isolation in a Seattle hospital, and had reached Nome ahead of us.
+ + +
Sands of Gold
Mr. Banks recalls vividly the long beaches at Nome where gold seekers had taken up claims and lined the beaches for miles doing their own gold seeking. Using 'rockers' equipment they filled with the sand in which, after washing, they found the gold nuggets. Many of the seeker's "rocked out" $30 or $45 dollars a day. Just where these nuggets came from mystified Mr. Banks who though they might have been carried down by various tributory rivers, and washed up on the beach and into the sand, during high tide.
+ + +
While Mr. Banks was not in Alaska in search of gold, he will tell you he did bring back unforgettable memories of beautiful scenes up near the Arctic Circle... One of these is a vivid recollection of the picture made in his mind when they were in Bering sea... the night was very calm... and he was silhouetted against a magnificent sunset--two ships, one a two-mast and the other a three-mast schooner, going full sail against that beautiful sunset sky.
+ + +
He remembers that temperatures one day in Nome reached 85 degrees, and that was very hot... He recalls the many small creeks and streams which emptied into the Bering Sea. "Dry Creek," he says was one of these where gold was being found where, the "diggings" netted one prospector that season $25,000. He also remembers that the Charles B. Lane Railroad from Nome over the tundra to the foothills, was said at one time to the most northern railroad in the world.
+ + +
He also recalls the 'Aleuts,' as the natives of Alaska were called. These short, stocky people were a mixture of Japanese and Russian predominating. The months spent in Alaska for Banks and his companion on the pay roll of the Ashford, Greenwalt and Swayzee were very busy ones. But whether the Nevada men went up in 1898 in search of gold, or two years later on a special paid assignment they all brought back memories of the Nome of that period where claims were disputed and gunfire was frequent. Art Banks will tell you "I really had but a small part in that adventure for I went up two years after the first group who sailed on the Louisa D in 1898 with he famous crowd of Story County gold seekers. My trip was made as an agent for company Swayee (Nevada banker) Frank Greenwalt and Ashford to help safeguard their claims and look after their other interests.
Around the Town With Nell
A. W. Banks, who is retiring this week after 23 years of service to the City of Nevada - the past 14 night man at the Nevada Pumping Station and previous to that, as Nevada City Policeman, cannot help but have had many early day memories of 60 years ago brought into sharp focus by interest show in the coming statehood of Alaska.
For not since the Klondike Gold Rush, in which Mr. Banks participated officially in 1900, has the spotlight of interest shown so brightly upon Alaska.
Back in 1898 like many thousands of Americans a number of Nevada and other Story County citizens, prompted by the lure of gold turned their eyes toward Alaska and early developed "Klongdike Fever" as it was called and made ready to go thousands of miles to the Alaskan Gold Fields.
+ + +
Mr. Banks, then a young man, employed at the Boardman Produce in Nevada was not among the gold seekers, but it was quite likely he was among the 400 Story Countians who gathered in Nevada enmasse at the Northwestern depot, to wish good luck and God-speed to the members of Kotzebue Gold Mining Company who left for the gold fields April 24, 1898.
However, two years later the name of Arthur Banks was on the Nevada-Alaska roster. Banks and Len Gillespie (now a Des Moines attorney) then taking law at Iowa City, were hired to go to Nome, Alaska, to protect the claims and other interests of the Ashford, Greenwalt, Swayzee company which had gone to Alaska in 1898.
+ + +
Banks tells us today: "It was the for part of May, 1900 that Greenwalt, Gillispie and myself left Nevada over the Great Northern, via Minneapolis for Seattle where we arrived after three days and nights. Here we were met by several others of the party with whom we were to leave for Alaska... This group included Jim Curtis, Bert Ashford, George Ashford, Gillespie, Greenwalt and myself for several of whom it was a second trip. Two days before we were to sail from Seattle, health officers seized Bert Ashford and sent him to the pest house with small pox.
+ + +
"All of our party had obtained passage on the 'Gargonne'--a steel boat converted from a transport that had been used to carry mules to the Phillipines during the Spanish American War.
+ + +
"The average passenger boat at that time would have made the trip from Seattle to Nome in about 14 days, but we got into an ice pack in the Bering Sea and were four days trying unsuccessfully to get through it.
+ + +
"There were three wooden passenger boats within sight of our boat which did work their way through the ice... Our steel boat would more easily be punctured by the ice that the wooden boats... We finally had to return about 300 miles to Dutch Harbor to refuel and get more provisions. We were in Dutch Harbor eight days and by the time we returned to the Bering Sea, the ice was out.
+ + +
"It was the first of July when we landed in the tented city of Nome--originally a town of 2,000, now swelled to 30,000 and extending down the coast for ten or twelve miles... Imagine our surprise and delight to see--standing on the shore and awaiting our arrival--Bert Ashford who had spent two weeks in isolation in a Seattle hospital, and had reached Nome ahead of us.
+ + +
Sands of Gold
Mr. Banks recalls vividly the long beaches at Nome where gold seekers had taken up claims and lined the beaches for miles doing their own gold seeking. Using 'rockers' equipment they filled with the sand in which, after washing, they found the gold nuggets. Many of the seeker's "rocked out" $30 or $45 dollars a day. Just where these nuggets came from mystified Mr. Banks who though they might have been carried down by various tributory rivers, and washed up on the beach and into the sand, during high tide.
+ + +
While Mr. Banks was not in Alaska in search of gold, he will tell you he did bring back unforgettable memories of beautiful scenes up near the Arctic Circle... One of these is a vivid recollection of the picture made in his mind when they were in Bering sea... the night was very calm... and he was silhouetted against a magnificent sunset--two ships, one a two-mast and the other a three-mast schooner, going full sail against that beautiful sunset sky.
+ + +
He remembers that temperatures one day in Nome reached 85 degrees, and that was very hot... He recalls the many small creeks and streams which emptied into the Bering Sea. "Dry Creek," he says was one of these where gold was being found where, the "diggings" netted one prospector that season $25,000. He also remembers that the Charles B. Lane Railroad from Nome over the tundra to the foothills, was said at one time to the most northern railroad in the world.
+ + +
He also recalls the 'Aleuts,' as the natives of Alaska were called. These short, stocky people were a mixture of Japanese and Russian predominating. The months spent in Alaska for Banks and his companion on the pay roll of the Ashford, Greenwalt and Swayzee were very busy ones. But whether the Nevada men went up in 1898 in search of gold, or two years later on a special paid assignment they all brought back memories of the Nome of that period where claims were disputed and gunfire was frequent. Art Banks will tell you "I really had but a small part in that adventure for I went up two years after the first group who sailed on the Louisa D in 1898 with he famous crowd of Story County gold seekers. My trip was made as an agent for company Swayee (Nevada banker) Frank Greenwalt and Ashford to help safeguard their claims and look after their other interests.
From Nevada Evening Journal July 26, 1958 (page 1)
Around the Town With Nell
A. W. Banks, who is retiring this week after 23 years of service to the City of Nevada - the past 14 night man at the Nevada Pumping Station and previous to that, as Nevada City Policeman, cannot help but have had many early day memories of 60 years ago brought into sharp focus by interest show in the coming statehood of Alaska.
For not since the Klondike Gold Rush, in which Mr. Banks participated officially in 1900, has the spotlight of interest shown so brightly upon Alaska.
Back in 1898 like many thousands of Americans a number of Nevada and other Story County citizens, prompted by the lure of gold turned their eyes toward Alaska and early developed "Klongdike Fever" as it was called and made ready to go thousands of miles to the Alaskan Gold Fields.
+ + +
Mr. Banks, then a young man, employed at the Boardman Produce in Nevada was not among the gold seekers, but it was quite likely he was among the 400 Story Countians who gathered in Nevada enmasse at the Northwestern depot, to wish good luck and God-speed to the members of Kotzebue Gold Mining Company who left for the gold fields April 24, 1898.
However, two years later the name of Arthur Banks was on the Nevada-Alaska roster. Banks and Len Gillespie (now a Des Moines attorney) then taking law at Iowa City, were hired to go to Nome, Alaska, to protect the claims and other interests of the Ashford, Greenwalt, Swayzee company which had gone to Alaska in 1898.
+ + +
Banks tells us today: "It was the for part of May, 1900 that Greenwalt, Gillispie and myself left Nevada over the Great Northern, via Minneapolis for Seattle where we arrived after three days and nights. Here we were met by several others of the party with whom we were to leave for Alaska... This group included Jim Curtis, Bert Ashford, George Ashford, Gillespie, Greenwalt and myself for several of whom it was a second trip. Two days before we were to sail from Seattle, health officers seized Bert Ashford and sent him to the pest house with small pox.
+ + +
"All of our party had obtained passage on the 'Gargonne'--a steel boat converted from a transport that had been used to carry mules to the Phillipines during the Spanish American War.
+ + +
"The average passenger boat at that time would have made the trip from Seattle to Nome in about 14 days, but we got into an ice pack in the Bering Sea and were four days trying unsuccessfully to get through it.
+ + +
"There were three wooden passenger boats within sight of our boat which did work their way through the ice... Our steel boat would more easily be punctured by the ice that the wooden boats... We finally had to return about 300 miles to Dutch Harbor to refuel and get more provisions. We were in Dutch Harbor eight days and by the time we returned to the Bering Sea, the ice was out.
+ + +
"It was the first of July when we landed in the tented city of Nome--originally a town of 2,000, now swelled to 30,000 and extending down the coast for ten or twelve miles... Imagine our surprise and delight to see--standing on the shore and awaiting our arrival--Bert Ashford who had spent two weeks in isolation in a Seattle hospital, and had reached Nome ahead of us.
+ + +
Sands of Gold
Mr. Banks recalls vividly the long beaches at Nome where gold seekers had taken up claims and lined the beaches for miles doing their own gold seeking. Using 'rockers' equipment they filled with the sand in which, after washing, they found the gold nuggets. Many of the seeker's "rocked out" $30 or $45 dollars a day. Just where these nuggets came from mystified Mr. Banks who though they might have been carried down by various tributory rivers, and washed up on the beach and into the sand, during high tide.
+ + +
While Mr. Banks was not in Alaska in search of gold, he will tell you he did bring back unforgettable memories of beautiful scenes up near the Arctic Circle... One of these is a vivid recollection of the picture made in his mind when they were in Bering sea... the night was very calm... and he was silhouetted against a magnificent sunset--two ships, one a two-mast and the other a three-mast schooner, going full sail against that beautiful sunset sky.
+ + +
He remembers that temperatures one day in Nome reached 85 degrees, and that was very hot... He recalls the many small creeks and streams which emptied into the Bering Sea. "Dry Creek," he says was one of these where gold was being found where, the "diggings" netted one prospector that season $25,000. He also remembers that the Charles B. Lane Railroad from Nome over the tundra to the foothills, was said at one time to the most northern railroad in the world.
+ + +
He also recalls the 'Aleuts,' as the natives of Alaska were called. These short, stocky people were a mixture of Japanese and Russian predominating. The months spent in Alaska for Banks and his companion on the pay roll of the Ashford, Greenwalt and Swayzee were very busy ones. But whether the Nevada men went up in 1898 in search of gold, or two years later on a special paid assignment they all brought back memories of the Nome of that period where claims were disputed and gunfire was frequent. Art Banks will tell you "I really had but a small part in that adventure for I went up two years after the first group who sailed on the Louisa D in 1898 with he famous crowd of Story County gold seekers. My trip was made as an agent for company Swayee (Nevada banker) Frank Greenwalt and Ashford to help safeguard their claims and look after their other interests.
Around the Town With Nell
A. W. Banks, who is retiring this week after 23 years of service to the City of Nevada - the past 14 night man at the Nevada Pumping Station and previous to that, as Nevada City Policeman, cannot help but have had many early day memories of 60 years ago brought into sharp focus by interest show in the coming statehood of Alaska.
For not since the Klondike Gold Rush, in which Mr. Banks participated officially in 1900, has the spotlight of interest shown so brightly upon Alaska.
Back in 1898 like many thousands of Americans a number of Nevada and other Story County citizens, prompted by the lure of gold turned their eyes toward Alaska and early developed "Klongdike Fever" as it was called and made ready to go thousands of miles to the Alaskan Gold Fields.
+ + +
Mr. Banks, then a young man, employed at the Boardman Produce in Nevada was not among the gold seekers, but it was quite likely he was among the 400 Story Countians who gathered in Nevada enmasse at the Northwestern depot, to wish good luck and God-speed to the members of Kotzebue Gold Mining Company who left for the gold fields April 24, 1898.
However, two years later the name of Arthur Banks was on the Nevada-Alaska roster. Banks and Len Gillespie (now a Des Moines attorney) then taking law at Iowa City, were hired to go to Nome, Alaska, to protect the claims and other interests of the Ashford, Greenwalt, Swayzee company which had gone to Alaska in 1898.
+ + +
Banks tells us today: "It was the for part of May, 1900 that Greenwalt, Gillispie and myself left Nevada over the Great Northern, via Minneapolis for Seattle where we arrived after three days and nights. Here we were met by several others of the party with whom we were to leave for Alaska... This group included Jim Curtis, Bert Ashford, George Ashford, Gillespie, Greenwalt and myself for several of whom it was a second trip. Two days before we were to sail from Seattle, health officers seized Bert Ashford and sent him to the pest house with small pox.
+ + +
"All of our party had obtained passage on the 'Gargonne'--a steel boat converted from a transport that had been used to carry mules to the Phillipines during the Spanish American War.
+ + +
"The average passenger boat at that time would have made the trip from Seattle to Nome in about 14 days, but we got into an ice pack in the Bering Sea and were four days trying unsuccessfully to get through it.
+ + +
"There were three wooden passenger boats within sight of our boat which did work their way through the ice... Our steel boat would more easily be punctured by the ice that the wooden boats... We finally had to return about 300 miles to Dutch Harbor to refuel and get more provisions. We were in Dutch Harbor eight days and by the time we returned to the Bering Sea, the ice was out.
+ + +
"It was the first of July when we landed in the tented city of Nome--originally a town of 2,000, now swelled to 30,000 and extending down the coast for ten or twelve miles... Imagine our surprise and delight to see--standing on the shore and awaiting our arrival--Bert Ashford who had spent two weeks in isolation in a Seattle hospital, and had reached Nome ahead of us.
+ + +
Sands of Gold
Mr. Banks recalls vividly the long beaches at Nome where gold seekers had taken up claims and lined the beaches for miles doing their own gold seeking. Using 'rockers' equipment they filled with the sand in which, after washing, they found the gold nuggets. Many of the seeker's "rocked out" $30 or $45 dollars a day. Just where these nuggets came from mystified Mr. Banks who though they might have been carried down by various tributory rivers, and washed up on the beach and into the sand, during high tide.
+ + +
While Mr. Banks was not in Alaska in search of gold, he will tell you he did bring back unforgettable memories of beautiful scenes up near the Arctic Circle... One of these is a vivid recollection of the picture made in his mind when they were in Bering sea... the night was very calm... and he was silhouetted against a magnificent sunset--two ships, one a two-mast and the other a three-mast schooner, going full sail against that beautiful sunset sky.
+ + +
He remembers that temperatures one day in Nome reached 85 degrees, and that was very hot... He recalls the many small creeks and streams which emptied into the Bering Sea. "Dry Creek," he says was one of these where gold was being found where, the "diggings" netted one prospector that season $25,000. He also remembers that the Charles B. Lane Railroad from Nome over the tundra to the foothills, was said at one time to the most northern railroad in the world.
+ + +
He also recalls the 'Aleuts,' as the natives of Alaska were called. These short, stocky people were a mixture of Japanese and Russian predominating. The months spent in Alaska for Banks and his companion on the pay roll of the Ashford, Greenwalt and Swayzee were very busy ones. But whether the Nevada men went up in 1898 in search of gold, or two years later on a special paid assignment they all brought back memories of the Nome of that period where claims were disputed and gunfire was frequent. Art Banks will tell you "I really had but a small part in that adventure for I went up two years after the first group who sailed on the Louisa D in 1898 with he famous crowd of Story County gold seekers. My trip was made as an agent for company Swayee (Nevada banker) Frank Greenwalt and Ashford to help safeguard their claims and look after their other interests.
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