Volume 24-25, 1976-7 - The Arctic Circle - Home

L4VOL. iofl/ I{o . 1 TFIE AI{CTTC CIRCIIIARMEMORTES OF DALTON POSTLETIEF TO THE EDITORWhrile working on ttre Haines Road on July 2L/44 I net Dave Hurre. Idescribed him at tLre time as a policernan' s son rnarried to a trnliceman' sdaughter, and the leanest, strcngest, l:est-looking breed I had seen ina long tine. He was then about 25. I never knew whro his fattrer wasbesides ttre naIIE. His wife was ttre daughter of Jacl< Pringle, r,vtio livedat Dalton Post. I was interested in Dave because he had trapped theTatshenshini all the way to Dry hy, in Alaska. He told ne tLrat scnebodygot thre narIES twisted. fhe river nnpped as Alsek was called Kuskawulshby thre Indians , and the one nrapped as Tatshenshini was really tlre Alsek.He told me of Alaska Brcvm Bears all the way up to ttre King Salnpn River,and a wol-f-crcloured black bear killed by one of ttre Indians. Prospectorscame up frcm Dry Bay, in , swrTer beyond the f irst river.At his insistence, I visited Dalton Post on July 24 , walking in frcm theHaines Road. The trail went through tirc brush for a m-ile, around a muskeguntil it joined an old trail. The total distance was about for:r nr-iles. Aflood of July t had wiped out a footbridge over the UnshirLi River, so Iwaded. In the post a-rea horse feed was verar good.f was greeted by Dave and his wj-fe, amd Jacl< Pringle and his wife. Therewas also a FYaser (Indian) and fandly frcrn Klukshu, plus children, plusunidentified middle-aged vlorrl€r, plus sorle beautiful saLn'on-fed pack dogs.Buildrngs included Jalce Dalton's warehouse, tlre o1d police post, and thePringle house, plus a salnxcn rack.OId Mr. Pringle insj-sted on feeding nre. The fire under a big iron pot inthe yard appa-rently never went out . fhe matriarch went out, pulled neatout of the pot, and finally selected three lTyfose ribs. Never before orsinc-e have I tasted such delicious neat. Qr-rite evidently, the fine art ofseetJring puts roasts and steaks to shane. There was also scnte fine rhubarb.Then we went to "village creek", rafiich ccrltes fron Village l-ake. Ttre oldvillage site they called qur-te plainly Ut-si-ka-tahn, again differing frqnthe nnp. Salnon was running.Jack Pringle carTe to Dalton Post with lnspector Ja-nris, and never left it. Igattrered tirat he had never been to i,r/hitehorse. He just married hj-s charmingIndial wife, settled dom, raised a daughter, and "adopted" Dave, whomarried the daughter. He had a splendid garden. Potatoes , peas and threlike would not grow on accor:nt of frost but his chard, beets, tr:rnips andrhubarb were r^acnderful. He loaded ne dovrn with lettuce and rhubarb, scrne