Page:Motoring Magazine and Motor Life November 1913.djvu/21

 November, 1913.

��MOTORING MAGAZINE AND MOTOR LIFE

��19

��derfoot mining district. During the past summer, J. H. Groves took in a powerful truck. As soon as it was wheeled off the barge on which it traveled from St. Michael to Fairbanks, a mechanic put it in operation, and within half an hour the truck was hauling a mammoth load of gasoline from the boat to the Groves' warehouses. The truck carried loads with ease that would have required at least three teams of horses to haul.

"During the Fourth of July celebration at Fairbanks this year autos were very much in evidence. To some it looked as though every one of the twenty or more automobiles in Fairbanks was buz- zing along the streets in endless proces- sion. Many sourdoughs who were in from remote districts for the celebration, and who had not been outside since they first went North, were surprised and dumbfounded at this apparent metropoli- tan feature or Fairbanks life.

There are women drivers in Fairbanks, too. Mrs. Roy Rutherford has the dis- tinction of being the first woman in Fair- banks to drive her own automobile.

"In the fall, when the vacation period is on, autos make the trip over the Valdez trail for a distance of about sixty miles to Birch Lake, where there are hunting and fishing in abundance and where swimming and boating help to make the

��days pass quickly, liie run is made easily in a day, allowing ample time for stop-overs at the roadhouses along the trail. Not far from the train, moose, cari- bou and mountain sheep may be hunted.

"Auto owners go out in the early morn- ing for five or six miles over the trail, and from their machines they shoot grouse and rabbits on either side of the trail.

"In winter, pleasure parties hire autos and visit roadhouses as far away from Fairbanks as Munson's, forty miles dis- tant. The car leaves Fairbanks in the morning, and as the trails are hard and smooth, and the little ruts and holes are packed full of snow, the speeding is good. A stop for lunch is made at a roadhouse conveniently situated, and the car pro- ceeds on its way southward. In the dis- tance, the jagged peaks of Mount Hayes are visible, covered with snow and mag- nificent with the sun's rays striking the ice-pinnacled faces of the mountain.

"Past the Indian vilages in the Salcha- ket district, with a noise that startles the peaceful Alaskan native in his mud- chinked cabin, the car proceeds until the snug-looking roadhouse of Munson's hoves into view within its fenced inclo- sure. There bountiful meals are provided by the general roadhouse people, and af- ter several hours of sight-seeing in the

��afternoon, the car starts back with the pleasure-seekers.

"The auto is in Alaska to stay. There is no doubt of that. The present year has seen at least eight more automobiles go into the Tanana camp. They vary from the high-priced 60-horsepower touring car to the little, comfortable runabout. The sourdough has accepted the automo- bile with all its intricacies and troubles for the uninitiated, and the "Mush on, mush on," that he used to know when emitting blue-smoked words at a team of straining, tugging malamutes, is to be re- placed by the newer and more technical 'cussing' that all automobile men know.

"In Fairbanks, where the autos, in holi- day attire, carried loads of pretty damsels about last Independence Day, some of the natives from the nearby missions came in and got their first glimpse of the horse- less buggy.

"From the North will soon be coming news of speed ordinances, passed and approved by the city council of Fair- banks. And when an ordinance comes, it will be an official recognition of the per- manence of the automobile in the biggest mining camp of the 'last frontier' coun- try. Besides, the speed ordinance will have the honor of being the 'farthest North' one on the North American con- tinent."

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