Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/134

Rh men were founding towns and adopting names for places, and among the names which the California miners selected are seven "Sebastopols," another illustration of how geographical names record history.

In Arizona and Colorado the trail of the Spaniard is everywhere visible. Twenty larger streams of the latter state are "rios." In the former the Spanish mesa, butte, el, san, and santa are constantly met with, yet of the 14 important mountain passes in Arizona not one has a Spanish name.

The desert lands of Nevada did not tempt the cavalier or the priest to build forts and missions. There was little to attract them into its sandy wastes. Less than a half dozen of the 40 important mountains and peaks are named in the Spanish tongue, and not a county in the state has a Spanish name. The place names of Oregon and Washington tell the checkered history of those states. Capes Foulweather and Disappointment speak of unhappy voyages. Astoria recalls the fur trade that helped to found the Astor fortune. The neighboring towns of Harrisburg and Lebanon suggest colonies of people from southeastern Pennsylvania. Salem suggests Massachusetts, and Albany speaks of New York. In both Washington and Oregon Indian names are rare. In Oregon not a saint, san, or santa is attached to a county or important natural feature.

Thus does history unwittingly record itself. Thus is a key which admits us to a glimpse of past events found in the place names of any region.

A GROWING CAMP IN THE TANANA GOLD FIELDS, ALASKA

By Sidney Paige, of the U. S. Geological Survey

IT is impossible to know in how many and how widely separated localities the question, "Going to the Tanana ? " was asked and the reply, "Yes," given during the past two years in Alaska. From Skagway, in the south-east, to Cape Prince of Wales, in the extreme west, from Dawson, on the Yukon, to St Michael, on the coast, the query has been rife, and the "ayes have seemed to have it" everywhere. A glance at a map of Alaska will reveal the nearly central position of the lower Tanana Valley, just now the focus of interest for so many hopeful souls. A new camp is always an alluring "proposition," but one that stands the test of time becomes a veritable magnet to that great mass of shifting and roving fortune-hunters, the Western placer-miners. The Tanana fields have stood the test, and Fairbanks town, with all the strength of its new life and important position, means to rival Dawson, across the line.

Six miles to the south flows the Tanana River, second in size only to the Yukon, which it meets 150 miles to the west and with which it forms the great highway to and from the "diggins." During the summers of 1903 and 1901 great numbers used this easy but long trail to Fairbanks. The White Pass and Yukon Railroad, leaving Skagway on tide water, climbs the mountains of the coastal range, and, following the beautiful shores of Lake Lindeman and Lake Bennett, brings the traveler to Whitehorse, famous for its rapids, which in the olden days brought