FORT LISCUT. -Ry 'Set. Russell, Co."Fu 7th. Inf.
(The first of a series of articles oh service at other Alaskan pc
Soon after the war I went to Fort Li scam with Company ,*F” 21st.
Infantry which was changed to "Company’*.7” 59th. Infantry and later to
Company "F" 7th. Infantry. At the time we arrived, (summer of 1919;
there were detachments of the war-time U.S.Guards stationed at Liscu
Anchorage, and Seward. These we reli ved by splitting up our com
pany. Thirty men went to Anchorage and I was one of the twelve lucl
men sent to Seward. Seward is a pretty little city at the end of
Government Railroad on resurrection Bay. Chile there I went on my
first moose hunt. Three men came up from Li scum and, with a friend
who was a licensed muide, we packed two horses and ourseIves with
blankets, gruv,and ammunition and hit the trail for thirty five mile,
of hard going up Resurrection River to Russian Lake on the Kenai
Peninsula. We were goirerr three weeks and car e hack with all the
moose meat wc could pack out. Guarding property was our princi
pal job while in Seward. I was soon called back to Li scum and remain
there until that post was abandoned in the summer of ’22. The *ort
is located four miles aefcoss the bay from the town of Valdez and
travel between the two had to be vy boat. Valdez compares favor
ably with Skagway for size. In winter we had very he avy snow fall, i
fact the snow frequently would cover the single story structures and
the doors and windows had to be tunneled to. However, we were never
bothered by the wind. In the summer the gnats and no-see-urns we re sc
bad that at times we had to wear head nets at drill. There was verg
little winter fatigue at Li scum.(somethinr that appealed to soldiers
very much). Cur ice was obtained in the summer vy taking the harbor
boat with a barge to Ghoops Glacier, There we would go out in row
boats, two men to a boat, and tow the ice to the barge where it was
hoisted on board by a steam wench. On. .our return to the Post the
barge was run up on the beach at high tide and unloaded on wagons at^
low tide and taken to the ice house. Valdez is usually an open por.
all winter, as is Haines, butin February, 1920, there was an extreme
ly heavy snow storm with no wind so that the bay became filled with
slush which froze making it possible to walk to Valdez over the ice.
Myself together with several ether foolish ones made the trip a
number of times, once taking the mail from the Alameda which had bro
ken through to Li scum vut could not go on to Valdez. A few days lab
the Admiral Watson nosed up into the ice allowing Corporal Williams
to step off and walk ashore. Cur ^arracks were old and out of re
pair and without steam heat ^ut the writing of this article makes
me homesick for old Li scum and I'd like to go back some day.
I thank you.
COURAGE.
Fulton presented to ^apoleon his plan for steamships across the
English Channel, hut Napoleon ridiculed the idea and relied on the
wind. His doubts cost him success.
On»ec& of the Vanderbilts laughed at the idea of the elevated
railroad. The old commodore said the public are fools, but they
won’t ride on stilts. The Gould family looked seriously into the
question, made a hundred millions that might have been branded by
the Vanderbiltx banks. They called Bessemer a crazy crank, but one
man listened and made millions. Palissy burned up every stick of
firewood, and finally his furniture in order to bake his porcelain.
His poverty, his persistency, paved the way for one of the greatest
industries of the world, --In the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Wai ting
A Star looks down at me,
And says: "Here I and you
Stand, each in our degree:
What do you mean zo do •
Mean to do?”
Both. —by Thomas Hardy.
I say: "for all I know,
Wait, and let Time go by,
Till my change come.Just so,H
The star says: ‘'So mean I:
So mean I."