Look Back: Wyoming Valley party prospects for Alaskan gold in 1898

Jul. 17—Expectations were high for six Wyoming Valley men known as the Klondike Party in 1898.

They set off March 1, 1898, for the nearly 4,000 mile journey to south-central Alaska taking part in the Klondike Gold Rush three years after gold was discovered in a creek in the Yukon territory of Canada.

Leading the party was Civil War veteran Nelson Teeter, 62, who lived at 111 South Franklin St. in Wilkes-Barre. He was joined by Robert Keirs Hislop, 54, of Plains Township, Harry Croop and his brother, John Croop, of Miner's Mills, Thomas H. Hooper, of Wilkes-Barre, Richard Jordan, of Dorrancetown, and Gilbert Thorndike.

"Nelson Teeter has been for a long time trying to organize a party to undertake the expedition to the gold country and has at last succeeded in getting together about a half dozen," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Feb. 12, 1898.

Teeter had experience in mining for gold as he prospected in California gold fields after the Civil War.

"From the time that gold was first discovered in the Klondike, Mr. Teeter conceived the idea of organizing a party of fortune-seekers to make the journey to the gold region," the Record reported.

Planning for the journey took months as Teeter had to arrange train travel that began at the Central New Jersey passenger station in downtown Wilkes-Barre, with many stops and train transfers as they traveled west until they reached Seattle, Wash.

While in Seattle, the party purchased additional equipment and clothing for the harsh conditions of Alaska.

From Seattle, they took a steamship arriving in Valdez, Alaska, and trekked on carriages, sleds and on foot until they reached their destination, Copper River

News of the planned expedition made headlines in Wilkes-Barre newspapers for weeks.

Snow shoes, clothing and equipment purchased locally by the party were put on display for the public at James's Drug Store in Plains Township.

Robert Hislop sold many of his belongings, including a wagon, to fund his way, the Record reported Feb. 21, 1898. Teeter told the Record the journey would cost each man $500.

The party left Wilkes-Barre on March 1, 1898, taking them three weeks to reach the Copper River.

While Teeter and his group were the first to leave the Wyoming Valley for Alaskan gold, others formed their own Klondike parties and followed in 1898 and 1899.

Teeter sent a letter to his wife, a Wilkes-Barre school teacher, dated Port Valdes, Alaska, April 26, 1898. The letter was published in the Record on June 24, 1898.

"I would like to invite you in a body to come out here, to the land of the midnight sun and here, along with me, take one of the best coast trips you ever had or dreamed of. We will leave Port Valdes and load our sleds with 200 pounds of flour. The sleds are about 7 feet long and about 15 inches wide and will carry 10 or 12 hundred pounds of freight," Teeter wrote his wife.

Teeter explained their journey to Copper River would take them across high and rugged Alaskan mountains and through canyons. Teeter also expressed his desire to have a newspaper.

"Oh, how I wish I could get a weekly paper each week but they charge $1 to bring them over the glacier," Teeter wrote.

A copy of the Record on the day Teeter's letter was published sold for two pennies.

Teeter's time in Alaska was short lived. He returned to his South Street home on Sept. 30, 1898.

Following Teeter's return, he detailed the harsh travel and difficulties in prospecting.

"The trip over Valdes glacier, which is 31 miles long and contains gaping crevices from six inches in width to 50 feet, was especially perilous," Teeter told the Record in a story published Oct. 1, 1898.

Teeter explained Thorndike, a member of his party, disappeared into a glacier crevice falling 30 feet onto an ice shelf. Ropes were tossed to Thorndike who used his snow shoes with metal grips to climb himself out, Teeter is quoted in the story.

Teeter returned home alone as the remaining first Klondike party stayed in Alaska only to return home themselves during the summer of 1899 unsuccessful at finding gold and broke.

In Record story published April 26, 1922, detailing Teeter's intended travel to Los Angeles, Calif., at age 86 to spend the remainder of his years, he explained the trip to Copper River was "one of the hardest trips of his entire life and suffered considerably from the extreme cold."

Teeter died in Los Angeles on May 22, 1928.