Chapter 9

Friday:

Now you would think after the last two days, I would be able to sleep past 6 AM without benefit of an airplane disturbing my sleep. Guess again, just after six, Tommy flew low over the camp, then turned and aligned with the river to land. Tommy taxied right into the basin and to the float dock before shutting down his engines. I had decided to get some extra sleep, when Frank told me, "Hey, your dad wants to see you up in camp." Well, so much for sleeping in.

Now please understand it is not that I am a wimp, but after a while, 10, 12 and 14 hour days, do tend to pile up on a person and I was just plain old tired. I pulled on some pants and shoes and headed to the camp, while I buttoned my shirt. Art Sr., Dad and Tommy seemed to be in the mood to celebrate. They were regaling everybody on what they did while they were in Fairbanks and of course, when they saw me, they started over.

If I got the story straight, they were drinking at the Elk's Lodge, when they overheard two men discussing what they were going to do about my claim. Tommy called a friend, Mike Stanhope, of his over and had him listen to the conversation too. Now, his friend, just happened to be a lawyer, who was a friend of my Uncle Howard, plus he was happy to meet my Dad and Art Sr. too. They had set up a time to visit Mike Stanhope the next afternoon to discuss what steps could be taken to curtail the mining company's activities towards me.

Art's radio call to his Dad in Fairbanks just happened to take place an hour before they were scheduled to meet with the Mike. When the Mike heard what was taking place he called a Federal Judge and asked to have a moment of his time. The surprise was, when they walked into his chambers, the Judge, Sonny Henderson, turned out to have gone to school and was a good friend of my Dad. Once the Judge heard what was going on, he contacted the locale State judge who had issued the search warrant. Once the State Judge had heard the testimony about what had been overheard at the Elk's Lodge, he revoked the search warrant and asked the State Police to pick up all men involved for investigations of giving false statements to the police.

All I can say is that one tends to forget just how small the State of Alaska was during the 20's, 30's and 40's. Most of the pioneers knew each other or at least knew about each other. Their children were now the leaders of the state. When an outside force tried to do something and the local people take exception to it, they had the ear of the local establishment. This did not mean that some bad things did not take place but it did tend to hamper how much they were able to get away with.

After breakfast, Rob and a group of men went to pour the floor in my tunnel. Shortly, another chopper arrived to leave mesh, rebar and wood to build forms for Art's house. I was busy digging out Rob's place, finally finishing just before lunch.

During lunch, Rob said another load of material was on its way for his house and if they could get the forms in position quick enough, he would pour the floor in both Art's and his cabin today. I asked Rob why we need all the wood for forms and he replied that we would use it for sub-flooring and decking for the roofs and none of it would go to waste.

After lunch, several hoppers of gravel were dumped into Rob's cabin and the forms were installed for the floor of the tunnel by Art. Rob was busy pouring the floor in his tunnel. I strung the power cable from the switch box up to the service box we had mounted between the two cabins. When I had finished and checked out the connections, Art suggested I go take a nap.

I stayed long enough to watch them start pouring the floor of Rob's tunnel, before heading to camp. I grabbed my kit and went to the small Quonset for a quick shower. Jenn was waiting when I came out of the shower and insisted we go up river and fish.

Jenn took us further up river than we had gone the day we drifted back. She had me drop the anchor off the bow, then suggested I lay across a seat as we fished. I started to bait my hook and Jenn said, "Lie down. I will bait your hook for you." Jenn also mounted a fishing pole holder next to me, then cast and placed the pole in the holder. The last thing I remember was Jenn casting off the stern of the boat.

I woke up several hours later when the temperature had dropped. Jenn had caught 6 fish. We motored to the side of the river and built a small fire to cook the fish over. Everybody should get a chance to cook a fish on a stick. Think of it as a large marshmallow and you get the idea. I ate two fish, then we drifted for about a half hour, before it got cool enough that we decided to return to the camp.

When we got to camp, I noticed my tent was missing and several people were moving their things into the large Quonset hut. Tommy told me there was a front coming down from the north, which would bring cooler temperatures and rain early tomorrow morning and should ease up by Sunday. This was not welcome news to me.

Later, I noticed the hoppers were all parked inside the smaller Quonset hut and the bulldozer and two front-end loaders were parked next to the large Quonset hut. About then it started to drizzle, so Dad, Tommy and I took a riverboat across to the north side of the river. Dad and Tommy carried boxes of supplies into the hut, while I tried to pull the river boat further out of the river. I had it about half way out of the river when Dad and Tommy returned and helped me drag it another ten feet up the bank. I then tied it off to the nearest tree.

Once we reached the Quonset hut, Dad handed me a sheet saying. "It will be to warm for you to sleep in your sleeping bag tonight." I thanked him and then looked for my cot which was on the same side as the kitchen. I stripped and crawled into bed.

Saturday: The next thing I knew, Dad was waking me, saying Jenn was in the kitchen and had fixed me some breakfast. I looked at my watch and it was after nine. I finally got to sleep in. No aircraft!

I got dressed and walked back to the kitchen. Jenn had made me scrambled eggs with fresh baked biscuits. I gave her a kiss and told her thanks. Later, after I had eaten, I told her how much I enjoyed it and thanked her again.

When I finished eating, Jenn said it was time to get to work and handed me a rain slicker. I asked what needed to be done. First, she asked if I could get some fuel oil transferred from the 55 gallon drums to the tank for the big Quonset hut. I told her that would be no problem. Dad said, "No, it's not a problem but it has to be transferred by hand pump."