Meeting Place: Gilbert High School Classroom – 7 p.m.
Welcome \ Introductions: Don kicked off our meeting.
Guest and family additions: none
Treasurer Report: around $1,600.00
Old Business: Pay your dues now as we start the new year, so we don’t have to beg each month. We still have people who haven’t paid for 2025, let’s get dues caught up and paid early this year.
We need presenters for 2026.
New Business: We may have presenters for Feb. and possibly March.
Discussion Items: none
Auction or Threshing events: None
For Sale or Wish List: 1948, 8N ford for sale. John Deere, 360 with new motor for sale.
Presentation: Henry C. talked about Iowans who traveled to the arctic in search for gold in northern Alaska. The song North to Alaska was about this gold rush. Rumors started about the gold rush in Alaska and people read or heard of the letter from John Ross. Gold Found on the Kobuk! read a letter from prospector John Ross to the San Francisco Chronicle, claiming to have found $50,000 worth of gold on the Kobuk River. The year was 1898, and the gold rush at Klondike was beginning to vanish. The rich goldfields at Nome were still a year away from being discovered, and disillusioned prospectors were tired. Stories like Ross’s soon sparked the Kobuk River Stampede and a flood of would-be prospectors hoping to get lucky and strike it rich poured into what would later become Kobuk Valley National Park. William McKinley was president of the United States and Alaska was part of the United States. People from Story City would head to Alaska. Annual income was around $800.00 a year and a home costs $2,000.00. Mr\Mrs. Jones went and she was the only woman among the gold rush party. There was a black smith, N. Simser from Neveda, and numerous labor workers headed to Alaska. They took the railroad from Nevada to Salt Lake City on to San Francisco. They purchased a sealing ship in California for their journey to Alaska. The ship was Louis D, which also was known as Lottie D., Leslie D, etc. it was 88’ long, carrying 100 tons of cargo. There was a crew of six along with Captain Johnson. Many brought books to read to pass time on the trip. Casting off May 23rd, they navigated the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. By 5/30/1898 they’d covered 340 miles, as the ship moved very slowly. They covered about 2 7/8 miles per hour. In June of 1898 they started to encounter 70’ waves. 6/18/1898 Bert Ashford, one of the passengers had become seasick and remained sick the entire trip. 6/23/1898 they saw volcano eruption and spent the night fishing and watching the action. By June 28, 1898 they were trapped in ice. They arrived in Kotzebue Alaska, stuck on a sandbar where the Captain leaves the ship. Later that summer the first mate Jenkins is killed by natives. At this point they’re hearing rumors of no gold. Part of the group go on to search for gold and others return to Kobuk. Many established camps, Upper Iowa Camp, Lower Iowa Camp. They had a delivery service, The Flying Dutch, which would deliver letters for home at $1.00 per letter. Anvil City, later known as Nome, was where the big gold strike happened. The Neveda businessman stated a business in Alaska. Wyatt Earp had a salon in Nome. Businesspeople were making more than those mining. Others hear of gold in Dawson City and head there to mine, while others head south of Nome. The temperatures are -40 to -50 below. Numerous people decide to leave Alaska but just as many stay. George Ashford, an Iowa State Graduate, was one who stayed in Nome and did the first work of surveying and engineering that was ever done on Seward Peninsula for what would become a modern city. The biggest gold strike was in Dawson City in the Yukon. Most realized it wasn’t worth their time and returned home. There is a marker in the Des Moines Cemetery (Woodland) for Charles De France, one of the people from Iowa who went in search of gold. Charles De France was traveling with George Ashford and froze to death, was buried in the ice. George Ashord remains in Nome running his business. Charlie Hups dies on the way home and N. Simser returns to Neveda as a black smith. Most agreed it wasn’t worth their time and the majority of the gold had already been mined.