ALASKA GOLD RUSH.

ALASKA GOLD RUSH.
Autograph Manuscript, being the Alaska Gold Rush diary of Frank C. Nichols of Fall River, MA, during the years 1898-1899 on the Seward Peninsula, 135 pp (36 pp burned in a contemporary fire, the circumstances detailed in the diary), 203 x 78 mm, with an additional 46 pp of manuscript diary for an earlier youthful camp near Fall River, from which he repurposed the diary some years later for his Alaska expedition, contemporary cloth, soiling, clean pages except for the section which was burned.
Provenance: Frank G. Nichols (ink name to front cover).

ALASKAN DIARY OF GOLD MINING IN THE SEWARD PENINSULA, 1898-1899, containing first hand accounts of camps at Ophir Creek and along the Niakluk and Kobuk Rivers, including Dusty Diamond and Independence. In 1898, in response to reports of gold strikes at Council in 1897, and in the midst of the fold fervor in the Klondike, young men hunting gold flooded the Seward Peninsula from around the US. Frank Nichols left Fall River, MA, in February, 1898, for San Francisco, where he boarded the bark Mermaid for Alaska. The diary includes first-hand accounts of the beginnings of his journey to San Francisco, as well as his second season on the Niakluk, with a reminiscence of 17 pages that covers the first season, heading into winter 1898, on the other side of the divide (near Kotzebue Sound). A fascinating and detailed account of life among the mining claims of the Seward Peninsula at the height of its gold fever, with harrowing accounts of his journeys, the Eskimos, and life in the camps. The final part of the diary begins May 14th, 1899 with a description of the camp fire that burned the page edges of the preceding section, rendering it partially unreadable (36 pages), and continues through his departure to San Francisco in 1899. He would return to the region following, and actively mine through 1902.