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The
1899
Expedition
Original
Participants
Brief
Chronology
Science
Aboard
the
Elder
Exploration
&
Settlement
Growth Along Alaska's Coast
Alaska
Natives
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A Brief Chronology of
the Harriman Expedition
Planning the Expedition:
March, April and early May, 1899
The plans for the Harriman Expedition began with a
doctor's order: Edward Henry Harriman, an exhausted captain
of the railroad industry, was told to take a long vacation.
He chose Alaska, and decided to turn the family vacation to
a full-blown scientific expedition. In two-and-a-half
month's time, he and C. Hart Merriam chose the scientists
and artists. Harriman himself supervised and paid for the
outfitting of the George W. Elder -- new staterooms,
salons, livestock stalls, research spaces and a library with
over 500 books on Alaska. At the same time, he made
arrangements for the invited guests to travel by rail to the
departure city of Seattle.
May 23, 1899 - New York
City
Harriman arranged for a special train to carry his
guests from New York City to Seattle. The Harriman family
and many scientists traveled in luxury from Grand Central
Station.
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"On the Great
Divide." The special train from New York stops to
let the travelers explore the western prairie.
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May 31, 1899 - Seattle
All passengers had arrived in Seattle, but they spent
hours waiting for the ship to be loaded. Cargo included an
organ, a piano, canvas tents, hunting gear, traps, art
supplies, a lantern slide projector, a graphophone, food and
fresh water. The boat left the dock shortly before
6:00PM.
June 2, 1899 - British
Columbia
The expedition visited the Victoria Museum on Vancouver
Island, then cruised north along the coast of British
Columbia. Those aboard took advantage of the cruising time
to get to know one another.
June 3, 1899 - British
Columbia - Lowe Inlet
Cruising northward, the Elder moved from
protected waterways into the Pacific. The first bouts of
seasickness were reported by a number of passengers. The
boat stopped near Lowe Inlet and a group of scientists went
ashore to explore Princess Royal Island.
June 4, 1899 - Metlakatla
The expedition visited Father William Duncan's island
missionary settlement, and explored the rich forests of the
area. Fuertes discovered an unusual type of large, tamed
raven. Fischer became so caught up in his explorations of
the island's forests that he missed the boat as it pulled
away from the dock. After this, everyone would sign in and
out using a peg on a large board painted by Dellenbaugh.
June 5, 1899 - Wrangell
The Elder pulled into Wrangell early in the morning, and, with
only a few hours to explore this spot, the group fanned out to explore
the town and the surrounding area. Saunders scoured the coast for seaweed
specimens, the birders headed into the forests, armed and ready to shoot
specimens, and the photographers spent their time taking pictures in Wrangell,
a boom-town on the decline. It was the first exploration on Alaskan soil,
and everyone seemed determined to make use of their time.
June 6, 1899 - Treadwell Mine
and Skagway
The party explored the mining operations near the
Skagway, a mining town that was enjoying a boom, partly
because of gold, partly because it was the starting point
for the White Pass railroad, taking miners into the gold
fields. Five scientists -- Palache, Ritter, Saunders,
Kearney, and Kincaid -- set out on a small steam launch
boat, to explore the area for several days. This was one way
the Harriman Alaska Expedition made up for the relatively
brief time they spent at any one place.
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Skagway,
Alaska, photographed in June, 1899 by C. Hart
Merriam.
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June 7, 1899 - White Pass
Railroad
The party rode the twenty-one miles to the summit of
White Pass, traveling through the steep Dead Horse Pass and
gateway to the gold rush.
June 8, 1899 - Cruising to
Glacier Bay
The Elder returned to Juneau to pick up the five
scientists who'd been in the field, then steamed toward
Glacier Bay.
June 9 through 14, 1899 -
Glacier Bay
The expeditioners spent five days exploring Glacier Bay. One highlight
was the overnight hike to "Howling Valley," which, according to Muir,
was filled with game. Twelve men -- six crew members, Harriman, Merriam,
Captain Kelly, Drs. Morris and Trudeau, and Grinnell -- hiked for almost
24 hours in the hopes of finding bear. The other scientists spent the
days exploring the Muir and other glaciers in the bay. Fuertes, Fischer
and Ridgeway traveled to Point Gustavus to collect specimens. Muir and
others discovered that the Grand Pacific Glacier had split into three
lobes, and they proposed the largest be named "Harriman Glacier." The
Elder departed Glacier Bay on the morning of the 14th.
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The campsite
at Reid Inlet.
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June 15 through 18, 1899 -
Sitka
The party explored Sitka, once the capital of Alaska and
the headquarters of the Russian-American company. They
visited the nearby hot springs, purchased furs from Tlingit
trappers, and saw in architecture and custom the Russian
influence in Alaska. Harriman made a graphophonic recording
of Tlingit songs. They depart Sitka on the morning of the
18th.
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Mending a
canoe in Sitka, 1899. Photographed by Edward
Curtis.
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June 19, 1899 - Yakutat and
Malaspina Glacier
The group explored the mission settlement in Yakutat,
and several hunting parties set out for bear and other game.
Harriman was impressed with a man called "Indian Jim," who
knew much about the local coastline. He was hired as a guide
for the duration of the voyage.
June 20 through 23, 1899 -
Malaspina Glacier and Disenchantment Bay
Explorers mapped the huge glacier, which Dall had named
on an earlier trip. Others observed the Natives at work in
their annual seal hunt. Harriman purchased a sea otter pelt,
a rare specimen since the otter had been hunted to virtual
extinction. The Elder left Disenchantment Bay on the
morning of the 23rd.
June 24, 1899 - Orca and
Prince William Sound
The expedition visited the Pacific Steam Whaling
Company's salmon cannery at Orca. The visitors found several
opportunities to speak with gold miners heading back to the
United States.
June 25 through 29, 1899 - Prince William
Sound
The party explored Prince William Sound, including, on June 26, the
narrow inlet at Barry Glacier that opened up to reveal an unexplored fiord,
now known as "Harriman Fiord." Several scientists put ashore in the fiord
for a camping-exploration trip, while others stayed on the Elder, steaming
back to Orca to fix a broken propellor blade.
June 30, 1899 - Kulak Bay
The original destination for the day was Cook Inlet, but
Harriman, upon hearing that bear would be more easily found
elsewhere, changed course for Kodiak Island in the
Aleutians.
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Bear hunter
in Alaska poses with his trophy. This is a
photograph from a Bering Sea Commission trip, about
1898, not from the Harriman Expedition.
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July 1 though July 4, 1899 -
Kodiak Island
The hunting party was successful: Harriman, with the help of several
packers and guides, shot his Kodiak bear. Dellenbaugh, in a conversation
with a traveler from another ship, learned about a remote and apparently
abandoned Tlingit village near Saxman, on the south coast of Alaska. The
party celebrated the 4th of July in town of Kodiak with speeches, music
and boat races. The Elder left Kodiak on the morning of the 5th.
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A
commenmorative drawing from the 4th of July
festivities in Kodiak, 1899.
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July 5 and 6, 1899 - Shumagin
Islands and Bering Sea
The Elder steamed along the Alaskan Peninsula, now entering
territory that few pleasure vessels had ever entered. Seas grew rougher
and the weather colder as they neared the Bering Sea.
July 7, 1899 - Shumagin
Islands
Ritter, Saunders, Palache, Kincaid and Kelly set up a
camp on Popof Island in the Shumagins, and remained there to
collect specimens for ten days. The boat steamed north
through the Bering Sea.
July 8, 1899 - Bering Sea,
Unalaska and Bogoslof
John Burroughs made arrangements to stay behind in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska.
He'd had enough of the rough, cold Bering Sea, but John Muir and Charles
Keeler discovered his plan and coaxed him back on the ship. Later that
day, a party took a launch to Bogoslof and were charged by sea lion bulls
on the beach. Harriman, true to form, charged back.
July 9, 1899 - St. Paul, the
Pribilofs
As the Elder reached the Pribilof Islands,
Merriam noted with alarm the steep decline in the number of
fur seals since his trip there in 1891. The party visited
St. Paul in the Pribilofs only briefly, then the boat
steamed toward Siberia. Shortly after leaving, the
Elder became hung up on a rock, but the boat was not
damaged.
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Fur seals on
St. Paul Island, 1899, photographed by C. Hart
Merriam.
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July 10, 1899 - Bering
Sea
From the Pribilofs, the ship steamed toward Siberia, because Mrs.
Harriman had a desire to put her foot on Siberian soil and see the polar
regions. The boat continued northward, much to Burroughs's disappointment.
July 11, 1899 - Plover Bay,
Siberia
The party comes ashore at Plover Bay in Siberia, and visits a small
Eskimo settlement. The Eskimoes were clearly impoverished and in very
poor health.
July 12, 1899 - Port
Clarence
After leaving Siberia, the boat headed for Port
Clarence. Here they were able to visit with Eskimos, gold
miners and whalers.
July 13, 1899 - St. Lawrence
Island
Harriman still hoped to bag another bear, this time a
polar bear. Merriam, out exploring with two of the Harriman
daughters, saw what he thought were two polar bears in the
distance. They followed behind the white animals for two
miles, and finally realized they were chasing arctic
swans.
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Top:
Violet-green cormorant, Phalacrocorax pelagius
robustus, Point Gustavus, Glacier Bay, June 11,
1899. Bottom: White-crested cormorant,
Phalacrocorax dilophus cincinatus, Kukak
Bay, Alaska Penninsula, July 1899.
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July 14, 1899 - Hall
Island
Fuertes found this island rich in seabird life, and
easily shot and collected a large number of the island's sea
birds.
July 15, 1899 - St. Matthew
Island
Some in the party continued to hunt polar bear, unsuccessfully. Fuertes
and Fischer captured two blue foxes. This marked the end of the Elder's
outward journey and the ship charts a homeward course.
July 16 through 19, 1899 - Steaming Southward
The research party left behind on the Shumagins is
retrieved.
July 20, 1899 - Return to
Kodiak
The return trip to Kodiak included a birthday party
celebration for Cornelia Harriman.
July 21 through 25 - Steaming
Southward
Except for a brief stop in Juneau, the Elder
continued the homeward trip.
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A group
photograph of the Harriman Alaska Expedition taken
on the beach at Cape Fox, July 26, 1899 by Edward
Curtis.
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July 26 and 27, 1899 - Cape
Fox
The Elder anchored off of Cape Fox village, the
uninhabited Tlingit village that Dellenbaugh had been told
about earlier in the trip. The crew collected many
artifacts, and took them aboard the Elder.
July 28 through 30, 1899 -
Steaming to Seattle
The Harriman Alaska Expedition ended as the Elder
steamed into Seattle on July 30, 1899.
(top)
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The Elder
The Elder steams past
Wellesley Glacier, 1899. Photographed by C. Hart
Merriam.
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larger view
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"I start tomorrow on a
two month trip with Harriman's Alaska expedition.
John Burroughs and Professor Brewer and a whole lot
of good naturalists are going. But I would not have
gone, however tempting, were it not to visit the
only part of the coast I have not seen ...This has
been a barren year and I am less the willing to go
... I lost half the winter in a confounded fight
with sheep and cattlemen and politicians on behalf
of the forests. During the other half I was
benumbed and interrupted by sickness in the
family."
John Muir, in a letter dated May 24, 1899, writing
about his imminent departure for Alaska.
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"It was as appalling to
look up as to look down; chaos and death below us,
impending avalanches of hanging rocks above us. How
elemental and cataclysmal it all looked! I felt as
if I were seeing for the first time the real
granite ribs of the earth; they had been cut into
and slivered and they were real and solid. All I
had seen before were but scales and warts on the
surface by comparison; here were the primal rocks,
sweeping up into the clouds and plunging down into
the abyss, that held the planet together."
John Burroughs, writing about the his trip up the
White Pass Railroad, in The Harriman Alaska
Expedition, Volume I.
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"Sitka is said to be
one of the rainiest spots on the coast, but the
four days we passed there were not so bad: sun and
cloud and spurts of rain each day but no
considerable downpour. We came into the
island-studded and mountain-locked harbor from the
north and saw the town with its quaint old
government buildings and its line of Indian houses
close to the beach, outlined against a near-by
background of steep high spruce -covered
snow-capped mountains, with the white volcanic cone
of Edgecomb 3,000 feet high towards the open
ocean.
John Burroughs,
"Sitka Ravens," Harriman Alaska Series, Vol.
I.
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"Someone told Harriman
that I knew the Indians, as he called them, better
than anyone else, and I could get him the best man
to sing for him. ...We went on with the songs after
lunch, and at the end of the day Harriman asked me
what he should give the Natives. I told him what
the usual wages were and suggested that sum. He
seemed very much peeved ... He said, he couldn't
bother and he told his secretary to give them
twenty dollars, and he hurried off. I didn't think
so much of Mr. Harriman."
Bertram Wilbur of Sitka writes about the Harriman
stop in Sitka in an unpublished memoir from the
Sitka Historical Society.
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"When we reached
Iliuliuk on the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian
Islands we had some hours ashore before continuing
our voyage into the Bering Sea. Mr. Muir and I had
been strolling about on shore and were just
returning to the steamer when we saw John Burroughs
walking down the gang plank with a grip in his
hand.
"Where are you going with that grip, Johnny?"
demanded Muir suspiciously.
Burroughs tried to give an evasive answer. But on
seeing he was caught he confessed. He had found a
nice old lady ashore who had fresh eggs for
breakfast and was going to board there and wait for
us while we went up to the Bering Sea. He didn't
like going into those tempestuous waters.
Charles Keeler, writing in Friends Bearing
Torches about John Burroughs's attempt to jump
ship in Dutch Harbor. Muir and Keeler escorted back
to the ship.
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"The group of people
after dinner became quite riotous and danced and
sang and yelled very merrily. We had drunk water at
dinner and a steward he had never known this to
have such an effect before. On the other hand, Muir
attributes the merriment to the proximity of the
glaciers."
George Bird Grinnell, from his diary.
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