The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
That I cremated Som McGee.
* * *
Within a few weeks a young man from Racine will be in the locale of that famous poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee," by Robert W. Service, among the lakes, streams and woodlands of the Canadian Yukon.
He is Lynn Staples, 27, well known here, who visited at the home of Warren Walker over the holidays, and who is known as one of the youngest men in America to head a successful gold prospecting venture.
Not His First Trip.
It will not be Staples' first visit to the north country made famous in ballad and story. He went there in 1931, returning in the following two years to pave the way for the expedition to start this February.
In 1931, Staples (a transport pilot with a background of experience in the 107th Army Observation squadron stationed near Detroit), joined an aerial gold expedition captained by James Eastman, Detroit sportsman and airplane builder. The expedition penetrated into the region around Frances lake, 350 miles north of Atlin, B. C., with Staples as pilot of one of the flying boats on a share basis. But the group was
compelled to give up the territory as a bad job and the Racine man returned to Atlin. Here he organized a company of his own to check the story of a prospector, and with five men flew to Quiet lake, the site of coming operations.
Heavy Deposits Indicated.
Staples and his associates spent part of 1932 and 1933 sinking shafts and conducting other operations which*= convinced them that the region contains heavy gold deposits, and paving the way for the intensive mining to follow.
Seventy tons of placer mining equipment and materials and 15 tons of food and utensils will leave by rail for White Horse, near the southern boundary of the Canadian Yukon, before Staples takes off by plane from Detroit in February. He will meet the expedition at White Horse, and will assist in loading the equipment on scows for transportation up the Lewes river to Lake Lebarge, then up the Teslin river to Teslin lake, and thence up the Nisutlin river to Quiet lake. This is 10 miles from the seat of operations, and Staples is negotiating with the Canadian government for permission to
build a stretch of road from Quiet lake to the mining site on Iron Creek.
Has Had Adventures.
Lest his story might help to start a rush to the Quiet Lake area by
gold-eager men, Staples pointed out that ample financial backing is required for operations over a long period of years in the face of heavy obstacles in a rough, wild
country. For him, much of the thrill has gone out of gold hunting; it has become a practical and not a romantic venture. But he has found his share of adventure in the Yukon country. He has traveled many miles on foot and by cande in the wilderness when supplies gave out; he has been lost in a mountain pass after his disabled plane had been forced down on a distant lake; and he knows something of the "grip of the Yukon" as pictured by such writers as Robert Service and Jack London.
