Dear Steve, Thank you so much for taking the time to include the excerpt from Star of the West. Most certainly Ms. Susan Rice should be mentioned.
It would have been a long and arduous journey on the Yukon from Canada to Alaska and definitely would have taken all summer. Even now, a river-trip that would take 1 hour by single-engine plane takes 1-2 days by River - especially travelling up-stream as she would have been, on the Yukon. Then to gain access to Fairbanks from the Yukon River, she would have travelled on the much smaller Tanana River. There would not have been any other way to reach Fairbanks in summer. The Alaska Railroad wasn't completed until 1923. Also in the article, Mrs. Haney states: "...and indirectly through her the Message was carried to Wiseman, the most northerly point, in habited at that time." Wiseman was a mining community during the Gold Rush, Wiseman still exists with a population of about 6,000 people accessible now, by the Dalton Hwy. http://www.arcticgetaway.com/map.htm. At the time of Ms. Rice's trip Wiseman would have been a large mining community although the Gold Rush per se was basically over. She probably spoke with someone who resided there. However, Wiseman was NOT the most northerly inhabited point. In 1918 hundreds of Eskimos died in the Northern Region of Alaska from the great influenze epidemic, including the more widely known Nome and Point Barrow which was and still is the most northerly point inhabited in North America. In his book, "Alaskan Baha'i Community: Its Growth and Development, The Formative Years: To 156 B.E. (1999)" John Kolstoe writes that Agnes Alexander traveled in Southeast Alaska (Juneau area) and taught the Faith in 1905. I don't have a page reference for you at this time -or his source of information. If you like I can send you his e-mail address privately. Lovingly, Sandra ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
