Retracing an Irishman’s Journey During the Last Great Gold Rush

FOOTprints ACROSS

AMERICAMichael McMonagle

16mmconfirmed

Inspired by the adventures of a hardy nineteenth-century Irish emigrant to America, Micí Mac Gabhann, who detailed his exploits in the Irish language book Rotha Mór an tSaoil, Michael McMonagle undertakes an epic journey to retrace his steps. Following Micí’s

journey from New York to the Klondike Gold Rush, he traverses the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains of Montana, and the vast Alaskan wilderness. As he compares the America that Micí encountered in the late nineteenth century with that of the twenty-first century, the

author provides a unique perspective on a very different America.

Footprints Across America weaves the two journeys together and highlights the strong links between both eras. We are brought to historic places like Butte and Dawson City, mining ghost towns, Native American reservations, ranch houses and isolated Alaskan villages.

We are dragged up mountains and down rivers. In these out-of-the-way places, the voices of cowboys, shamans, exotic dancers, soldiers, chancers, miners and Native Americans

emerge to paint an insightful picture of life in America today, while the author also paints a compelling picture of the life of an immigrant caught up in the excitement of the Gold Rush.

Michael McMonagle is an entertaining, easy-going and humorous travel companion who has an empathetic ear for the people he encounters and an observant eye for the natural

world. In Footprints Across America he reveals the diverse and fascinating nature of America, then and now.

Michael McMonagle lives in Donegal. He is the author of Walking the Back Roads: A Journey from Donegal to Clonmacnoise (Appletress Press, 2008).

Top cover photograph: Two missionaries headed for the Klondike gold fields at the height of the Gold Rush in 1897, Alaska © Corbis images.

Bottom cover photograph: St Mary Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana © Michael McMonagle

Cover design by www.sinedesign.netwww.orpenpress.com

Mich

ael McM

onagle

FOOTprints ACROSS AMERICA

156mm

234m

m

About the Author

Michael McMonagle was born in 1953. A graduate of University College Dublin and University of Dundee, he has worked in commu-nity development and as a manager of children’s services within the Health Service Executive. He is currently a director of the Life-start Foundation and chairperson of Tir Boghaine Teo. His interests include sea kayaking, cycling, hiking, wildlife, trees and conserva-tion. He lives with his family in Mountcharles, County Donegal. His previous travel book is called Walking the Back Roads: A Journey from Donegal to Clonmacnoise (Appletress Press, 2008).

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Footprints Across America

Retracing an Irishman’s Journey During the Last Great Gold Rush

Michael McMonagle

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For all emigrants and refugees who, like Micí Mac Gabhann, have crossed a ‘bridge of tears’ in their lives.

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Acknowledgements

Travel writers always carry a debt of gratitude to strangers they meet along the way. This book would not be possible without them.

Friends and family have helped shape this book. Special thanks to my family Terry, Eoghan, Aoife and Cróna, and to the observations of Kevin Montgomery, Dr Aisling Gillen, Fatemeh Movahedi, Keith Corcoran, Marie Sundberg, Winnifred McNulty, Richard Boggs and Catherine Breslin.

All at Orpen Press have done a great job in bringing this book to fruition, especially Eileen O’Brien and Elizabeth Brennan.

Thanks to John Hearne who edited this book with a discerning and sympathetic eye.

Seán Ó hEochaidh brought the story of Micí Mac Gabhann to the world. This enriched our understanding of the Irish emmigration story. Valentin Iremonger brought the story to a wider audience through his authentic translation of Rotha Mór an tSaoil into English.

The author is grateful to Horslips and Barry Devlin for permission to use a quote from their song, ‘The Wrath of the Rain’.

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‘Where have they gone to, those faded faces, Those fi erce moustachioed men?’

Excerpt from ‘The Wrath of the Rain’ by Horslips, Aliens (1977, Oats/Horslips Records) Copyright © 1977, Horslips. Reproduced with permission.

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Contents

About the Author ............................................................................... iiAcknowledgements ........................................................................... viiMap of America – The Lower Forty-Eight and

Map of Western Montana .............................................................. xMap of Yukon and Alaska ................................................................ xiPreface .................................................................................................. xiii

1 Road to Bethlehem ..................................................................... 12 Easton to Harrsiburg ................................................................. 123 Harrisburg to Chicago .............................................................. 214 Chicago to Minot ....................................................................... 275 Minot to Whitefi sh, Montana ................................................... 336 Whitefi sh and Flathead Reservation ....................................... 407 St Ignatius and Missoula .......................................................... 528 Philipsburg and Gold Creek .................................................... 609 Butt e, America ............................................................................ 7110 The Bitt erroots ............................................................................ 7911 Cowboy Country ....................................................................... 8612 Browning and Glacier National Park ...................................... 9613 Browning to Seatt le.................................................................... 10514 Anchorage, Alaska ..................................................................... 11815 Fairbanks ..................................................................................... 13316 Fort Yukon .................................................................................. 14617 Fairbanks to Dawson ................................................................. 16218 Dawson City ............................................................................... 17219 Dawson to Whitehorse .............................................................. 18620 Whitehorse to Anchorage ......................................................... 19821 Home ........................................................................................... 207

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Preface

On a bright March day, I was walking with my son, Eoghan, through the rugged terrain of West Donegal. We had left Magheroarty on the coast and were heading for Derry, fi fty miles away. With the cone of Errigal at our backs and the bleak craggy bulk of Muckish Mountain in front of us, we stopped for something to eat at a place called ‘The Bridge of Tears’. Traditionally this was where emigrants from West Donegal bade farewell to family and friends when leaving for America. The group would halt just before the bridge, while the emi-grant would cross alone. Family and friends would watch until he or she disappeared from view, knowing that it was unlikely they would ever see their loved one again.

A book called Rotha Mór an tSaoil, translated as The Big Wheel of Life, had brought me to this place. It was a book that had grabbed my att en-tion as a boy, and had kept me awake during Irish class. It was full of adventures in remote and spectacular locations, places a boy could only dream about. It documented the life of a man called Micí Mac Gabhann, who in 1885, aged nineteen, took his courage in his hands and left to seek his fortune in America. He too walked across this bridge, leaving behind kith, kin and hard times on a small, stony farm at the edge of the Atlantic. Along with countless others in a Europe hit by war, poverty, religious persecution and the eff ects of industrial revolution, he was drawn by that beacon of hope – America.

Rotha Mór an tSaoil tells the story of Micí’s journey from Derry to New York and on to Pennsylvania, where he worked on the canals and in the famous steel mills of Bethlehem. The lure of silver and copper brought him across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains of Montana where he spent eleven years mining in Granite, Butt e, Gold Creek and on the slopes of Old Baldy Mountain. When he heard that there was gold in the Klondike, he gathered his few belongings and made his way to Seatt le. From there he took a steamer north to the mouth of the Yukon River in Alaska, then journeyed for another two thousand miles by boat and on foot to Dawson City in the Klondike.

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xiv Preface

He had many escapades along the way, and met people from all parts of the globe, including Native American tribes, miners, chanc-ers and bandits. He experienced extreme cold, frostbite, dangerous working conditions, grizzly bears and mountain lions. He crossed one of the most pristine wildernesses on earth, and learned how to survive.

Boom and bust were as common in Micí’s time as they are today. The 1890s in America were often called ‘the reckless decade’. Banks collapsed, businesses folded and, in the hard times that followed, people suff ered desperately. This was the end of the frontier era. The ‘Indian Wars’ were coming to an end, the Native Americans were being forced onto reservations, the buff alo were being slaughtered and the golden era of the cowboy dawned and dwindled. Then, as now, the same big wheel of life kept on turning.

I had decided to give life to my dream as a boy. I was going to chase Micí’s fading footprints across America and onto the Klondike. His dream was fuelled by the prospect of gold and silver. Mine, by curi-osity and a desire to glimpse the wonders he encountered and to see how the world he passed through had changed.

I crossed America by bus and train, drove around Montana, hiked in the mountains and took a train to the port of Seatt le. I fl ew to Anchorage, Alaska and travelled by train, small plane and minibus to the Klondike. I cycled in the hills in search of Micí’s gold claim and kayaked on the Yukon River. I followed my nose on the journey and, as a consequence, interesting new worlds and people opened up to me.

This is my story.

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Retracing an Irishman’s Journey During the Last Great Gold Rush

FOOTprints ACROSS

AMERICAMichael McMonagle

16mmconfirmed

Inspired by the adventures of a hardy nineteenth-century Irish emigrant to America, Micí Mac Gabhann, who detailed his exploits in the Irish language book Rotha Mór an tSaoil, Michael McMonagle undertakes an epic journey to retrace his steps. Following Micí’s

journey from New York to the Klondike Gold Rush, he traverses the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains of Montana, and the vast Alaskan wilderness. As he compares the America that Micí encountered in the late nineteenth century with that of the twenty-first century, the

author provides a unique perspective on a very different America.

Footprints Across America weaves the two journeys together and highlights the strong links between both eras. We are brought to historic places like Butte and Dawson City, mining ghost towns, Native American reservations, ranch houses and isolated Alaskan villages.

We are dragged up mountains and down rivers. In these out-of-the-way places, the voices of cowboys, shamans, exotic dancers, soldiers, chancers, miners and Native Americans

emerge to paint an insightful picture of life in America today, while the author also paints a compelling picture of the life of an immigrant caught up in the excitement of the Gold Rush.

Michael McMonagle is an entertaining, easy-going and humorous travel companion who has an empathetic ear for the people he encounters and an observant eye for the natural

world. In Footprints Across America he reveals the diverse and fascinating nature of America, then and now.

Michael McMonagle lives in Donegal. He is the author of Walking the Back Roads: A Journey from Donegal to Clonmacnoise (Appletress Press, 2008).

Top cover photograph: Two missionaries headed for the Klondike gold fields at the height of the Gold Rush in 1897, Alaska © Corbis images.

Bottom cover photograph: St Mary Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana © Michael McMonagle

Cover design by www.sinedesign.netwww.orpenpress.com

Mich

ael McM

onagle

FOOTprints ACROSS AMERICA156mm

234m

m