Roger Atoruk: Interview Outline: Section 2 Miners Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-07 Roger Atoruk talks with Bill Schneider, Hazel Apok, and Eileen Devinney in Kiana, Alaska on February 27, 2002

Bill Schneider: You were talking about the miners used to live?

Roger Atoruk: Yeah. Miners and -- and do you want me to talk about the miners a little bit?

Hazel Apok: Yeah.

Old timers Teddy Westlake (left), Albert Wise (center), and Jack Casanoff (right) [Photo courtesy of Lorenz Schuerch Jr.]

Roger Atoruk: Yeah, there was -- I was born in 1930, and the mining started around maybe 19 -- around 19 -- 1898 maybe, maybe 1899. So the mining - they did some mining in Klery Creek (map). From what I heard, it was Andy Garbin discovered gold in Klery Creek, and there was a gold rush up here. And then when I was growing up, I've seen those buildings, log cabin buildings down in the lower -- lower end of the town down here. There was, from what I heard, there was two bars, I think, two bars, restaurant, jail house. There was even a magistrate. There was a marshal.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum.

Roger Atoruk: It was a gold mining town. This place was a gold mining town. I've only seen the buildings because they were already -- all gone. That was in 19 -- 1935, '36, '37. I've seen the buildings. And I had been told that those were the mining -- the miners' buildings, you know, the - like restaurants.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum.

Roger Atoruk: Maybe there was even a bar. I think there was a bar. Have you heard about that?

Andrew Garbin and unidentified man (right) at Klery Creek, circa 1908 [Photo courtesy of Lorenz Schuerch Jr.]

Hazel Apok: No, but I remember seeing my papa's mining claims. I don't know how many people claimed, you know, had filed for mining claims, but I remember seeing my papa with some.

Roger Atoruk: And there was a few -- few old-timers still living when - like Blankenship, Blankenship Trading Post, they started Blankenship Trading Post. And there was John Mellon. He had a store. And there was some miners like Andy Garbin, Albert Wise, Jack Casanoff, Teddy Westlake.

Hazel Apok: Joe Kozak.

Roger Atoruk: Joe Quillen. Joe Quillen. And Tom Baldwin. There was a whole bunch of miners that -- that were still living when I was growing up. And they have some ancestors here in Kiana. Like there's some Baldwins, there's Westlake. No Casanoffs, though, and no Kozaks.

Hazel Apok: Schuerchs.

Roger Atoruk: Joe Kozak got married, though he didn't have any children.

Bill Schneider: What were they mining for?

Roger Atoruk: Gold. They were mining for gold. There's gold in Klery Creek (map). There's a dredge up there, too. And then around 19 -- maybe 1940 -- '42 or '43, they put a dredge up there, a gold mining dredge. Do you know what a dredge is? It's a -- it's the machinery for picking up gold. There was Lammers, a guy by the name of Lammers, he put up a dredge up there. It -- that dredge is still up there.

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