Fairbanks is Discovered

Fairbanks is Discovered. . , The passage to Tanacross was not possible due to low water levels. Captain Adams dropped Barnette, his trade goods and family on the banks of the Chena Slough. Captain Adams stayed long enough to construct two cabins. One was for storage and the other for living quarters., Frank Cleary, Barnette's brother-in-law, traveled to the trading post over the winter. In March 1901, Barnette and his wife walked to Valdez. Cleary stayed to watch the post during Barnette's absence. Barnette traveled to Seattle where he bought more supplies and a shallow draft boat which he later named Isabelle after his wife., The draft boat was dismantled and shipped to St. Michael and the machinery from the sunken Arctic Boy was installed. Barnette, in the Isabelle, left St. Michael in August 1902 for his cabin on the Chena Slough, fully intending to proceed to Tanacross. Shortly after arriving, he found Felix Pedro and his companions had made a big gold strike in June 1902. Barnette quickly changed his plans of settling in Tanacross in hopes of making money from the strikes near his unplanned cabin site along the Chena Slough., [Left inset box reads] , Impossible Journey , The Tanana River was too shallow to navigate. The Chena Slough was Barnette's last option for traveling to Tanacross for the season., [Center shows] The Lavelle Young's Route, [Right inset box reads] , Journey's End , The Lavelle Young made it only 15 miles up the Chena Slough. It was too shallow to navigate any farther. Barnette, his crew and supplies were unloaded and left along the Chena Slough., [Bottom photo captions, left and right, read] , . Sternwheeler Isabelle, . Felix Pedro discovered the first economical gold to mine in the Fairbanks area.