By Edwin Warren Presented by Barry Kibler
THE BIRDMAN OF TREADWELL
Through his diaries Edwin Warren takes you back in time over a hundred years ago as if in a time capsule. It is as if you are there by his side and can imagine you are in his place as he witnesses death and injury on all too many occasions in the world famous Treadwell gold mine on Douglas Island, Alaska.
You will experience the daily routine working at the mine including a near riot, rescuing a little Indian boy from a near tragic fall, the Treadwell Ghost, the fear of working with an incompetent hoist operator who dropped the cage on several occasions including once with volatile explosives. Working as a powder man you will come close to death in a near collision with the ore train and the powder truck. You will experience what the accommodations were like at the beginning of the last century on the many different steam boats Edwin sailed on during his two adventures to Alaska.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EDWIN WARREN
THE BIRDMAN OF TREADWELL
Edwin Warren was born in Quincy, California on June. 20, 1881 and died in Oakland, California, January 1974. Edwin was very religious as the warrens were very stern Methodist’s, as they were among the original Methodist’s that founded Pacific Grove as a religious retreat. Edwin made two journeys to Alaska were he worked as a miner at the Treadwell gold mine on Douglas Island, Alaska the first journey was in 1903 and then again in 1904.
Edwin went to Alaska for two reasons the first was to earn his tuition at Stanford University were he attended in the years of 1904 – 1908 and studied ornithology, Zoology and English literature. The other reason he went to Alaska was to pursue his interest in ornithology.
While on these journeys Edwin kept his dairies which are now with the passage of time historical over one hundred years later. Edwin tells of death & injury in the mine. He worked as a miner, powder man and as a cage tender as well as in the 300 stamp mill.
Edwin owned a Dairy in Menlo Park, California shortly after attending Stanford and later owned a three hundred acre Ranch in northern California were he was a rice grower.
In Edwin’s later years he once remarked to my mother Margaret Kibler that he had missed his calling and that he should have been a professor, I was told by an aunt that Edwin senior was a professor, but that has not been confirmed.
Edwin was a true Gentleman at all times under even the worst of situations and never raised his voice in anger and never used a profanity under any circumstance.
&am
August 6, 1903
NEAR RIOT AT TREADWELL
This evening, I went down town and got the mail. I had a letter from home, and also one from Margaret in Honolulu. Both were very cheering. I met an Indian girl on the track who had several buckets of blue berries such as I saw yesterday. After this, I will not be afraid to eat them. There came near to being a general mix-up between the Slavs and white men tonight. The fight was on between a big Slav and one of the blacksmiths, and the Slavs were not giving them a fair show. The Americans wanted to separate them and the Slavs began to mix things. Several fights were on and a general riot was in danger when the hose was turned on and cooled things down a bit.
NEAR EXPLOSION AT TREADWELL
I am still helping the powder man, and so do not have to change shifts. Today, we were bringing up a load of caps from the magazine and we came near having a collision with the train in the six hundred level. We had five boxes of caps in the truck, and Billy, the powder man, went ahead to have the train stop until we got out. He told the conductor we were coming out, and the conductor said he would tell the engineer and they would not come back until we got through. But when we started in, the conductor forgot all about us and failed to tell the engineer.
When about halfway through the level, the cable began to move and Billy ran ahead. He met the train and yelled to the conductor, who jumped off and gave the signal with his candle sticks to stop. Billy tried to signal by pressing the wires together, but it did not seem to work. The train did not stop until it was within a couple of feet of the truck. If they had come together there would have almost certainly been an explosion, and if there had, I would not be writing this. It happened so quickly that I hardly had time to get scared before the danger was over.
