Alatna

"Then why aren't we heading straight north up the Alatna and over the Antigun Pass?"

Ice Hunt Rollins, James, 1961- 2003

We passed the mouth of the Alatna, where were two or three Indian cabins, and went on the remaining ten miles to Moses 'Village, where the body of the man frozen to death had been brought.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

So I staked a mission site, and set up notices claiming ground for that purpose, almost opposite the mouth of the Alatna, which, in the native tongue, is Allakaket or Allachaket.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

River, as the white men call it, a tributary of the Koyukuk that comes in about one hundred and fifty miles below the Alatna.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

It was on this Alatna-Kobuk portage that we saw the most magnificent sunrise any of us could remember.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

The visit to the native village and the burial of the poor fellow frozen to death would take us ten miles farther down than that, and we would return to the Alatna mouth.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

There was some trail up the Alatna and we made fair headway on its surface, stopping two nights at Kobuk huts.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

Pitching tent at a spot opposite the mouth of the Alatna, with the aid of a skilled carpenter and a couple of axemen brought from the mining district above, and the labour of the Indians, the little log church and the mission house were put up and prepared for the two ladies -- a trained nurse and a teacher -- who should arrive on the first steamboat.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891

Back next day at the mouth of the Alatna, I was again impressed with the eligibility of that spot as a mission site.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Hudson Stuck 1891