A lonely death on the Stony River

On March 23 1913, the United States commissioner at Georgetown, a mining camp on the Kuskokwim River, received word a man's body had been found 45 miles above the confluence of the Stony and Kuskokwim.

Four days of mushing in soft spring snow were necessary to reach the body. At night the travelers, had, in Stier's words, to "siwash it," using "the heavens for a tent."

Stier and company arrived at their destination on the morning of March 27, 1912. The inquest and burial took a day and a half, digging a grave the most time-consuming activity. Lumber for a coffin was aboard the sleds; one of the mushers was a carpenter or enough a carpenter to do the job.

Citation

Carey, M. “A lonely death on the Stony River”. Anchorage Daily News. April 27, 2010.