KOUGEROK SPECIAL
LOCOMOTIVE CHASES RABBITS. I’ve just come back from a “train ride” that could' be possible only in Alaska, where fantastic things are the rule. It was a wild forty-mile dash' on the “Kougerok Special” from Nome to the Gold Creek Mining Camp. The track, a genuine narrow-gauge affair, the “coach,” a miniautre covered wagon on wheels; and the “engine power,” seven huge Siberian dogs, each of which had more wolf than canlie heritage. The driver, Kaska, was half Russian, half Aleut. He grinned at my look of astonishment. The dogs were howling and barking and straining at the traces.
“Don’t worry, jus’ hang on. We go slow first, but by’m by, you see. .’ . .”
At first we rattled comfortably along the narrow track, the dogs trotting in pleasant unison. We were soon out of sight of the town of Nome. Around us stretched the tundra, flat, treeless, thickly carpeted with fireweed and blue lupine. FULL CRY OVER THE TUNDRA. Suddenly a rabbit crossed the track. And instantly our “engine,” all seven of it, gaVe a howl of delight, and went in maid pursuit, pulling the coach right off the tracks. Kaska and I were jounced out. Across the tundra went the “Kougerok Special” in full cry, the unwiledy coach bumping over the ground. Kaska shouted and cursed. And finally they came hack, shamefaced, tongues dripping. The “train” was put on the track 'again, and we went on.
’ An hour later we came to the brink of a downhill grade, and the. dogs stiffened to a stop. Then, without so much as a “by your leave,” they all jumped aboard! One big silver timber wolf climbed sociably into my lap, and snapped at another who had the same idea. Kaska laughed as he gave the coach a, push. “That’s all right, they always ride downhill. We go 10 miles this way.” The grade was steeper than it looked. We shot downward at a speed that rocked us from side to side. We careered around the hairpin curves and swooshed over bridges that spanned deep canyons. I didn’t think we’d ever make it . . . but we did. And. when the “train” finally came to a stop, the dogs barked noisly, leaped down and took their places, and trotted on towards our destination. Kaska, said this track was laid during the gold rush about 30 years ago. A small locomotive pulled freight to and from the minig camps along the Kougerok River. But it cost a lot to fuel the engine, and soon the companies began freighting by water, and the train stopped running.
Husky dogs, however, have to be fed, even in the Summer months when they are not normally working. So the “dogomotive’ 'idea was evolved, and has been very successful. 1 asked Kaska if the company carried rabbit, insurance. He grinned. “Oh, doso dogs, dey don’, go off the track much . . . jus’ sometimes.” Helen Wilcox in the New York ‘Herald Tribune.”
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Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1938, Page 8
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491KOUGEROK SPECIAL Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1938, Page 8
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