Document 29: Last Letter Home from R. Hunter Fitzhugh
Robert Hunter Fitzhugh Collection, Box 2, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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Rampart, Alaska
October 29, 1900
Dear Mother,
...I have been out in the hills for the past four weeks prospecting and building a cabin. Oh! this eternal round of cabin building, when will it end? I and another fellow, a Morman (sic) from Utah, whip-sawed 600 feet of lumber last week for our floor, door and windows. The Yukoners say that when one of us has not been as good as he should dies, the devil puts him to whip-sawing; but if he is faithful and doesn't complain under the trail, he is then simply burned through eternity....Well, it is trying, this making of a saw mill of yourself... The ice began to run October 9th., and is still running, but will probably freeze up in a few days.
Be sure to send clippings and don't forget the election.
Goodnight.
Your loving son
—Hunter Fitzhugh's last letter home.Hhe was killed six days later, in an avalanche, while hunting.