Joe Sieber was born in Herndon, Rawlins County, Kansas. In a letter written to Joe by his older brother John Seber, John tells of the long trip from Atwood, Kansas. They traveled 1300 miles in a covered wagon, John mentions walking many miles on this trip with his older sister Tracey, and that Joe and Mike probably didn't remember that trip. They left Atwood about 1895.
Former Carlton Man Writes Interesting Letter
SENDS PHOTO OF HIS HOME
Seems To Be Happy and Well Satisfied With His Experience So Far
_________
The Vidette is pleased to print the following letter, received by Mr. and Mrs. Mike Seber of Wright, from their brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Seber, who were among the Carlton county (Minnesota) people, who left last spring for Palmer, Alaska. Mr and Mrs.Joe Seber, and five sons were well known residents of Wright, prior to leaving for the North and the letter, reproduced below, in one of the most interesting ones we have seen, concerning conditions in their new home. The Sebers also lived in Carlton for some time prior to moving to Wright. Mrs. Seber is a daughter of the late Mrs. Joseph Chartier.
Palmer, Alaska, Dec. 24, 1935.
Dear Brother and Sister:
Just received your welcome letter about an hour ago. We were very glad to hear from you. I am sorry that I have not written to you long before this and I am at fault and take blame, although I had planned on writing about this time to you and some friends back in the states, I can tell by your letter that you do not feel hurt, and that is the right way to feel and this will maybe help some. This is the first letter I have written since putting my feet on Alaskan soil. Then again I thought you were getting all of the news and probably more than you cared to hear through ths press, although some of these news writers are crazy. Everything and anything for the money that is in it, and according to the letters and news we get from the states you people there have a hard time to judge the facts of this project. There is no one living person that can tell you the exact outcome of this project.
Most of the soil is very good and there is none of it below good. The climate is fine, I think. Here is about the way it runs: From May 15 until Aug. 31 the temperature was from 40 to 80 degrees and for a while for spells in July and August it was above 90. The cool nights is what causes a variation in the temperature. From September on it went a little lower than this but it did not freeze here where we are located until October. About Nov. 1 to 15 we had a cold snap. It went down to 5 below zero, and the first two weeks this month we got about six inches of snow and a cold spell that registered 22 below. The old timers here in the valley say that will be about the coldest we will have this winter or that it gets any winter.
When we arrived here the grass was getting green and the trees were budding. That was May 16, a day which we here will always remember.
The present crops here in the valley should speak for themselves. They grow a hay crop here that is a combination of peas, oats, and some kind of grass I can't name. It yields from _____________ that has been used, and I broke pea pods from 4 to 8 inches long and the peas were as sweet as sugar. Nov. 15 I went and picked cranberries. Bob and I got about sixty quarts in about four hours. These berries are small red ones and grow on a small low vine on high land and are much better than the low bush ones in the states. Before I forget, on this trip I picked some barley out of a stack and it was the nicest, largest barley I ever saw. Some oats went 80 bushels per acre, big kernels. No corn as yet. Get lots of rain and quick drainage. The valley is full of wild currents and raspberries. The blueberries just grow in certain places. Spruce, birch and cottonwood are about all the wood we have here.
The valley is not flooded with game but there is considerable of it. Plenty of black bears. I saw seven of them in one week and Bob and I got three cub bears in July. Bob kept one of them for a while, but there was no place to keep it so he sold it for $6. But if you go back into the mountains or hills, as they call them here, there is lots of game. Sheep, goats, brown and silver grizzlys. They say there is quite a number of them and plenty big.
Lest I forget, at Thanksgiving time Bobby, Wilbur, and I went for a hike toward the glacier, which is about thirty miles from here. At noon the first day on our start we ran into two wolves. One saw us about the time we saw it and it beat it for the brush. The other one evidently did not, so I did some tall running and sneaking until I got within about 400 long steps. This was a meadow, on a shallow lake. I could not get any closer without him seeing me, so I took a chance with a 30-30 Winchester carbine. I shot four times and missed but the fifth shot caught him in the rear hip and came out the neck and he was our wolf, $20 bounty and the hide. We did a little hunting for the other one, but did not see him. We had to pack the one about a mile to where we could cook up and skin him. By that time it was 3 P.M., and at that time in Alaska it is time to make camp for the night, so we headed for the foot of the mountains and there the water is deeper and it was not frozen any too hard. Here we ran into a nest or two of otters, land otters. We could have shot them but were afraid they would fall back into a whole in the ice, so we left them, thinking we could trap them later.
We camped there that night. The weather turned warm that night so we decided to go back home and go to see the glacier come other time, when we had more time. When I got home I learned you have to have the left front leg bone to get the bounty, so two days later, Sandvik, one of our neighbors, and I went back and got the front leg bone. We saw the otters again and camped over that night. Saw two wolves again there next morning and last night one of the colonists saw two big black wolves here within twenty rods of the house. My neighbors here across the road from us, Joe Lind from Wisconsin, and I got a big moose about 40 rods from the house. A 3 or 4 year old male. Sure was fine eating. We got it just when cold weather set in. Some of the colonists went back home alright, thirty-one of them I think. Some were sick when they came, some got sick while here, which could not be helped, but most of them got sick when they found they had to go to work. They just could not face a little hardship. The mosquitos are bad but we got along pretty good with them. We had screens and dope.
The corporation has treated the colonist people first class, or as good as good can be expected under all conditions This is the truth and this is for sure. I and the family and many other families here have enjoyed every part of the trip --- the landing, the tent at our arrival, our tent home at Palmer for two months, we had a regular vacation. Then we started to work cutting roads packing out to out forties, all wanted to eat, wear, and had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration. The first trout fishing trip I got, or two of us got, ninety trout, some two pounders.
The picture I am sending will speak for the work I have done. About three-fourths of this house was built by Bob and I. A round log job 28' 6" x 30' 8" inside measurements. There are over 300 pieces of logs in this house, all peeled spruce. Some of the builders of the valley and old settlers say I have the nicest house in the whole valley. I am doing the inside finishing now.
You were asking about how much daylight we have here. Right now are the shortest days. We have seven hours of daylight now, that is on a clear day, light enough to work outside. We have had no sunshine for about three weeks now and about 3 to 5 hours the last six weeks, on account of the high mountains to the south of us which are only 4 or 5 miles away.
Palmer has about three hours of sunshine now as it lays six miles north and three miles west of camp No. 10 or the Butte camp. There are twenty-six of us on this side of the Matanuska river, or on the east side of the river. The butte is a large hill or a small mountain out in the valley, about 700 feet high and there are colonists all around us, so we are called the Butte people. From this hill on a clear day you can see 100 miles to the southwest, fifty miles up the Knick river valley, southeast to the glacier, where you can see about twenty miles wide, northwest across the valley to another range of mountains is about forty miles.
We are all well, With love.
JOE SEBER AND FAMILY
Former Carlton Man Writes Interesting Letter
SENDS PHOTO OF HIS HOME
Seems To Be Happy and Well Satisfied With His Experience So Far
_________
The Vidette is pleased to print the following letter, received by Mr. and Mrs. Mike Seber of Wright, from their brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Seber, who were among the Carlton county (Minnesota) people, who left last spring for Palmer, Alaska. Mr and Mrs.Joe Seber, and five sons were well known residents of Wright, prior to leaving for the North and the letter, reproduced below, in one of the most interesting ones we have seen, concerning conditions in their new home. The Sebers also lived in Carlton for some time prior to moving to Wright. Mrs. Seber is a daughter of the late Mrs. Joseph Chartier.
Palmer, Alaska, Dec. 24, 1935.
Dear Brother and Sister:
Just received your welcome letter about an hour ago. We were very glad to hear from you. I am sorry that I have not written to you long before this and I am at fault and take blame, although I had planned on writing about this time to you and some friends back in the states, I can tell by your letter that you do not feel hurt, and that is the right way to feel and this will maybe help some. This is the first letter I have written since putting my feet on Alaskan soil. Then again I thought you were getting all of the news and probably more than you cared to hear through ths press, although some of these news writers are crazy. Everything and anything for the money that is in it, and according to the letters and news we get from the states you people there have a hard time to judge the facts of this project. There is no one living person that can tell you the exact outcome of this project.
Most of the soil is very good and there is none of it below good. The climate is fine, I think. Here is about the way it runs: From May 15 until Aug. 31 the temperature was from 40 to 80 degrees and for a while for spells in July and August it was above 90. The cool nights is what causes a variation in the temperature. From September on it went a little lower than this but it did not freeze here where we are located until October. About Nov. 1 to 15 we had a cold snap. It went down to 5 below zero, and the first two weeks this month we got about six inches of snow and a cold spell that registered 22 below. The old timers here in the valley say that will be about the coldest we will have this winter or that it gets any winter.
When we arrived here the grass was getting green and the trees were budding. That was May 16, a day which we here will always remember.
The present crops here in the valley should speak for themselves. They grow a hay crop here that is a combination of peas, oats, and some kind of grass I can't name. It yields from _____________ that has been used, and I broke pea pods from 4 to 8 inches long and the peas were as sweet as sugar. Nov. 15 I went and picked cranberries. Bob and I got about sixty quarts in about four hours. These berries are small red ones and grow on a small low vine on high land and are much better than the low bush ones in the states. Before I forget, on this trip I picked some barley out of a stack and it was the nicest, largest barley I ever saw. Some oats went 80 bushels per acre, big kernels. No corn as yet. Get lots of rain and quick drainage. The valley is full of wild currents and raspberries. The blueberries just grow in certain places. Spruce, birch and cottonwood are about all the wood we have here.
The valley is not flooded with game but there is considerable of it. Plenty of black bears. I saw seven of them in one week and Bob and I got three cub bears in July. Bob kept one of them for a while, but there was no place to keep it so he sold it for $6. But if you go back into the mountains or hills, as they call them here, there is lots of game. Sheep, goats, brown and silver grizzlys. They say there is quite a number of them and plenty big.
Lest I forget, at Thanksgiving time Bobby, Wilbur, and I went for a hike toward the glacier, which is about thirty miles from here. At noon the first day on our start we ran into two wolves. One saw us about the time we saw it and it beat it for the brush. The other one evidently did not, so I did some tall running and sneaking until I got within about 400 long steps. This was a meadow, on a shallow lake. I could not get any closer without him seeing me, so I took a chance with a 30-30 Winchester carbine. I shot four times and missed but the fifth shot caught him in the rear hip and came out the neck and he was our wolf, $20 bounty and the hide. We did a little hunting for the other one, but did not see him. We had to pack the one about a mile to where we could cook up and skin him. By that time it was 3 P.M., and at that time in Alaska it is time to make camp for the night, so we headed for the foot of the mountains and there the water is deeper and it was not frozen any too hard. Here we ran into a nest or two of otters, land otters. We could have shot them but were afraid they would fall back into a whole in the ice, so we left them, thinking we could trap them later.
We camped there that night. The weather turned warm that night so we decided to go back home and go to see the glacier come other time, when we had more time. When I got home I learned you have to have the left front leg bone to get the bounty, so two days later, Sandvik, one of our neighbors, and I went back and got the front leg bone. We saw the otters again and camped over that night. Saw two wolves again there next morning and last night one of the colonists saw two big black wolves here within twenty rods of the house. My neighbors here across the road from us, Joe Lind from Wisconsin, and I got a big moose about 40 rods from the house. A 3 or 4 year old male. Sure was fine eating. We got it just when cold weather set in. Some of the colonists went back home alright, thirty-one of them I think. Some were sick when they came, some got sick while here, which could not be helped, but most of them got sick when they found they had to go to work. They just could not face a little hardship. The mosquitos are bad but we got along pretty good with them. We had screens and dope.
The corporation has treated the colonist people first class, or as good as good can be expected under all conditions This is the truth and this is for sure. I and the family and many other families here have enjoyed every part of the trip --- the landing, the tent at our arrival, our tent home at Palmer for two months, we had a regular vacation. Then we started to work cutting roads packing out to out forties, all wanted to eat, wear, and had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration. The first trout fishing trip I got, or two of us got, ninety trout, some two pounders.
The picture I am sending will speak for the work I have done. About three-fourths of this house was built by Bob and I. A round log job 28' 6" x 30' 8" inside measurements. There are over 300 pieces of logs in this house, all peeled spruce. Some of the builders of the valley and old settlers say I have the nicest house in the whole valley. I am doing the inside finishing now.
You were asking about how much daylight we have here. Right now are the shortest days. We have seven hours of daylight now, that is on a clear day, light enough to work outside. We have had no sunshine for about three weeks now and about 3 to 5 hours the last six weeks, on account of the high mountains to the south of us which are only 4 or 5 miles away.
Palmer has about three hours of sunshine now as it lays six miles north and three miles west of camp No. 10 or the Butte camp. There are twenty-six of us on this side of the Matanuska river, or on the east side of the river. The butte is a large hill or a small mountain out in the valley, about 700 feet high and there are colonists all around us, so we are called the Butte people. From this hill on a clear day you can see 100 miles to the southwest, fifty miles up the Knick river valley, southeast to the glacier, where you can see about twenty miles wide, northwest across the valley to another range of mountains is about forty miles.
We are all well, With love.
JOE SEBER AND FAMILY
Joe Sieber was born in Herndon, Rawlins County, Kansas. In a letter written to Joe by his older brother John Seber, John tells of the long trip from Atwood, Kansas. They traveled 1300 miles in a covered wagon, John mentions walking many miles on this trip with his older sister Tracey, and that Joe and Mike probably didn't remember that trip. They left Atwood about 1895.
Former Carlton Man Writes Interesting Letter
SENDS PHOTO OF HIS HOME
Seems To Be Happy and Well Satisfied With His Experience So Far
_________
The Vidette is pleased to print the following letter, received by Mr. and Mrs. Mike Seber of Wright, from their brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Seber, who were among the Carlton county (Minnesota) people, who left last spring for Palmer, Alaska. Mr and Mrs.Joe Seber, and five sons were well known residents of Wright, prior to leaving for the North and the letter, reproduced below, in one of the most interesting ones we have seen, concerning conditions in their new home. The Sebers also lived in Carlton for some time prior to moving to Wright. Mrs. Seber is a daughter of the late Mrs. Joseph Chartier.
Palmer, Alaska, Dec. 24, 1935.
Dear Brother and Sister:
Just received your welcome letter about an hour ago. We were very glad to hear from you. I am sorry that I have not written to you long before this and I am at fault and take blame, although I had planned on writing about this time to you and some friends back in the states, I can tell by your letter that you do not feel hurt, and that is the right way to feel and this will maybe help some. This is the first letter I have written since putting my feet on Alaskan soil. Then again I thought you were getting all of the news and probably more than you cared to hear through ths press, although some of these news writers are crazy. Everything and anything for the money that is in it, and according to the letters and news we get from the states you people there have a hard time to judge the facts of this project. There is no one living person that can tell you the exact outcome of this project.
Most of the soil is very good and there is none of it below good. The climate is fine, I think. Here is about the way it runs: From May 15 until Aug. 31 the temperature was from 40 to 80 degrees and for a while for spells in July and August it was above 90. The cool nights is what causes a variation in the temperature. From September on it went a little lower than this but it did not freeze here where we are located until October. About Nov. 1 to 15 we had a cold snap. It went down to 5 below zero, and the first two weeks this month we got about six inches of snow and a cold spell that registered 22 below. The old timers here in the valley say that will be about the coldest we will have this winter or that it gets any winter.
When we arrived here the grass was getting green and the trees were budding. That was May 16, a day which we here will always remember.
The present crops here in the valley should speak for themselves. They grow a hay crop here that is a combination of peas, oats, and some kind of grass I can't name. It yields from _____________ that has been used, and I broke pea pods from 4 to 8 inches long and the peas were as sweet as sugar. Nov. 15 I went and picked cranberries. Bob and I got about sixty quarts in about four hours. These berries are small red ones and grow on a small low vine on high land and are much better than the low bush ones in the states. Before I forget, on this trip I picked some barley out of a stack and it was the nicest, largest barley I ever saw. Some oats went 80 bushels per acre, big kernels. No corn as yet. Get lots of rain and quick drainage. The valley is full of wild currents and raspberries. The blueberries just grow in certain places. Spruce, birch and cottonwood are about all the wood we have here.
The valley is not flooded with game but there is considerable of it. Plenty of black bears. I saw seven of them in one week and Bob and I got three cub bears in July. Bob kept one of them for a while, but there was no place to keep it so he sold it for $6. But if you go back into the mountains or hills, as they call them here, there is lots of game. Sheep, goats, brown and silver grizzlys. They say there is quite a number of them and plenty big.
Lest I forget, at Thanksgiving time Bobby, Wilbur, and I went for a hike toward the glacier, which is about thirty miles from here. At noon the first day on our start we ran into two wolves. One saw us about the time we saw it and it beat it for the brush. The other one evidently did not, so I did some tall running and sneaking until I got within about 400 long steps. This was a meadow, on a shallow lake. I could not get any closer without him seeing me, so I took a chance with a 30-30 Winchester carbine. I shot four times and missed but the fifth shot caught him in the rear hip and came out the neck and he was our wolf, $20 bounty and the hide. We did a little hunting for the other one, but did not see him. We had to pack the one about a mile to where we could cook up and skin him. By that time it was 3 P.M., and at that time in Alaska it is time to make camp for the night, so we headed for the foot of the mountains and there the water is deeper and it was not frozen any too hard. Here we ran into a nest or two of otters, land otters. We could have shot them but were afraid they would fall back into a whole in the ice, so we left them, thinking we could trap them later.
We camped there that night. The weather turned warm that night so we decided to go back home and go to see the glacier come other time, when we had more time. When I got home I learned you have to have the left front leg bone to get the bounty, so two days later, Sandvik, one of our neighbors, and I went back and got the front leg bone. We saw the otters again and camped over that night. Saw two wolves again there next morning and last night one of the colonists saw two big black wolves here within twenty rods of the house. My neighbors here across the road from us, Joe Lind from Wisconsin, and I got a big moose about 40 rods from the house. A 3 or 4 year old male. Sure was fine eating. We got it just when cold weather set in. Some of the colonists went back home alright, thirty-one of them I think. Some were sick when they came, some got sick while here, which could not be helped, but most of them got sick when they found they had to go to work. They just could not face a little hardship. The mosquitos are bad but we got along pretty good with them. We had screens and dope.
The corporation has treated the colonist people first class, or as good as good can be expected under all conditions This is the truth and this is for sure. I and the family and many other families here have enjoyed every part of the trip --- the landing, the tent at our arrival, our tent home at Palmer for two months, we had a regular vacation. Then we started to work cutting roads packing out to out forties, all wanted to eat, wear, and had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration. The first trout fishing trip I got, or two of us got, ninety trout, some two pounders.
The picture I am sending will speak for the work I have done. About three-fourths of this house was built by Bob and I. A round log job 28' 6" x 30' 8" inside measurements. There are over 300 pieces of logs in this house, all peeled spruce. Some of the builders of the valley and old settlers say I have the nicest house in the whole valley. I am doing the inside finishing now.
You were asking about how much daylight we have here. Right now are the shortest days. We have seven hours of daylight now, that is on a clear day, light enough to work outside. We have had no sunshine for about three weeks now and about 3 to 5 hours the last six weeks, on account of the high mountains to the south of us which are only 4 or 5 miles away.
Palmer has about three hours of sunshine now as it lays six miles north and three miles west of camp No. 10 or the Butte camp. There are twenty-six of us on this side of the Matanuska river, or on the east side of the river. The butte is a large hill or a small mountain out in the valley, about 700 feet high and there are colonists all around us, so we are called the Butte people. From this hill on a clear day you can see 100 miles to the southwest, fifty miles up the Knick river valley, southeast to the glacier, where you can see about twenty miles wide, northwest across the valley to another range of mountains is about forty miles.
We are all well, With love.
JOE SEBER AND FAMILY
Former Carlton Man Writes Interesting Letter
SENDS PHOTO OF HIS HOME
Seems To Be Happy and Well Satisfied With His Experience So Far
_________
The Vidette is pleased to print the following letter, received by Mr. and Mrs. Mike Seber of Wright, from their brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Seber, who were among the Carlton county (Minnesota) people, who left last spring for Palmer, Alaska. Mr and Mrs.Joe Seber, and five sons were well known residents of Wright, prior to leaving for the North and the letter, reproduced below, in one of the most interesting ones we have seen, concerning conditions in their new home. The Sebers also lived in Carlton for some time prior to moving to Wright. Mrs. Seber is a daughter of the late Mrs. Joseph Chartier.
Palmer, Alaska, Dec. 24, 1935.
Dear Brother and Sister:
Just received your welcome letter about an hour ago. We were very glad to hear from you. I am sorry that I have not written to you long before this and I am at fault and take blame, although I had planned on writing about this time to you and some friends back in the states, I can tell by your letter that you do not feel hurt, and that is the right way to feel and this will maybe help some. This is the first letter I have written since putting my feet on Alaskan soil. Then again I thought you were getting all of the news and probably more than you cared to hear through ths press, although some of these news writers are crazy. Everything and anything for the money that is in it, and according to the letters and news we get from the states you people there have a hard time to judge the facts of this project. There is no one living person that can tell you the exact outcome of this project.
Most of the soil is very good and there is none of it below good. The climate is fine, I think. Here is about the way it runs: From May 15 until Aug. 31 the temperature was from 40 to 80 degrees and for a while for spells in July and August it was above 90. The cool nights is what causes a variation in the temperature. From September on it went a little lower than this but it did not freeze here where we are located until October. About Nov. 1 to 15 we had a cold snap. It went down to 5 below zero, and the first two weeks this month we got about six inches of snow and a cold spell that registered 22 below. The old timers here in the valley say that will be about the coldest we will have this winter or that it gets any winter.
When we arrived here the grass was getting green and the trees were budding. That was May 16, a day which we here will always remember.
The present crops here in the valley should speak for themselves. They grow a hay crop here that is a combination of peas, oats, and some kind of grass I can't name. It yields from _____________ that has been used, and I broke pea pods from 4 to 8 inches long and the peas were as sweet as sugar. Nov. 15 I went and picked cranberries. Bob and I got about sixty quarts in about four hours. These berries are small red ones and grow on a small low vine on high land and are much better than the low bush ones in the states. Before I forget, on this trip I picked some barley out of a stack and it was the nicest, largest barley I ever saw. Some oats went 80 bushels per acre, big kernels. No corn as yet. Get lots of rain and quick drainage. The valley is full of wild currents and raspberries. The blueberries just grow in certain places. Spruce, birch and cottonwood are about all the wood we have here.
The valley is not flooded with game but there is considerable of it. Plenty of black bears. I saw seven of them in one week and Bob and I got three cub bears in July. Bob kept one of them for a while, but there was no place to keep it so he sold it for $6. But if you go back into the mountains or hills, as they call them here, there is lots of game. Sheep, goats, brown and silver grizzlys. They say there is quite a number of them and plenty big.
Lest I forget, at Thanksgiving time Bobby, Wilbur, and I went for a hike toward the glacier, which is about thirty miles from here. At noon the first day on our start we ran into two wolves. One saw us about the time we saw it and it beat it for the brush. The other one evidently did not, so I did some tall running and sneaking until I got within about 400 long steps. This was a meadow, on a shallow lake. I could not get any closer without him seeing me, so I took a chance with a 30-30 Winchester carbine. I shot four times and missed but the fifth shot caught him in the rear hip and came out the neck and he was our wolf, $20 bounty and the hide. We did a little hunting for the other one, but did not see him. We had to pack the one about a mile to where we could cook up and skin him. By that time it was 3 P.M., and at that time in Alaska it is time to make camp for the night, so we headed for the foot of the mountains and there the water is deeper and it was not frozen any too hard. Here we ran into a nest or two of otters, land otters. We could have shot them but were afraid they would fall back into a whole in the ice, so we left them, thinking we could trap them later.
We camped there that night. The weather turned warm that night so we decided to go back home and go to see the glacier come other time, when we had more time. When I got home I learned you have to have the left front leg bone to get the bounty, so two days later, Sandvik, one of our neighbors, and I went back and got the front leg bone. We saw the otters again and camped over that night. Saw two wolves again there next morning and last night one of the colonists saw two big black wolves here within twenty rods of the house. My neighbors here across the road from us, Joe Lind from Wisconsin, and I got a big moose about 40 rods from the house. A 3 or 4 year old male. Sure was fine eating. We got it just when cold weather set in. Some of the colonists went back home alright, thirty-one of them I think. Some were sick when they came, some got sick while here, which could not be helped, but most of them got sick when they found they had to go to work. They just could not face a little hardship. The mosquitos are bad but we got along pretty good with them. We had screens and dope.
The corporation has treated the colonist people first class, or as good as good can be expected under all conditions This is the truth and this is for sure. I and the family and many other families here have enjoyed every part of the trip --- the landing, the tent at our arrival, our tent home at Palmer for two months, we had a regular vacation. Then we started to work cutting roads packing out to out forties, all wanted to eat, wear, and had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration. The first trout fishing trip I got, or two of us got, ninety trout, some two pounders.
The picture I am sending will speak for the work I have done. About three-fourths of this house was built by Bob and I. A round log job 28' 6" x 30' 8" inside measurements. There are over 300 pieces of logs in this house, all peeled spruce. Some of the builders of the valley and old settlers say I have the nicest house in the whole valley. I am doing the inside finishing now.
You were asking about how much daylight we have here. Right now are the shortest days. We have seven hours of daylight now, that is on a clear day, light enough to work outside. We have had no sunshine for about three weeks now and about 3 to 5 hours the last six weeks, on account of the high mountains to the south of us which are only 4 or 5 miles away.
Palmer has about three hours of sunshine now as it lays six miles north and three miles west of camp No. 10 or the Butte camp. There are twenty-six of us on this side of the Matanuska river, or on the east side of the river. The butte is a large hill or a small mountain out in the valley, about 700 feet high and there are colonists all around us, so we are called the Butte people. From this hill on a clear day you can see 100 miles to the southwest, fifty miles up the Knick river valley, southeast to the glacier, where you can see about twenty miles wide, northwest across the valley to another range of mountains is about forty miles.
We are all well, With love.
JOE SEBER AND FAMILY
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