Chapter 03 - Arrival in Elk City

7

Getting back to the narrative of the journey by stage;- when the Strongs and Argetsingers arrived at the town-on-the-hog-back, temporary living accommodations had to be arranged. There was a hotel in town called "Hotel Parr", operated by a Mrs. Parr and her daughter, Mrs. Baskett. This was a board-and-batten structure with probably 10 or 12 rooms, and with eating accommodations. Next to it to the west was a similar but smaller building housing a drug store, operated by Mr. Laskett, the towrn druggist. However, this hotel was apparently filled to capacity, with no more rooms available. A few buildings further down the street to the west was the small lumber building housing the saloon which the Partners had acquired, and adjoining this to the west was a log building in which a Mr. Cheseboro operated a restaurant. He also owned another log building adjoining this one, which served as sleeping quarters for miners and prospectors. This bunk - house being also filled to capacity, he had acquired another log building across the street for use as a bunk - house. This latter building had formerly been occupied entirely by Chinese. It consisted of one main log house, with a small log lean - to on the east side, and three consecutively smaller log cabins attached to the rear, and trailing back down the slope as if the result of some sudden after thought. The little lean - to was still occupied by a Chinese jeweler and laundry - man. The small squat cabins to the rear were filled with miners or other mountain men. The main building, one large room, was a bunk - house, fitted out somewhat as follows:

In the center of the room was an "island" some six or eight feet square, curbed with six to eight inch logs. In the center of this island was a good sized wood stove, somewhat battered and burned, and fitted with a length of hydraulic placer pipe extending straight up through the roof. (Common jointed stove pipe was available, but hydraulic placer pipe, being heavier, riveted and jointless, was better when it could be obtained.) The curbed island was filled with 3 or 4 inches of sand or dirt which served several purposes. It prevented sparks and embers from the stove from igniting the plank floor; the mens snowy muddy boots were placed there to thaw and dry; it served ideally for pipe knockings, spend tobacco quids and burnt sulfur match stubs; and it could be freshened occasionally with a few shovelfuls of sand or dirt. On either side of the room was a row of three or four crudely assembled wooden beds with the cheapest of springs, and in some cases bear-grass pads for mattresses. Dry - goods boxes or crude benches served as bed stands on which to place candle sticks for light, and nails driven along the log walls served to hang up all the occupants possessions. In one corner,- not partitioned off,- was the "wash-room", a low bench on which was a tin wash basin, a bucket of water and a dipper. A roller towel hung nearby for the use of all, and adjacent to all this was the rear corner door through which the used water could be thrown without the user going outside. Obviously these accommodations were designed for rough men, and not for ladies with babies. But the Strongs and Argetsingers just had to have lodgings of some kind, and Mr. Cheseboro soon came up with a solution. At the general store he found part of a bolt of unbleached muslin. This he assembled with safety pins and ropes into curtains, which he hung around the two corner beds opposite the "wash room". Thus, the two families and the three month old baby had privacy.

The old winter snows still blanketed the meadows and hills. The nights were very cold except when a mild "Chinook" wind and rain, the harbingers of the coming spring, might pass over, turning the snow to messy slush. Then more freezing nights would turn it back to ice and crusted snows. Activities at the bunk house were limited largely to the early morning departure of the men,- miners, teamsters, timbermen, freighters,- and their return again at night in their wet, musty smelling garments, boots and "German Sox". And all of this was pervaded by the pungent odors of strong tobacco smoke. The men would then take turns at the wash room in preparation for supper at Mr. Cheseboro's boarding house across the street. Mr. Cheseboro would signal his readiness by beating on a large triangle blacksmithed from a piece of drill - steel which hung near his front door. Then his boarders would troop out from bunk houses, stores, saloons, or wherever they might be, within hearing distance of the gong. Boarders at the Hotel Parr could distinguish their supper time by the sound of a sweeter sounding dinner bell, which would be vigorously swung by the Chinese cook in front of the Hotel entrance.

The stage from Newsome House would arrive at some unpredictable time of the day, the driver would lodge his horses in the livery stable, while he, himself spent an hour or so resting and having his dinner. Then he would hook up a fresh team and start the tedious journey back to Newsome. An occasional freighter would pull into town with a wagon load of merchandise, shouting and swearing at his steaming horses.