In the mid 1970’s to the early eighties, I coördinated a very interesting documentary art program for the National Park Service. The program had been going on between the New York Society Of Illustrators and the Park Service in Washington D.C. I had received word that they wanted to include a professional art society on the west coast into their program “Artists In The Parks.” A parks official flew out from Washington D.C. To meet me, discuss the program and their needs. Fortunately our Society Of Illustrators was having an annual exhibit in the lobby of the Crown Zellerbach Building at the same time. After having wined and dined him I took him to see the illustration exhibit. He was very impressed with the caliber of talent in the San Francisco Society Of Illustrators. Two days after he flew back I received a phone call. “We were now part of the program.” I was asked to assign those artists willing to travel and participate in the program to a national park or monument in the U.S. Upon their return an artist would produce one or two paintings with complete freedom to express their interpretation of the park visited. One assignment I had included traveling to Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska and Klondike National Historic Park in Skagway. Skagway Alaska in 1976 was a quiet village, tourism was minimal. In a conversation with one of the residents upon my arrival, I told him my purpose for being there. He immediately suggested an afternoon excursion to my wife and I. Our guide offered to take us to a ghost town called Dyea, site of the starting point for the gold prospectors in the 1898 Yukon gold rush. We accepted his offer and found ourselves bouncing over an old dirt road in his truck for miles. We climbed up and over a mountain until we came to a spot where the road ended. ” Now we have to hike in the rest of the way”,Our guide said. My wife and I looked at each other with apprehension. The only thing visible was thick brush and heavy timber ahead. I told my wife I would fall back behind her and our guide as we hiked in, as a safety measure. Was this guy for real or had we accepted a ride from a possible Klondike mass murderer? The thoughts went through my head. After about a half mile hike through mosquito infested brush we suddenly came into a clearing. There before us were a number of old deserted cabins from the 1898 gold rush. Many cabins still contained remains of furniture and some utensils on the tables. We saw an old grave site with sixty head stones This was at the base of the steep Chilkoot ice steps that the miners climbed on their way to the gold fields of the Yukon. As the story has been told the miners waited for days to climb the ice steps single file burdened down with all their gear. On one occasion one slipped and fell bringing the others down with him resulting in the deaths of sixty miners, All now buried in that grave yard. After safely returning that afternoon to Skagway, we reflected on what we had experienced. I now had much reference material to complete my commission for the park service. It was truly a walk into history . Many illustrators that traveled to various national parks and monuments had their own adventures and completed a wonderful series of paintings for the U.S. National Park Service.
Norman Nicholson
