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Gordon Bertoson

Gordon Bertoson

Gordon Bertoson was born in Washington and came to Alaska when he was two or three years old. He arrived in Fairbanks in the early 1930s, and then moved to Circle shortly afterward. By 1960, he occupied a cabin at Forty Mile (mouth of Eureka Creek) along the Yukon River, where he lived a land-based subsistence lifestyle. He fished, hunted, and trapped in the Kandik River country, and traveled up the Nation River in the summer.
Gordon Bertoson appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Gordon Bertoson, Part 1

Gordon Bertoson was interviewed on November 1, 1991 by Dan O'Neill and William Schneider in Central, Alaska. In this first part of a two part interview, Gordon describes living in Central/Circle, on the Yukon and Kandik Rivers, and at a base camp at Forty Mile (mouth of Eureka Creek). He talks about the seasonal round of activities, including trapping, mining, hunting and fishing, and traveling by dog team and boat. He also discusses some of the old timers he knew in the area and the old system of dog team mail delivery and freighting. In addition, he gives some of his opinions on the "young people" who moved into the Yukon River country in the 1960s and '70s.

 91-22-53 Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Nov 1, 1991
Gordon Bertoson, Part 2

This is the continuation of an interview with Gordon Bertoson on November 1, 1991 by Dan O'Neill and William Schneider in Central, Alaska. In this second part of a two part interview, Gordon talks about living in Central/Circle and on the Yukon and Kandik Rivers, some of the old timers he knew in the area, and working for wages in the mining industry and by trapping.

 91-22-54 Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Nov 1, 1991