Further Down the Road in Livengood

There was once a town of Livengood.  It sprung up when a guy with that name discovered gold on Livengood Creek.  Between 1915 and 1920, the claim yielded about $9.5 million in gold.  A mining camp and post office were there, and at one time, so the story goes, Livengood was bigger than Fairbanks.  The man, Jay Livengood apparently developed a sluicing system that was pretty effective, but large-scale mining attempts failed.  The post office was discontinued in 1957, and Livengood went the way of most mining towns.

Today, the town is listed as having  a population of 23 in 31 homes (do the math?) and covers 365 square miles of unincorporated territory.

This was the place John was looking for as the start of his now abandoned bike ride.

So, we got off the highway at the signs, and went down a dirt  (mud) road.  The State has a huge maintenance yard there.  We came to a fork in the road – actually it looked like three choices to me, but the straight-ahead option was narrow and was immediately discounted.  I figured the town was on the left, but when John said “which way?” and I said left, the next thing I knew, we had gone right and had began a steep climb up a muddy, narrow road. The Milepost book says that this is an active mining area, and there is no trespassing on mining claims.   We climbed further and further, and it was really apparent there was no town on this ridge.  A truck came along, and  both vehicles had to get over, which wasn’t easy.  John rolled down his window and started a conversation with the guy.  They were practically nose-to-nose. He told us we should have taken a left at the fork. 

John asked him if there was a place he could turn around.  “It’s about 4 miles”, was the reply.  Then he said, ‘You can probably turn around on Larry’s road, just up a little ways.”

We came to Larry’s muddy, narrow, rutted dirt road, and John turned around.  I was sure hoping that ol’ Larry wasn’t home, because there were no trespassing signs everywhere. Maybe he would think we were claim jumpers!

After a harrowing retracing of our path, we came to the fork and went left, and saw what was left of the town of Livengood – one shack and what looked like an outhouse. 

John got out to take pictures.  There was a sign on the door with a picture of a gun, and it

said “Think Again – Keep Out”.  I was sure wishing John would get back in the truck.

The windows had thick curtains on them, but you couldn’t tell if there was anybody home, and there were two fairly decent looking cars sitting nearby.  I half expected a shotgun blast to come through the door.  After all we’d seen other signs, like “Insured by Smith and Wesson”, and “Proceed at Your Own Risk Road” (That was the actual name of the road).   I was glad to get out of Livengood.

We decided to put some music in the CD.  I needed something to quiet my nerves. And what came on was Bruce Springsteen, singing “Further Down the Road.” It didn’t help any!

Further down the road, further down the road

I’ll meet you further on down the road

Where the night is dark and the seed is sowed

Where the gun is cocked and the bullets cold

Where the miles are marked in the blood and gold

I’ll meet you further on down the road.