和田重次郎顕彰会

出典：THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, SUNDAY, JULY 5, 1908

６月１日　ドーソン発（特電） アラスカの偉大なる長距離マッシャー、アラスカ50マイル・インドアレーシング・チャンピオンシップの記録保持者でもある和田重次郎が、ドーソンからハーシャル島近くのファース川までの5,000マイルの旅に挑んでいる。和田はドーソンからセント・マイケルまで蒸気船とレースする。

彼は小さなボートでセント・マイケルを経て、ノームを目指し、そこから捕鯨船でファース川に向かう。

この偉大なるマッシャーは、昨年冬にハーシャル及びファース川までの1,600マイルを犬橇に乗って、たった一人で達成している。旅の途中で食料不足に陥り、自分のズボンをクジラの油に浸し犬達に与えたという。さらに靴下まで犠牲にし、最終的にドーソンに到着したときには、肌を隠す程度の下着姿だったという。

重次郎は日本の南部に生まれたが、幼少時代に実家から離れ、世界の国々を巡った。数年前に北極地域にたどり着き、以降は彼の拠点となっている。体重136ポンド、身長5フィート1インチ。栗色のハスラーである。

今回の旅の所持品は、少量の食料、ひとつかみの衣服、フライパン、缶詰一つ、ブリキの皿、ナイフ、５匹の犬、そして一枚の毛布だ。この他にハーシャル島の政府関係者に宛てた文書を預かっている。ハーシャルで公文書を受け付ける役割に軍曹のフィッシュジェラルド氏を任命するという内容だ。ハーシャルに入れば鉱業登録局は数百マイルも離れてしまうので、道中の賦課作業を登録するには、再びドーソンに戻らなくてはならない。通常、監督者の任命はオタワから発行されるが、和田が早急に出発しなければならないので、道中の作業に関してはノースウェスト騎馬警察より先にハーシャルで申告できるよう取り決められた。

JUJIRO WADA, JAPANESE MUSHER, AND HIS DOGS, ON A 5,000-MILE TRIP TO HERSCHEL ISLAND

DAWSON, June 1-(special)- Jujiro Wada the great long distance musher of Alaska holder of the fifty-mile indoor racing championship of Alaska, is now on his way from Dawson to the Firth river, near Herschel island, where he as staked a claim. The trip he is now on is 5,000 miles long. Wada is racing against the steamboats from Dawson to St. Michel.

He goes down the river in a small boat to St. Michael, thence to Nome, where he will ship on a whaler to the Firth River.

The great musherﾕs trip to Herschel and Firth River last winter covered 1,600 miles, and was made with no companion save his dogs. On the way down, his supplies ran low, and he fed his trousers to his dogs, after oiling them with whale oil. He also sacrificed his socks. He mushed into Dawson with only his underwear to hide his nakedness.

Jujiro Wada was born in Southern Japan but he has been away from home since he was a very small boy. He was shipped to all parts of the world. A few years ago he drifted into the Arctic regions, and has since made it his home. The nut-brown hustler weights 136 pounds, and stands 5 feet 1 inch.

On the present trip Wada is taking with him a little food, a grip of clothing, a frying pan, a can, a tin plate, a knife, his five dogs, and a roll of blankets. He carries letters for government officials at Herschel Island which contain an appointment making Sergt. Fitzgerald, at Herschel, a commissioner for taking affidavits. Wada found that when he would get into Herschel he would be hundreds of miles from a mining recording office, and that there would be no place for recording his assessment work without coming all the way back to Dawson. The appointment of an inspector had to come form Ottawa, and since Wada was to leave immediately, it was decided to obviate this difficulty by letting him make oath at Herschel before the Northwest mounted police there as to the work.