Margeson/Benedict trip. Gold Hunters, p. 9; Locator, “Nahma” placer claim on Manker Creek, 7/29/98, witnesses King & Gasteldi,TMDR, 1898, p. 71; Summary: A letter received in Stamford from Phillip I. Stead indicates that forest fires have destroyed the provisions of about a dozen prospectors. Stead and a companion lost a year’s supply of food and almost all their clothing and gear.They had to leave a promising claim for Valdez; on their trip their only food was meat from a cinnamon bear given to them by another prospector. Others who were burned out belonged to a Peoria IL group. Stead, H.E.F. King and Lindsey Stead, plus one or two others, are the only members of the Connecticut and Alaska Mining Trading company still left in Alaska. News Story, Danbury CT News, 7/19/99;