In 1884–85 he wrote a diary about his time living through the winter on the Copper River in a cabin with an Indian wife amongst the Copper River Indians (referred to him as "Ma Nuska") which was transcribed into the book Shores and Slopes of Alaska, pp. 200–21.
Cody Robertson, and fellow prospector Peder Johnson, through previously unexplored territory along the Copper, Tanana, and Koyukuk Rivers.
[5] John Bremner and Peder Johnson purchased a prospecting outfit from the men who ran the trading post at Nuklukyet and stayed in the Central Yukon River area during the winter of 1886–87.
[5] From the junction of the Middle and the North forks of the Bremner the river flows through mountain wilderness 40 miles (64 km) southwest to the Copper.
[5] The town of Bremner Alaska, on the Copper River, a small settlement with an airstrip,[5] near Chitina is the site of the Bremner Historic Mining District which is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Copper River Census Area, Alaska.