The famous Bonanza Copper Mine is on the mountainside high above the
Kennicott Valley, and near the Kennicott Glacier--the largest glacier of
the Alaskan interior. This glacier does not entirely fill the valley,
and one travels close to its precipitous wall of ice, which dwindles
from a height of one hundred feet to a low, gravel-darkened moraine.
From the summit of Sour-Dough Hill it may be seen for its whole
forty-mile length sweeping down from Mounts Wrangell and Regal.
The Bonanza Mine has an elevation of six thousand feet, and was
discovered by the merest chance.
The history of this mine from the day of its discovery is one of the
most fascinating of Alaska. In the autumn of 1899 a prospecting party
was formed at Valdez, known as the "McClellan" party. The ten
individuals composing the party were experienced miners and they
contributed money, horses, and "caches," as well as experience. The
principal cache was known as the "McCarthy Cabin" cache, and was about
fifteen miles east of Copper River on the trail to the Nicolai Mine.
The Nicolai had been discovered early in the summer by R. F. McClellan,
who was one of the men composing the "McClellan" party, and others.
Another important cache of three thousand pounds of provisions was the
"Amy" cache, thirty-five miles from Valdez, just over the summit of
Thompson Pass.
The agreement was that the McClellan party was to prospect in the
interior in 1900 and 1901, all property located to be for their joint
benefit.
The members of the party scattered soon after the organization was
completed. Clarence Warner, John Sweeney, and Jack Smith remained in
Valdez for the winter, all the others going "out to the states."
In March of 1900 Warner and Smith set out for the interior over the
snow. There was no government trail then, and the hardships to be
endured were as terrific as were those of the old Chilkoot Pass, on the
way to the Klondike. The snow was from six to ten feet deep, and their
progress was slow and painful. One went ahead on snow-shoes, the other
following; when the trail thus made was sufficiently hard, the hand
sleds, loaded with provisions and bedding, were drawn over it by ropes
around the men's shoulders. From two to three hundred pounds was a heavy
burden for each man to drag through the soft snow.
Climbing the summit, and at other steep places, they were compelled to
"relay," by leaving the greater portion of their load beside the trail,
pulling only a few pounds for a short distance and returning for more.
By the most constant and exhaustive labor they were able to make only
five or six miles a day.
They replenished their stores at the "Amy" cache, near the summit, and
in May reached the "McCarthy Cabin" cache. Here they found that the
Indians had broken in and stolen nearly all the supplies.
When they left Valdez, it was with the expectation that McClellan, or
some other member of the party, would bring in their horses to the
McCarthy cabin, that their supplies might be packed from that point on
horseback,--the snow melting in May making it impossible to use sleds,
and no man being able to carry more than a few pounds on his back for so
long a journey as they expected to make.
However, McClellan had, during the winter, entered into a contract with
the Chitina Exploration Company at San Francisco to do a large amount of
development work on the Nicolai Mine during the summer of 1900. He
returned to Valdez after Warner and Smith had left, bringing twenty
horses, a large outfit of tools and supplies, and fifteen men--among
them some of the McClellan prospecting party, who had agreed to work for
the season for the Chitina Company.
When this party reached the McCarthy cabin, they found Warner and Smith
there. An endless dispute thereupon began as to the amount of provisions
the two men had when the Chitina party arrived,--Warner and Smith
claiming that they had five hundred pounds, and the Chitina Company
claiming that they were entirely "out of grub," to use miner's language.
Warner and Smith demanded that McClellan should give them two horses
belonging to the McClellan prospecting party, which he had brought. This
matter was finally settled by McClellan's packing in what remained of
Smith and Warner's provisions to the Nicolai Mine, a distance of nearly
a hundred miles.
McClellan, as superintendent of the Chitina Company, used, with that
company's horses, four of the McClellan party's horses during the entire
season, sending them to and from Valdez, packing supplies.
In the meantime, upon reaching the Nicolai Mine, on the 1st of July,
Warner and Smith, packing supplies on their backs, set out to prospect.
The Chitina Company, in the famous and bitterly contested lawsuit which
followed, claimed that they were supplied with the Chitina Company's
"grub"; while Smith and Warner claimed that their provisions belonged to
the McClellan party.
[Illustration: Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson
STEAMER "WHITE HORSE" IN FIVE-FINGER RAPIDS]
After a few days' aimless wandering, they reached a point on the east
side of Kennicott Glacier, about twenty miles west of the Nicolai Mine.
Here they camped at noon, near a small stream that came running down
from a great height.
Their camp was about halfway up a mountain which was six thousand feet
high. After a miner's lunch of bacon and beans, they were packing up to
resume their wanderings, when Warner, chancing to glance upward,
discovered a green streak near the top of the mountain. It looked like
grass, and at first he gave it no thought; but presently it occurred to
him that, as they were camped above timber-line, grass would not be
growing at such a height.
They at once decided to investigate the peculiar and mysterious
coloring. The mountain was steep, and it was after a slow and painful
climb that they reached the top. Jack Smith stooped and picked up a
piece of shining metal.
"My God, Clarence," he said fervently, "it's copper."
It was copper; the richest copper, in the greatest quantities, ever
found upon the earth. There were hundreds of thousands of tons of it.
There was a whole mountain of it. It was so bright and shining that
they, at first, thought it was Galena ore; but they soon discovered that
it was copper glance,--a copper ore bearing about seventy-five per cent
of pure copper.
The Havemeyers, Guggenheims, and other eastern capitalists became
interested. Then, when the marvellous richness of the discovery of Jack
Smith and Clarence Warner became known, a lawsuit was begun--hinging
upon the grub-stake--which was so full of dramatic incidents, attempted
bribery, charges of corruption reaching to the United States Senate and
the President himself, that the facts would make a long story, vivid
with life, action, and fantastic setting--the scene reaching from Alaska
to New York, and from New York to Manila.
The lawsuit was at last settled in favor of the discoverers.
On January 14, 1908, Mr. Smith disposed of his interest in a mine which
he had located across McCarthy Creek from the Bonanza, for a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. It will be "stocked" and named "The Bonanza Mine
Extension." It is said to be as rich as the great Bonanza itself.