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ALL ABOUT THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES.
[Illustration: Decoration]
PUBLISHED BY
THE MINERS' NEWS PUBLISHING CO.,
60 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK.
COPYRIGHTED 1897
BY THE MINERS' NEWS PUBLISHING CO.
LOCATION OF THE YUKON MINES.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE YUKON GOLD DIGGINGS.]
Sitka appears at the southeast corner of this map, and northeast of it
is Juneau, the usual fitting out place for miners going to the Yukon.
The arrows show the route of miners bound for the Yukon. Steamboats can
carry them from Juneau as far as Ty-a. Then they must pack their loads
through Chilkoot Pass and boat them through a chain of lakes and down
the Lewis River to the Yukon. It is about 700 miles from Juneau to the
Klondyke River.
The two other most important centres of Yukon mining were Forty Mile
Creek, where there were two big mining camps, Forty Mile and Fort
Cudahy, and Circle City. All these camps have now been practically
deserted in the great rush for the Klondyke.
_The ever reliable and always trustworthy New York Sun publishes the map
as given above._
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Map of the Location of the Yukon Mine 5
Gold--The Search for It, Past and Present 9
Klondyke and California--1849-1897 9
The Geology of the Yukon 10
The "Mother Lode" and the Glacial Deposits 10
The Great Gold Discovery--How the First
Authentic News Reached Us 13
The Gold Fever Spreading--The Stories of
Some Miners 14
Millions of Gold Panned Out--Poor
Yesterday--Rolling in Wealth To-day 16
Arrival of the Second Treasure Ship from
the Klondyke 19
A Few of the Prizes Won 21
Some Grapes of Eschol Stories--Richer than
Sinbad's Valley of Diamonds 22
The Stampede for the Gold--Thousands Join
the Exodus 24
Where the Gold is Found--How It Is Reached
and Mined 26
Some Large Nuggets--There Are More Where
They Came From 29
Millions Upon Millions in Sight--William
Stanley's Graphic Story 29
How to Get There--Choice of Two Routes 32
From San Francisco to the Mines--Ocean Route 34
Perils of the Trip--Encounters with Ice and
Snow in the Passes 35
The Canadian Government's Attitude--An
International Question 38
Dawson Not a Tough Town--The Civilization of
a Mining Camp 39
Fears of Starvation--Danger of Going to the
Mines Without Food Supply 41
Cost of Living in Dawson 43
The Climate and the Mosquitoes--Short
Summer--Heat and Cold Contrasts 44
Capital Required by Miners--Some Things
Indispensable in an Outfit 45
A Woman's Outfit 47
Valuable Expert Advice--A Mining Engineer's
Warnings and Suggestions 47
The New York Journal Expedition to Klondyke 50
Sailors Get Gold Craze--Desert Their Ships in
Alaskan Ports to Dig for Fortunes 50
Only Three Deaths in a Year--The Healthiest
Region in the World Is the Klondyke 51
Canadian Mining Laws--Regulations Imposed by
the Dominion Upon Placer Mining 52
Some Things Worth Knowing 55
Explanatory and Important 58
THE KLONDYKE.
GOLD.
THE SEARCH FOR IT PAST AND PRESENT.
Since the dawn of history man has attached to gold a value greater than
that of any of the metals. Indeed, the value of every product of Mother
Earth, of the fields, the forest or the mine has been fixed by its worth
in gold. Hence the quest of gold has inspired mankind to acts of
heroism, to a search for knowledge, and to a resignation to hardship and
privation that have given to the explorer and prospector a character
scarcely second to that of the heroes of the battlefield or the leaders
of the world's senates. The history of the human race, even the record
of the discovery of continents, is largely a history of the search for
the yellow treasure in its hiding places in the earth or among the
elements of Nature. Columbus' voyage, which gave to the world America,
with its California and now its Klondyke, was but a search for gold.
Chemistry is only the offspring of alchemy, and while adventurous
spirits were daring the main, suffering the torments of the tropics and
the gloom of the wilderness, the hut and the cave of the hermit--man's
first laboratories--were the scene of other labors and privations, and
all in the search for gold, gold, whether in the ground, the water or
the air. But it has remained to our own day to witness this quest
extended to the region of eternal snow and rewarded among the glacial
mountains of the frozen North.
KLONDYKE AND CALIFORNIA.
1849 AND 1897.
As we are inclined to measure everything by comparison the discoveries
in the Klondyke region and the already world-wide excitement created
thereby naturally recall the discovery of gold in California, the
memorable year '49, and suggests a comparison of the facts and
conditions existing in and surrounding the two regions and the
development of their respective resources.
In '49 California was scarcely nearer to the civilization of the then
existing States of the Union than Klondyke is to-day. Though the
climate of California, when reached, was salubrious in the extreme, the
hardships of an overland trip of more than three thousand miles or the
scarcely less trying voyage "around the Horn," were quite as apt to
deter the "tenderfoot" from attempting to seek fortune among the Sierras
as are the extreme cold and possible privations that must be considered
by the gold-hunters among the Alaskan mountains. But there were brave
spirits in '49, who, defying every danger, flocked to the promised land,
and realized not only their wildest dreams of wealth, but laid the
foundation of one of the proudest among our galaxy of States. The
population of the country by the census of 1850, a year later, was but
20,000,000. If there were thousands among those 20,000,000 who poured
into California in '49, how much greater the influx into the region of
the Klondyke will be if the same ratio of enterprise and adventure
characterizes the 70,000,000 Americans of the present day. The first
news of the discovery of gold in California was months in getting to
"the States," and it was even months later before the gold fever had
become really epidemic in the East. With the telegraph and cable of
to-day the news from the Yukon has already encircled the globe and
quickened the pulse of mankind in every land and latitude.
There have been gold excitements at stated periods from the Eldorado of
the Spaniards down to Johannisburg, but none that has arisen so suddenly
and spread so rapidly as that created by the tidings from Klondyke. Nor
would it seem that the future of this excitement can be even
conjectured. And perhaps the reason for this may be found in the fact
that instead of the fables of an Eldorado, the reports from the Yukon
have been shewn to be authentic and trustworthy.
THE GEOLOGY OF THE YUKON REGION.
THE "MOTHER LODE" AND THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS.
Under the caption "How the Gold Came to Klondyke Placers," Professor
George Frederick Wright, of Oberlin College, author of "Man in the
Glacial Period" and other geological works, has contributed to the New
York Journal an interesting article in which he says:
"The discovery of gold in large quantities on the Yukon River is by no
means unexpected. Eleven years ago, the last word I heard as I left
Juneau was the pledge of a returning tourist to meet his friend the next
Summer and prospect in the Yukon region.
"The great mass of gold-bearing quartz at the Treadwell mine, near
Juneau, was what might be expected, and at the same time what might be
the limitation of the supply. For more than ten years that mine has
furnished more than a million dollars of gold annually, but it is not
like ordinary quartz mines. It is rather a great, isolated mass of
quartz with gold disseminated all through it. While its worth is great,
its length is limited.
"Little is known about the geology of the Yukon River, where the
Klondyke mines have been found. Being placer mines, the gold may have
been transported many miles. The means of transportation are both
glaciers and rivers. The Klondyke region is on the north side of the St.
Elias Alps. Alaska was never completely covered with glacial ice. The
glaciers flowed both north and south from these summits. Dawson and
Professor Russell both report well defined terminal moraines across the
upper Yukon Valley. The source of the Klondyke gold, therefore, is from
the South.
"Placer mines originate in the disintegration of gold-bearing quartz
veins, or mass like that at Juneau. Under sub-aerial agencies these
become dissolved. Then the glaciers transport the material as far as
they go, when the floods of water carry it on still further. Gold, being
heavier than the other materials associated with it, lodges in the
crevasses or in the rough places at the bottom of the streams. So to
speak, nature has stamped and "panned" the gravel first and prepared the
way for man to finish the work. The amount of gold found in the placer
mines is evidence not so much, perhaps, of a very rich vein as of the
disintegration of a very large vein.
"The "mother lode" has been looked for in vain in California, and
perhaps will be so in Alaska. But it exists somewhere up the streams on
which the placer mines are found. The discovery of gold in glacial
deposits far away from its native place is familiar to American
geologists.
"I have encountered placer mines in glacial deposits near Aurora, in
Southeastern Indiana; in Adams County, in Southern Ohio, and near
Titusville, in Western Pennsylvania, where, I see, there is a new
excitement. But in all these cases the gold had been brought several
hundred miles by glacial ice from Canada or the region about Lake
Superior. These gold mines were near the edge of the glacial region,
where there had been much assorting action of both ice and water.
"It is evident, however, that in Alaska the transportation of the gold
has not gone so far. The difficulties of this transportation into the
Klondyke region and the shortness of the season will continue to be
great drawbacks to working the mines. The pass north of Chilcoot is
7,000 feet above sea level and but a few miles back from the ocean.
There is no possibility of a road over it. But from Taku Inlet, near
Juneau, readier access can be had. This route was followed by Schwatka
and Mr. Hayes, of the United States Geological Survey, a few years ago,
and has been partially surveyed with reference to a railroad line, and
reported to be available. The only other way is by a river which is open
to navigation only a short time each year and is a great way around.
"The general climatic conditions on the north side of the mountains are
much better than those on the south side. On the south side the snowfall
is enormous, but on the north side the air is dryer. Schwatka and Hayes
went in the Summer down the Yukon Valley about to the Klondyke region,
and from there struck off west, passing to the north of Mount St. Elias
and down the Copper River. They had dry weather all the time, in which
camping was pleasant, while Russell the same season was driven back by
inclement weather from ascending St. Elias on the south side. It is
therefore not impossible that explorations southwest of the present gold
fields may be carried on with comparative ease. But at present that
whole region is bare of means of subsistence.
"There is imminent danger that many will get in there before Winter with
insufficient means and starve. An English missionary and his wife have
been in that general region for many years, and report the people as
being so near the verge of starvation that they do not dare both to
Winter in the same village lest they should produce a famine. So they
live in separate villages during the Winter. Eventually the reindeer
which Sheldon Jackson is introducing into the lower Yukon region will be
available both for transportation and food, being much superior to dogs
in that they can procure their own food. But for the present every
necessity must either be packed over the Chilcoot Pass or brought around
by way of the Yukon.
"As to the ultimate yield of the mines or the prospect of finding more,
we have nothing but conjecture to go upon. The geologists who have
visited the region were not the ones who discovered the gold. What the
prospectors have found points to more. The unexplored region is immense.
The mountains to the south are young, having been elevated very much
since the climax of the glacial period. With these discoveries and the
success in introducing reindeer Alaska bids fair to support a population
eventually of several millions. The United States must hold on to her
treaty rights with Great Britain for the protection of our interests
there. If England accomplishes her unreasonable designs she would shut
us off from all communication with the Klondyke region except by way of
the Yukon."
THE GREAT GOLD DISCOVERY.
HOW THE FIRST AUTHENTIC NEWS REACHED US.
Placer mining had been going on at Circle City and the settlement of
Forty Mile for some time, and news of the wonderful productiveness of
the mines there had reached the United States, but the gold fever did
not become pronounced until the arrival in San Francisco, on the 14th of
July of this year, of the steamer Excelsior with forty miners and gold
dust valued at over $500,000.
These forty miners were the first to bring the story of the almost
fabulous richness of the new Klondyke mines near the Upper Yukon. One of
these miners, J. C. Hestwood, who brought home $10,000 worth of gold as
the result of two months' work, had this story to tell:
"Circle City and Forty Mile have suffered the usual fate of mining camps
which have petered out, only these camps have not petered out. When gold
was found in such astonishing quantities on the tributaries of the
Klondyke the whole population of those camps moved bodily to the
junction of the Klondyke and Yukon rivers, where Dawson City is
established. This district, the richest placer country in the world, was
discovered by an old hunter named McCormick, who has a squaw for a wife
and several half-breed children. McCormick went up in the spring of 1896
to the mouth of the Klondyke to fish, as salmon weighing ninety pounds
are caught where this stream meets the Yukon. The salmon didn't run as
usual and McCormick, hearing from the Indians of rich placers nearby
where gold could be washed out in a frying pan, started in to prospect.
"Near what is now Dawson City he struck very rich pay dirt in a side
hill. As soon as news of his discovery spread men from Circle City and
Forty Mile rushed in. The richest claims are in Bonanza Creek, which
empties into the Klondyke three miles above Dawson City. There are three
claims in that district, each 500 feet long, extending clear across the
creek on which it is located. No one can file an additional claim until
he has recorded his abandonment of his old claim.
"In the adjoining Bunker district there are 200 claims. The two
districts have been well prospected, but further up the Klondike is much
territory which has never been travelled over.
"Old miners declared that the north side of the Yukon was worthless, so
no prospecting was done until McCormick started in. There is no
claim-jumping, as the Canadian laws are rigid and well enforced. The
rich pay dirt is only struck near bed rock and this generally lies from
eighteen to twenty-five feet below the surface.
"The method of mining is to remove the surface mass, which is eighteen
inches thick, and then build a fire which burns all night. In the
morning the gravel is shaved down about two feet. This is shovelled out,
and another fire is built, and in this slow and laborious way the ground
is removed to bedrock. This work can be carried on all winter, except
when the mercury falls below 60 degrees.
"Dawson City is a booming town of about 3,000 inhabitants and is growing
every week. Provisions were scarce and dear last winter, and all
supplies are costly. An ordinary 75-cent pocket knife sells for $4, and
shoes bring from $6 to $8. A dog-sledgeload of eggs was brought in last
winter from Juneau. About half were spoiled, but the whole lot sold
readily at $4 per dozen. Flour sold as high as $1 a pound."
Mr. Hestwood showed many small nuggets from the new Bonanza Creek
district, where his mine is situated. The gold is the color of brass,
and is worth $16 to $17 an ounce. It isn't as pure gold as found
elsewhere on the Yukon.
THE GOLD FEVER SPREADING.
THE STORIES OF SOME MINERS.
The stories of the returned miners, telegraphed from San Francisco all
over the country and to the ends of the earth on the evening of the 14th
of July, were what started the gold fever, and the craze to go in search
of the precious metal that is now raging from one end of the country to
the other. Soon after the arrival of the Excelsior, the half million
dollars worth of yellow dust, which ranged in size from a hazelnut to
fine bird-shot and kernels of sand, was poured out on the counter at
Selby's smelting works on Montgomery street and then shovelled with
copper scoops into the great melting pot. Those who saw the gold in one
heap said no such spectacle had been seen since the days of '49, when
miners used to come down from the placer districts and change their gold
for $20 pieces.
The luckiest of these miners are Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Lippey, who left
here in April, 1896. They brought back $60,000. They went in by way of
Juneau over the divide, and Mrs. Lippey was the first woman to go over
this trail. She is a small, wiry woman, with skin tanned to the color of
sole leather. She seemed none the worse for the hardships of Yukon life.
She is a good rifle shot, and brought with her the antlers of a moose
which she had shot.
Hollinshead and Stewart, two miners, who had been at work for a year,
had 1,500 ounces, worth about $25,000. Other tenderfeet had done better,
for in a few weeks some of them had cleaned up from $10,000 to $15,000.
Several of the men had bought claims on time, paying a small sum down
and agreeing to pay all the way from $10,000 to $25,000 in three to six
months. Most of them cleaned up enough gold in a month to pay for their
claims and still have a good sum left over.
When the men arrived in San Francisco they found the United States mint
closed for the day, and so they carried their sacks of gold to the
office of Selby's smelting works. They were weather-beaten and roughly
dressed, but the spectators forgot their appearance when they began to
produce sacks of gold dust ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 in value. Some
of the sacks were regular buckskin bags, well made; others were of
canvas, black and grimy from long handling with dirty fingers. As fast
as the bags were weighed they were ripped open with a sharp knife and
the contents were poured out on the broad counter. Then some of the
miners produced from bundles and coat pockets glass fruit jars and jelly
tumblers filled with gold dust and covered with writing paper, carefully
secured with twine. It seems that the supply of gold bags ran out and
this was the only way to bring the treasure down.
When all the gold dust was poured out it made a nice heap, on which the
spectators gazed as though fascinated; but the smelting men calmly
scraped it up and cast the yellow dust into a big pot, which was wheeled
into the smelting room.
A letter from one of the officials of the Alaska Commercial Company, at
Circle City, gives this account of the great rush to the new diggings:
"The excitement on the river is indescribable, and the output of the new
Klondyke district is almost beyond belief. Men who had nothing last fall
are now worth a fortune. One man has worked forty square feet of his
claim and is going out with $40,000 in dust. One-quarter of the claims
are now selling at from $15,000 to $50,000. The estimate of the district
is given as thirteen square miles, with an average of $300,000 to the
claim, while some are valued as high as $1,000,000 each. A number of
claims have been purchased for large sums on a few months' credit, and
the amount has been paid out of the ground before it became due.
"At Dawson sacks of gold dust are thrown under the counters in the
stores for safekeeping. The peculiar part of it is that most of the
locations were made by men who came in last year, old-timers not having
had faith in the indications until the value of the region was assured,
whereupon prices jumped so high that they could not get in. Some of the
stories are so fabulous I am afraid to repeat them for fear of being
suspected of the infection.
"There are other discoveries reported a little beyond and on the Stewart
River, but these have not yet been verified."
MILLIONS OF GOLD PANNED OUT.
POOR YESTERDAY--ROLLING IN WEALTH TO-DAY.
The San Francisco correspondent of the New York Sun, who saw the arrival
of the Excelsior, sent to his paper by wire a graphic description of the
sensation created. He said:
"San Francisco has not been stirred by any mining discovery since the
opening up of the great bonanzas on the Comstock Lode in Nevada, nearly
thirty years ago, as it has been by the stories of two score sun-tanned
and hard-featured miners who have returned from the new Klondyke camp on
the Yukon River in far Alaska.
These stories would have excited derision were it not that all these men
were able to furnish ocular proof of their tales with pounds of yellow
gold. Not one of the party went into this camp last Fall with anything
more than his outfit and a few hundred dollars. Not one came out with
less than $5,000, a dozen cleaned up from $10,000 to $20,000, while half
a dozen averaged from $20,000 to $90,000. Scores of them left claims
that they valued at $20,000 to $1,000,000, which are now being worked by
their partners or by hired laborers. They are not boasters nor boomers.
In fact, they are careful to warn any one about venturing into the Yukon
country unless he is young, vigorous and brave, able to bear hardships,
and has from $500 to $1,000 for outfit and current expenses after
reaching the new gold fields. Perhaps it is these very conservative
views which have made their talk take such powerful hold on the popular
imagination.
All returned miners agree that the best way to reach the new gold fields
is by way of Juneau. The journey is mainly by land over a snow-covered
trail, down numerous streams and across lakes. The only very dangerous
place is Chilicoot Pass, which is dreaded because of the sudden
snowstorms that come up without warning and that have proved fatal to
many adventurous miners. The distance is 650 miles, and it takes an
average of twenty-five days to cover it.
Dawson City has now a population of nearly 3,000. It is beautifully
situated on the banks of the Yukon near the mouth of the Klondyke River,
and seems destined to become the mining centre of the Northwest
territory. The people now live in shanties, each built of a few strips
of weather boarding and canvas. There is a sawmill in operation day and
night, but it cannot supply the demand for its products. Lumber sells at
the mill for $150 per thousand, but when delivered at mines the price
jumps to $450.
One of the peculiar features of the new camp is the lack of shooting,
due to the fact that the Canadian Government does not permit men to
carry firearms. Police disarm miners when they enter the district, so
that there is not any of the lawlessness and crime which marked early
placer mining in California. There is much gambling, and play is high.
An old miner, Alexander Orr, who spent eight Winters in Alaska, but will
not return, said:
"Dawson is not like most of the large mining camps. It is not a tough
town; murders are almost unknown. The miners are a quiet, peaceable kind
of men, who have gone there to work and are willing that everybody else
shall have an equal chance with themselves. A great deal of gambling is
done in town, but serious quarrels are the exception. As a gambling town
I think it is equal to any I have ever seen, and this, by the way, is
always the test of a mining camp's prosperity. Stud poker is the usual
game. They play $1 ante, and often bet $300 or $500 on the third card."
Orr sold out his claim for $20,000, and the men who bought it made the
purchase money in four months. Perhaps the best idea of what has been
done in the new camp can be gained from the following short interviews
with returned miners:
William Kulju said: "I brought down just 1,000 ounces of dust and sold
it to smelting works. I worked at Eldorado Creek, near Dawson, and was
in that country about a year, and had a couple of dollars and a pack
last Summer when I went in. I sold my claim for $25,000, part cash and
the balance to be paid as it is taken out. Now, I am taking a trip to
the old country--Finland--and am coming back next year."
Fred Lendeseen: "I went to Alaska two years ago, and when I left there
six weeks ago I brought $13,000 in gold dust with me. I have had
considerable experience in mining, and say without hesitation that
Alaska is the richest country I have ever seen. I have interest in a
claim near Dawson and am going back in the Spring."
Greg Stewart: "I had a partner and I sold out my interest for $45,000
and put my money back again at interest in mines. My partner had 1,500
ounces of dust, but it fell short four ounces on the way down. The dust
will go over $17 an ounce, but we are all waiting for returns from the
smelting works. I brought a few hundred ounces with me, but I get
interest of 2 per cent. on short loans. I expect to return next Spring."
John Marks: "I brought $11,500 in gold dust with me, but I had to work
for every bit of it. There is plenty of gold in Alaska--more, I believe,
than the most sanguine imagine--but it cannot be obtained without great
effort and endurance. The first thing for a poor man to do when he
reaches the country is to begin prospecting. As snow is from two to five
feet deep prospecting is not easy. Snow must first be shoveled away, and
then a fire built on the ground to melt the ice. As the ground thaws the
shaft must be sunk until bed rock is reached. The average prospector has
to sink a great many shafts before he reaches anything worth his while.
If gold is found in sufficient quantities to pay for working, he may
begin drifting from the shaft, and continue to do so as long as he finds
enough gold to pay."
Albert Fox: "I and partner went into the district in 1895 and secured
two claims. We sold one for $45,000. I brought 300 ounces, which netted
$5,000. Everybody is at Dawson for the present. The district is apt to
be overrun. I wouldn't advise anyone to go there this Fall, for people
are liable to go hungry before spring. About 800 went over the summit
from Juneau, 600 miles, so there may not be food enough for all."
Robert Kooks: "I've been four years in Alaska. I had a half interest in
a claim on Eldorado Creek, and sold out to my partner for $12,000. I
bought a half interest in a claim on the Bonanza, below the Discovery
claim, and my share is worth easily $15,000. I brought $14,000 in gold
dust, and shall return in the Spring, after rest and recreation."
J. B. Hollinshead: "I was in the diggings about two years, and brought
out about 1,500 ounces, which I suppose will bring $17 an ounce. I'm not
sure about going back, though I have a claim on Gold Bottom Creek,
fifteen miles from Bonanza. It is less than a year since I located my
claim. My dust will bring over $25,000."
M. S. Norcross: "I was sick and couldn't work, so I cooked for Mr.
McNamee. Still I had a claim on the Bonanza, but didn't know what was in
it, because I couldn't work it. I sold out last spring for $10,000 and
was satisfied to get a chance to return to my home in Los Angeles."
Thomas Flack: "My dust will bring more than $6,000. I have an interest
in two claims on the Eldorado. One partner sold out for $50,000 and
another for $55,000. I had an offer of $50,000, but refused it just
before I came out."
Thomas Cook: "It is a good country, but if there is a rush there's going
to be a great deal of suffering. Over 2,000 men are there at present,
and 2,000 more will be in before snow falls. I've been at placer mining
for years in California and British Columbia, and the mines at Dawson
are more extensive and beyond anything I ever saw. Last year I did very
well at Dawson. I have a claim worth about the average, they say from
$25,000 to $50,000, on Bear Creek, across the divide from the Bonanza."
Con Stamatin: "I was mining on shares with a partner. He's still there.
We worked on Alexander McDonald's ground in Eldorado for forty-five days
and took out $33,000. We got 50 per cent. and the other half went to
McDonald. Then we divided our share, and I came away."
All miners unite in saying that the only fear for the coming winter is
the lack of supplies. The Alaska Commercial Company promises, however,
to send in all that is needed. Living is high now, as may be seen from
these quotations of prices when the miners started for home: Flour, $12
per hundredweight; (following are the prices per pound) moose ham, $1;
caribou meat, 65 cents; beans, 10; rice, 25; sugar, 25; bacon, 40;
potatoes, 25; turnips, 15; coffee, 50; dried fruits, 35; tea, $1;
tobacco, $1.50; butter, a roll, $1.50; eggs, a dozen, $1.50; salmon,
each, $1 to $1.50; canned fruits, 50 cents; canned meats, 75; liquors,
per drink, 50; shovels, $2.50; picks, $5; coal oil, per gallon, $1;
overalls, $1.50; underwear, per suit, $5 to $7.50; shoes, $5; rubber
boots, $10 to $15.
Miners who have reached San Francisco do not act like people who have
suddenly jumped from poverty to comparative wealth. They are level
headed. They went to the best hotels, and they are living on the fat of
the land, but they do not throw money away, and not one started in to
paint the town red. They have worked so hard that they appreciate the
value of money. What they delight in most are theatres and other
amusements. They say no one knows how to enjoy these if he has not spent
a year in Alaska. Three-quarters of the miners will return in the Spring
when they are well rested."
ARRIVAL OF THE SECOND TREASURE SHIP FROM THE FROZEN KLONDYKE.
When the first stories of the fruitfulness of the "Far Off Land" came to
the ears of the children of Israel there were many doubters, but when
those who had been sent to spy out the land came back later bearing
great bunches of grapes there were none that doubted. So when the
Excelsior arrived in San Francisco, on the 14th of July, many may have
doubted the truth of the stories told of the richness of the new gold
fields, but when, three days later, the Portland steamed into Seattle
with gold to the value of over $1,000,000, brought from the region of
the Upper Yukon, no one who saw with their own eyes the gold, and who
heard with their own ears the tales of mineral riches unsurpassed, could
doubt that on the banks of the Klondyke had been discovered the world's
greatest gold fields. An eye witness of the scenes of the Portland's
arrival thus tells the story in the New York Journal:
Gold in boxes, gold in bags, gold in blankets, fine gold and coarse
gold, gold nuggets and gold dust, the yellow treasure of the Klondyke
diggings, came from the far North.
A ton and a half of gold was a part of the load of the steamer Portland
from St. Michael's, Alaska, and with the 3,000 pounds of gold were the
several owners, sixty-eight miners, some with $5,000, some with
$10,000, some with $50,000, a few with $100,000 and over, but all with
gold.
With the product of their work for a season in the new "diggings," the
richest in surface gold ever discovered, these miners had made the long
voyage from Dawson City, the new golden town, 1,895 miles down the Yukon
to St. Michael's, and at St. Michael's had boarded the Portland with
their treasure, bound for homeland and intent upon changing their dust
and their nuggets into the minted, milled coin of their country.
On the voyage the gold was stored in the captain's state room. The
little safe in the corner was packed full of bags of gold, and the
remainder that the safe would not hold was placed in three boxes.
When the steamer came to the port the miners put their bags on their
shoulders and walked down the gang plank in the presence of a vast
throng of Seattle people assembled to see the great pile of treasure
from the rich fields of the far North. A miner with only $5,000 in his
bag easily carried his fortune. Twenty thousand dollars in two bags is a
good load for any stalwart man, no matter if he has worked where the
mercury falls to sixty degrees below zero. Two men used all their
strength in carrying a strapped blanket, in which was about $50,000. The
few with the big fortunes, $100,000 and over, had to hire help to get
their precious possessions to a safe place of storage in Seattle.
The greater part of the ton and a half of gold was taken from the ground
during three Winter months. Last Fall some green strangers,
"tenderfeet," fresh from the comforts of civilization, were so absurd as
to give no heed to the advice of the old miners. The pioneers of the
Yukon mines, the men who know Circle City and Forty Mile Creek and all
the surrounding country, said there was no use looking for gold "over
yonder on the Klondyke." But the foolish strangers went "over yonder on
the Klondyke." During the Fall the news reached the older diggings of
the amazing discoveries of gold by these absurd tourists from the South,
and from all the country round about came the rush to Klondyke.
When gold is waiting to be lifted out of the ground cold is not to be
considered. During the dark Winter days the temperature, 30 or 40
degrees below zero, the quest for dust and nuggets was pursued
continually. The product of the work of some of these Winter miners,
defiant of the cold, is shown in the treasure brought to the United
States by the Portland and the Excelsior.
The greatest fortune gained by any of the company of miners is the
honeymoon treasure of Clarence Berry, of Fresno, Cal. He brought
$135,000 in dust and nuggets. In 1890 young Berry went to the Yukon
country, and for several years he prospected along Forty-Mile Creek and
other placer fields without success. Last Summer he returned to
California, married, and took his bride with him to the North. Instead
of remaining in Alaska he went over the boundary line into British
possessions, and on the Klondyke he struck the richest pocket that was
discovered. He said that the principal part of his $135,000 came from
three hundred "box lengths." A "box length" is fifteen feet long and
twelve feet wide. In one length he found a pocket of $10,000. In another
length was a nugget weighing thirteen ounces, next to the largest found
in the diggings. Mr. Berry deemed his fortune sufficient for the
present, and is taking his bride to his home in Fresno, where, in the
July temperature of 110 above, she may find compensation for the 58
below of January on the Yukon.
One of the foolish strangers who gave no consideration to the advice of
the old miners is Frank Phiscater. Last Autumn he went from Borada,
Mich., to Alaska and thence to Klondyke. He was one of the first to
discover gold in the fabulously rich placers of the new El Dorado. He
employed nine men and in three months' time took out from two claims
$96,027. He still owns the claims, but having nearly $100,000 made in
less than twelve months he deems himself entitled to a trip to Michigan.
A FEW OF THE PRIZES WON.
THEY HAVE MADE THEIR PILE AND BROUGHT IT HOME.
Clarence J. Berry $135,000
W. Stanley 115,000
F. Phiscater 92,000
F. G. H. Bowker 90,000
T. S. Lippy 60,000
K. B. Hollingshead 25,500
R. McNulty 20,000
Wm. Kulju 17,000
Joe Mamue 10,000
James McMann 15,000
Albert Galbraith 15,000
Neil MacArthur 15,000
D. MacArthur 15,000
Ber. Anderson 14,000
Robert Krook 14,000
Fred Lendesser 13,000
Alexander Orr 11,500
John Marks 11,500
Thomas Cook 10,000
M. S. Norcross 10,000
J. Ernmerger 10,000
Con Stamatin 8,250
Albert Fox 5,100
Greg Stewart 5,000
J. O. Hestwood 5,000
Thomas Flack 5,000
Louis B. Rhoads 5,000
Fred Rice 5,000
SOME GRAPES OF ESCHOL STORIES.
RICHER THAN SINBAD'S VALLEY OF DIAMONDS.
Among the Portland's passengers was William Stanley, of Seattle,
formerly a blacksmith, who went into the country two years ago last
spring. He returned with $115,000 in gold nuggets and dust. His claim is
on the Bonanza Creek, emptying into the Klondyke five miles above Dawson
City, the headquarters of the camp. Clarence Berry, formerly a farmer of
Fresno, Cal., brought back seven sacks, containing $135,000. Clarence
Berry, of Los Angeles, went to the Yukon in 1894.
"My luck was bad for three years. Last fall I came out and married, and
when I went back I heard of the Klondyke. I was early on the ground,
locating, with other parties, three claims on Eldorado Creek. We struck
it rich. That's all there is to tell.
"Last winter I took out $130,000 in thirty box lengths. Another time the
second largest nugget ever found in the Yukon was taken out of my claim.
It weighed thirteen ounces and was worth $213. I have known men to take
out $1,000 a day from a drift claim. Of course the gold was found in
pockets, and those finds, you can rest assured, were very scarce. I
would not advise a man to take in an outfit that would cost less than
$500.
"The country is wild, rough and full of hardships for those unused to
the rigors of Arctic winter. If a man makes a fortune he is liable to
earn it by severe hardships and sufferings, but then grit, perseverance
and luck will probably reward hard work with a comfortable income for
life."
Henry Anderson, a native of Sweden and well known on the Lound, sold a
one-half interest in his claim on Eldorado Creek and has come back to
Seattle with $45,000 spot cash, the proceeds of the sale. T. J. Kelly
and son, of Tacoma, went in last year and made $10,000. The son is in
charge of the claim and the father was among the Portland's passengers.
Frank Keller, of Los Angeles was one of the Portland's passengers. He
went in last year, mined during the winter, and last year sold the claim
for $35,000. William Sloat, formerly a dry-goods merchant, of Lanimo, B.
C., sold his claim for $52,000, and, with the gold he took from the
mine, came back on the Portland. Another man named Wilkenson, of the
same city, sold his claim for $40,000. Frank Phiscater, of Baroda,
Mich., returned with $96,000, the result of his labors in Miles. Capt.
Strickland, of the Canadian mounted police, who is en route to Ottawa on
official business, is among the arrivals. He says:
"When I left Dawson City about a month ago there were about 800 claims
staked out and between 2,000 and 3,000 people. We can safely say that
there was $1,500,000 in gold mined last winter. Wages in mines were $15
a day, and the sawmill paid laborers $10 a day with claims now staked,
but will afford employment for about 5,000, I believe. If a man is
strong and healthy and wants to work he can find employment at good
wages. Several men worked on an interest, or what is termed a lay, and
during the winter realized from $5,000 to $10,000. The mines are from 35
to 100 miles from Alaska boundary."
J. Kellar, who pronounced it the richest gold country in the world,
said:
"It was 68 degrees below zero last winter, and the ground was frozen to
the depth of forty feet. The snow doesn't fall to any great depth, three
feet being the greatest, and that was light and fleecy frost. All the
gold is taken out of gravel by thawing in the summer. There are nine
months of winter. We left Dawson City on a river steamer on June 19, and
were eight days reaching St. Michael's, 1,800 miles. The weather in
Klondyke was warm and sultry, much warmer than it seemed, and mosquitos
were in myriads. They are in the water one drinks. They give a man no
rest day or night. I am satisfied to stay away from Klondyke, although I
did well.
"It is a horrible country to live in, but it is extremely healthy. Every
man is on his good behavior, and, for a mining country, has as good,
orderly, law-abiding citizens as I ever saw. At present there is no
prospecting going on, all men in the country being employed at $12 or
$15 a day, or are working on their own claims. There is a big country
open to prospectors."
Tom Cochrane, a grocery clerk, staked one of the Klondyke miners with
$300 worth of supplies eighteen months ago. His dividend received on the
Portland was $41,000.
Victor Lord, a western Washington logger, spent four years in the Yukon.
He made $10,000 last winter in six weeks on the Klondyke, working a
claim on shares. He will return after spending the summer here.
Alexander Menzie, of Arizona, was a miner before he went into the
Klondyke this spring. He located two claims on Indian Creek, and after
three weeks' work brought out $7,000. "I have mined for thirty years in
California, Arizona and Nevada," he said to-night. "The Klondyke country
is richer than any placer district in the world. I own two claims on
Indian Creek and will return in the spring in time to sled over the
mountains into Klondyke from Dyea."
Harry Olson received $60,000 for his interest in a claim on Eldorado.
His wealth is in sacks, like that of the others. He is a California
farmer, and left for his old home, from which he departed three years
ago.
The miners left Dawson City June 19 and were seven days on the trip by
steamer down the Yukon to St. Michael's. After another week's rest they
sailed on July 3 on the steamship Portland.
Inspector Strickland says that complete order is maintained in the camp
by the Canadian mounted police. Little disorder prevails, but this may
have changed since the departure of the Portland party, as the Alaska
Commercial Company sent 10,000 gallons of whiskey into the camp on June
1.
There is a great scarcity of lumber and the single sawmill is kept busy
day and night supplying the camp with lumber. The camp is a typical
specimen of the frontier mining village, without regular streets. It
straggles up the Klondyke for three miles, and then the houses are found
at intervals of a quarter of a mile.
THE STAMPEDE FOR THE GOLD.
THOUSANDS JOIN THE EXODUS.
To say that the news from the north brought by passengers of the
Excelsior and confirmed by those of the Portland swept over the Pacific
coast with the rapidity of a prairie fire would be to make use of an
inadequate simile. In less than forty-eight hours hundreds were busy
arranging their affairs so as to depart by the first steamer for the new
Eldorado. On the 18th of July, only four days after the arrival of the
Excelsior, the offices of the Alaska Commercial Company in San Francisco
were besieged by men, and even women, all anxious to secure a passage,
and on the same day it was stated by an officer of the company that
their steamers would not be able to carry one-tenth of those desirous of
starting from that port alone. The same official estimated that before
the end of the month the number of those who would set out from San
Francisco would reach fully 5,000. Hundreds with means sufficient to buy
tickets and outfits fairly tumbled over each other to secure these.
Others sought capital by offering one-half their winnings to those who
would stake them. Syndicates were speedily formed, "grub stakes" offered
and parties of tens, twenties and even hundreds organized for the
venture. The reported danger of famine, even the warnings of returned
miners seemed to deter no one.
While such was the craze in San Francisco, the excitement was no less in
Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and all along the Pacific coast. Nor did it
end here. The same excitement swept Eastward and prevailed to a greater
or less extent everywhere. The press of the county gave publicity to
every scrap of news, corps of correspondents were organized and "hurried
to the front," and even the "special artist on the spot" was not "left
out in the cold," whatever he may suffer when he reaches a latitude
where the mercury coquettes with the 80s. and 90s. below zero. All sorts
of advertisements from all sorts of people, offering almost any terms
and conditions to a backer, appeared, and, as we write, are still
appearing in the daily papers. The one subject of conversation in the
swell clubs, no less than on the street corners, is the news from
Alaska, and the region of the Klondyke and the Yukon River have suddenly
become as familiar geographical designations as Brooklyn or the Hudson.
Perhaps no more reliable authority could be given as to the great
resources of the Klondyke and the excitement prevailing in and about
that region than Capt. Francis Tuttle, commander of the revenue cutter
Bear. Writing to a friend in New York from St. Michael's on the Yukon
River, the Captain says:
"The days of '49 in California are a mere side show compared with the
excitement in the Yukon country. Imagine my astonishment on reaching
here yesterday to run across a man who, last September, was discharged
as a deck hand from a steamer on Puget Sound. The fellow made his way
into Alaska, worked seven months on the Klondyke and has now reached St.
Michael's with $150,000 in gold. I could hardly believe my senses, but
there was his gold, sure enough.
"As I write St. Michael's is full of miners awaiting an opportunity to
get down to Puget Sound and to California. Nearly every other man of
them has $50,000 worth of dust, and there is not a man here with less
than $15,000. The latter are referred to as 'poor fellows' who have
been hard hit with bad luck, and it seems to be real sympathy that the
more fortunate ones show for these $15,000 fellows.
"The deck hand, with his $150,000, had the largest amount of gold of any
one in the crowd. The whole business is almost incredible, yet one must
believe what he sees.
"It is enough to turn the mind of any person, and particularly when one
learns with what comparative ease this gold is mined."
As we write several steamers having already departed from various
Pacific ports, are on their way to the Yukon, all freighted to their
fullest capacity with gold hunters, provisions and mining outfits.
Others are following as rapidly as they can be outfitted, and scarcely a
seaworthy craft available for the purpose can be found that has not
already been brought into requisition.
This stream of humanity that has suddenly turned northward and is being
constantly swollen as it proceeds on its way is made up of all classes
of men and from every condition in life. The experienced and rugged
miner is accompanied by the "tenderfoot." The soft-handed clerk falls in
line with the tanned and strong-muscled out-of-door laborer. Even the
professional man has abandoned his comfortable office for the miner's
hut. The first steamer to leave numbered among her passengers the
venerable poet of the Sierras, Joaquin Miller. Another steamer, sailing
from Seattle on July 22, carried north ex-Governor McGraw, who for many
years was president of the First National Bank, of Seattle; Governor of
Washington for four years ending January last, and later a candidate for
United States Senator to succeed W. S. Squire. Among his companions du
voyage were General M. E. Carr, formerly Brigadier General of the State
militia, and whose law practice is the largest in the State of
Washington, and Captain A. J. Balliet, at one time Yale's greatest
oarsman and football player, who also leaves a handsome law practice to
seek gold on the Yukon.
WHERE THE GOLD IS FOUND.
HOW IT IS REACHED AND MINED.
Dr. William H. Dall, one of the curators of the National Museum, is
familiar with the region of country in which the Klondyke gold fields
are located, through having been on several geological expeditions to
the region in Alaska adjoining the gold district, and says that in his
opinion the reports from there probably are not exaggerated.
"When I was there," he says, "I did not find gold, but knew of it being
taken out in profitable quantities for fifteen years or more. It was
first discovered there in 1866. In 1880, when I was up in that country,
the first party of prospectors who have made mining profitable, started
out. The gold is found on the various tributaries of the Yukon, and I
have been within a comparatively short distance of the Klondyke fields.
I made one trip to Circle City, just over the boundary of Canada.
"The gold bearing belt of Northwestern America contains all the gold
fields and extends into that part of British Columbia known as the
Northwestern Territory and Alaska. The Yukon really runs along in that
belt for 500 or 600 miles. The bed of the main river is in the lowlands
of the valley.