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THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS IN ALASKA.
The United States Government in
1807 paid Russia $7,2000,00 for tho
Territory of Alaska.
Alaska has paid back lier purchase
money in gold four times, having pro¬
duced during the time it has been a part
of the United States about $30,000,-
000 of the precious yellow metal.
To-day the eyes of the world are
turned toward our frozen acquisition
in the north, for within its borders
has been discovered an Eldorado, seem¬
ingly “richer than Pluto’s mine.”
A few weeks ago the word Klondike,
literally translated meaning Deer
River, was known to geographers and
a few miners on the Yukon; to-day it
is on every tongue and is known as
the designation, if the reports be but
half true, foT a gold-bearing district
greater in area and richer in character
than any the world has known, with
the possible exception of California.
The reported gold discoveries of the
present day in Alaska and the report¬
ed gold discoveries of ’49 in California
afford many parallels. To the average
man the treasures of the coast State
were seemingly as inaccessible as are
the riches of the Yukon and its tribu¬
taries. One was more than 2000 miles
across a trackless desert and over
snow-bound mountain passes, beset
by savages, whose deadly attacks
marked the trail with bleaching bones
the Western States; the other
is nearly 7000 miles by water, through
a rigorous climate, or almost 4000
miles by laud and water, with moun¬
tain passes to scale as dangerous as
those of the Swiss Alps.
The fabulous tales of wealth sent
by the California pioneers were no less
wonderful than those brought back
the men who braved the last
season in the Klondike mineral belt,
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AS THE MINERS JOURNEY DOWN LAKE LABARGE DURING THE WINTER.
and in both cases those who returned
brought back with them great nuggets
of the precious stuff that left little or
no doubt in the mind of the hearer.
The California miner in the song who
had so many nuggets that he*was ac¬
customed to “go a hatful blind” finds
his parallel in the Yukon miner who
claims to have “washed out” $212 in
one panful of dirt—a process that re¬
quires ten or twelve minutes.
Poor Man’s Mines.
The Alaska aud California gold fields
are alike also in being placer mines.
Placer mining is commonly called
“poor man’s mining,” for the reason
that it is done without machinery,
while the implements required in the A
work are few and of small cost.
placer miner can get along very well
with a pick, shovel and gold accomplish pan. If
the dirt is not rich ho can
better results by running it through a
sluice box, but where the yield is in
nuggets instead of fine gold he prefers
to “pan” it. made
The great Klondike strike was
nine mouths ago, but nothing was
known of it in the United States until
June 15, when a vessel called the Ex¬
celsior arrived in San Francisco laden
with miners from the Klondike, who
in turn were laden with gold.
They told almost incredible tales of
the richness of the newly discovered
district, where fortunes had been ac¬
cumulated in a few months. Experi¬
enced miners and “tenderfeet” seemed
to have shared good fortune alike, and
with some justice, too, for the credit
of the discovery of the new gold fields
is due to the inexperienced men.
Another vessel brought to Seattle a
second party of successful prospectors
and a ton and a half of gold. These
men had endured peril and undergone
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MINERS CROSSING THE CIIIUKOOT PASS.
great hardships in accumulating the
fortunes they brought, and they told
a story that had a dark as well as a
bright side. To follow their example
means a risk of wealth, health and
even life, but for those who are willing
to take the chances the prospect they
hold out is alluring.
location of the Klondike District.
The richest of the mines in the
Alaska region seem to be in the Klon¬
dike, a few miles over the British
border. They were discovered, a3 has
been said, by a party of “tenderfeet,”
who, against the advice of tho old-
timers in the district, wandered “over
yonder in the Klondike” and struck it
rich. From Klondike comes much of
the gold and from Klondike seems to
come all the excitement, A few
“tenderfeet,” going it blind, have
stirred up the Nation. Out of the
regions of their discovery has come,
it is estimated, $2,000,000 worth of
gold during the present summer.
Nearly all of that gold has found its
way into the United States.
It is hard to teli where the Alaska
gold fields are located except that in a
general way the best of them are along
the Yukon. There are a few “lode”
miners near Juneau and along (the the
southeast coast of the Territory
most accessible part of it), but the ore
is of low grade and mining is made
profitable only by the most careful
management, which
The placer mines, from pros¬
pectors are said now to be lining their
pockets with gold, are in the region
remote from civilization, little known,
and, on account of its uncertainties,
dangerously alluring to the average
man. This gold-producing country
of the interior is in the vicinity of the
Yukon near where that great river
turns to the west in its course to the
sea. Before the discoveries in the
Klondike the most productive districts
had been along Forty Mile Creek,
partly in British and partly in Ameri¬
can territory, and the Birch Creek
district, all iu American territory.
Along all of the river in this section,
tributaries to the Yukon, gold dig¬
gings exist, and in many places pay
the prospector well for his trouble.
In all the immense country over
which the placer mining extends it is
estimated that up to last year there
were 2000 miners. The districts in
which most of them worked were in a
a broad belt of gold-producing rock,
through which qnartz veins carrying
gold occur frequently. Through the
gold-bearing rocks the streams have
cut deep gullies and canons, and in
their beds the gold which concentrated. was con¬
tained . in the rock is
The mining of this country consists,
therefore in washing out the gravel of
these bo:ls. So the miners worked,
being fairly well paid for their labor,
until the “tenderfeet” made the Klon¬
dike discovery. That was nine months
or so ago, and the news of it is just
reaching the outside world. It was
not long in reaching the miners along
Forty Mile and Birch Creeks, though,
and they shouldered their picks and
moved forward in a wild rush at the
first word of the new lucky strike. As
a result gold dust and nuggets by the
ton are turned into the mints out on
the coast, aud men who never before
rose above the level of the commonest
of miners have come back to civiliza¬
tion and comfort loaded with gold to
last them a lifetime. Take as an il¬
lustration this list of returned miners
who came on the Excelsior:
Brought Value
from of
Alaska claims.
T. S. Lippy...... 8 65,000 81,000,000
F. G. H. Bowker 90,000 500,000
Joo La Due..... . 10,000 500,000
J. B. Hollinseed . 25,500 .......
William Kulju.. . 17,000 .......
James MuMaun......... 15,000
Albert Galbraith.......- 15,000
Noll Maearthur......... 15,000
Douglas Macarthur.... 15,000
Bernard Anderson ., 14,000 35,000
Robert Krook..... . 14,000 20,000
Fred Leudesser... . 13,000
Alexander Orr.... . 11,500
John Marks....... .. 11,500
Tbom'as Cook.... . 10,000 25,000
M. S. Norcross.... ,.. 10.000
J. Ernmerger..... ... 10,000
Con Stamatin..... .. 8,250
Albert Fox....... . 5,100 35,000
Greg Stewart..... .. 5,000 20,000
J. 0. Hestwood. . . 6,000 250,000
Thomas Flack.. . . 5,000 50,000
Louis B. Rhoads.. .. 5,000 35,000
Fred Price........ 5,000 20,000
Alaska Commercial Co. 250,000
Total. . $899,850 .......
A Perilous Journey.
Every one of these men has a story
to tell of the vast riches of the new
gold fields, but they tell another
story, too—a story of hardship, trial
and suffering through long winter days,
when the sun was smiling on this
earth's other poje and leaving them in
miserable cold and darkness. They tell at
story of prodigious travels, of stagger¬
ing journeys and the dangers that be¬
set the traveler. They gold tell fields, what and a
trip it is to reach the
when they get through the faint¬
hearted prospector, who isn’t thor¬
oughly convinced that he wants to un¬
dergo the trial, decides to forego the
trip to Alaska and dig up his wealth
at home or go without. Some of the
gold-mad adventurers, though, rush on
unheeding, crowding into the Alaska-
bound steamers without anything like
enough supplies or enough money to
see them through ten days of travel
on land. Miners who have been there
say that such as those will perish.
IIow to Reach the New Gold Fields.
There are two general routes to the
Klondike distriot. From Chicago both
lead to Seattle, aud there diverge. One lit¬
goes by ocean steamer west and a
tle north, and passes through Dutch
Harbor, at the extreme end of the
southwest Alaskan peninsula. From
there the steamer turns north and con¬
tinues on to St Michael’s Island, a little
above the mouth of the Yukon, in Ber¬
ing Sea. At that point passengers are
transferred to the river steamers to be¬
gin the long journey up the Yukon,
whtoh winds northward and eastward,
and finally brings the traveler to Daw¬
son City, now the principal town in
the mining district, although sixty-five
miles from the Klondike fields.
The cost of the trip from Chicago
this way, as prospecting miners usu¬
ally travel, is $251.50. It is divided
as follows: From Chicago to Seattle
(second class), $51.50; from Seattle to
Dawson City, $200. days—
In time the trip costs thirty
four from Chicago to Seattle, sixteen
■*
...
.
. ;
THE RIVER ROUTE TO DAWSON.
from Seattle to St. Michael’s Island,
and ten up the Yukon to Dawson City
by the fast boat. The distance in gen¬
eral figures is 2250 miles from Chicago
to Seattle, 2500 miles to St, Michael’s
Island aud 1890 miles up the Yukon
to Dawson, other a totq] of the about Klondike, 6600 miles. the
The way to mjfes,
hut “mountain equally route,-” long in is the sjmrtjf time it in required
and a great deal more difficult. By
this route the traveler sails more di¬
rectly north to, Juneau, which is 899
miles from Seattle, and then goes by
lake and river and over the mountains
1000 miles to the new mining terri¬
tory. On arrival at Juneau the trav¬
eler changes to a smaller boat and
sails 100 miles north to Dyea. From
there he has a portage of twenty-seven
miles through the Chilkoot Pass. The
last half-mile of this pass is over a
glacier and the severest of climbing.
Chilkoot Indians are employed to pack
supplies to the top of the pass, but
from there on the traveler has to pack
his own load.
After getting through the Chilkoot
Pass the traveler reaches Lake Linde-
man. At that point is a sawmill,
where boats are sold for $75 each.
Travelers who do not care to pay that
price can purchase lumber and build
their own boats. The lumber can be
bought for $100 a thousand feet, and
about 500 feet are required to build a
boat that will answer the purpose.
Still other travelers carry whipesaws
and get but their own lumber, and a
man handy with a saw and hammer
can build a boat in three or four days.
To continue the trip, though, a boat
is necessary and by some means or
other one must be had.
After securing his boat the travel¬
er floats down Lake Lindemau and
Lake Bennett and then has half a mile
of portage where his boat has to be
moved on rollers, There is any
amount of rollers to be had, though,
for earlier beaters of the path have
left them. This half mile overland
brings the traveler to Lake Tagish,
through which he goes six miles and
over a quarter of a mile of portage to
Mud Lake, and on to the White Horse
Rapids. Here there is another port¬
age of three-quarters of a mile, and
the traveler brings his boat to Lake
Labarge. From there on the journey
is through Thirty Mile River, the
Lewis River, 150 miles to Five Fin¬
ger Rapids, to the Yukon at Fort Sel¬
kirk, and then down stream 250 miles
to Dawson.
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DAWSON CITY, IN THE KLONDIKE GOLD REGION.
The cost of the trip this way can¬
not be definitely stated beyond Ju¬
neau, because after that point it de¬
pends somewhat on the bargain made
with the Chilkoot Indians, who pack
supplies [through the pass, and the
length of time the overland part of the
journey requires. The cost from Chi¬
cago to Seattle ia the same as by the
other route, of course, $51.50 second
class and $10 more for first class. The
steamer fare np to Juneau and on to
Dyea is $42. What it costs on the
overland trip each traveler determines
partially for himself, but the Indians
who act as guides and pack supplies
do not work without l>ig pay*
The Centro of the Gold Region,
Dawson City, the centre of the new
mining region, although sixty-five
miles distant from the Klondike, is
said to be a typical mining camp—
minus the guns. The British Govern¬
ment enforces its laws in Dawson, and
those laws prohibit the use of firearms,
so few men carry guns. Tho laws of
the camp are enforced by mounted po-
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A PLACER MINE IN THE KLONDIKE GOLD’FIELDS,
lice, whose captain is a civil officer.
Though there are said to be 3000 peo¬
ple iu Dawson, few houses have been
built, for the principal reason that
lumber is $100 per 1000 feet, The
general fear is, of course, that there
will be great suffering there this win¬
ter, and it will be increased, it is ex¬
pected, by the rush of unprepared
prospectors who sailed for the new
fields immediately on learning what
luck had befallen Those who have but
recently returned.
To give an accurate idea of the cost
of living in Dawson City, the price
list of a general store there is herewith
given:
Flour, per 100 pounds.... 512.00
Moose ham, per pound............... 1.00
S
Rice, per pound........................25 pound......................25
Sugar, .per pound..................... .40
Bacon, per
Eggs^per Batter dozenI.L50 dozen............... 2.00
Salmon, eggs, each....................$lto per 1.50
Turntes^penloimd 1 ...................15
Tea fief pound.....’.'..... ".!.......! LOO
Coffee, per pound......v:..............50
canned n ...s.................... iu
Canned meats....... .75
Lemons, each....... .20
Oranges, each...... .50
Tobacco, per pound 1.50
Liquors, pet drink.. 2.50
Shovels.............
Picks................ 5.00
Coal oil, per gallon. 1.00
Overalls............. 1.50
Underwear, per suit. 55 to 7.50
Shoes............... 5.00
Rubber boots........ 810 to 15.00
Alaska and Its Resources.
In the purchase of Alaska, theUnited
States acquired a Territory more than
half a million square miles in extent,
a part of it within the arctic circle and
in the region of everlasting ice and
snow, where, during part of the sum¬
mer, there is continuous day and dur¬
ing the winter continuous, dreary
night. The Alaskan coast line is
greater than onr Atlantic seaboard, but
the entire population of whites, Eski¬
mos and fierce Indians,'who are
the Apaches of the north, is not much
more than that of a ward division in
Chicago. Alaskan Territory,
In acquiring the
though the United States moved its
center, figured in geographical miles,
not in area or population, as fax west
as San Francisco. The country now
extends from about the sixty-fifth de¬
gree of longitude up at the far east
corner of Maine to the 122<1 degree up
at the far northwest tip of the Alaskan
mainland. This is taking no account
of the little island of Attu, 1000 miles
out in the Pacific, beyond the Hawaiian
group, which, since tho purchase of
Alaska, has really been our western
land limit.
The United States, therefore, may
almost say with England that the
never sets on its possessions. Alaska, the
The principal river in
Yukon, up which prospectors have to
work their weary way to reach the
gold fields was called by Schwatka, the
Alaskan Nile. It rises a little more
than 200 miles above Sitka, in the
southern part of Alaska, and then
strikes northward, following a broad
circle to the west before it empties
into Bering Sea through an extensive
delta. Six hundred miles in from the
coast it is more thjm a mile wide and
the volume of its water is so great as
to freshen the ocean ten miles out from
land.
The principal cities of Alaska are
Juneau and Sitka. They are both
thriving towns, and probably they will
thrive from now on, for a time at least,
as they have never thriven before.
Alaska is ruled by a Territorial Gov¬
ernor, who just now is J. G. Brady,
recently appointed by President Mc¬
Kinley to succeed James A. Sheakley.
The Governor’s residence is in Sitka.
The citizens up in that frozen coun¬
try do not vote for President of course,
being under Territorial government.
but they do send delegates to the Na¬
tional political conventions. The judi¬
cial function there is exercised by a
distriot court, established in 1884.
The court sits alternately at Sitka and
Wrangle. [How odd for a court to sit
at Sitka and Wrangle.] the
And speaking of Wrangle, among
things Alaska has done for this coun¬
try aside from stirring up the present
gold excitement one of the most for¬
ward was to involve it in disputes with
England on the boundary question and
the seal fisheries business.
Both of these disputes threatened
war, but white-winged peace settled
over the situation in each case and
brought the suggestion of that newly
invented English-American institution
—arbitration. However, the boundary
question is not settled yet, and the Brit¬
ish lion is even now roaring a little and
angrily swishing its tail because of a
diplomatic (the British call it undiplo¬
matic) note from Secretary of State
Sherman demanding that British ves¬
sels “keep off the grass” as it were in
the seal fishing grounds.
The Boundary Question.
that »«.■*<*»***. the discovery of gold in the Klon-
dike region would revive in a measure
0 ;q question of a boundary line he-
tween Alaska and the British North-
west Territory,
The Klondike fieMs are considerably
east of Fort Cudahy and Dawson City,
and both of these are on British soil,
Into the new regions, thqjigh, \M Ameji- male
j^ e £^. hundreds’ s j. JJ S gp Ve jjg^ $ gold. trooped Sincg
then of them have
over the border, staked out their claims
in the rich hills and begun to dig.
Should the Canadian Government pass
an exclusion act all of these miners,
of course, wo^ild be dispossessed.
The difficulty of enforcing such an
act, especially on miners who have
staked out their claims, is at once ap-
j Vs
ALASKA
USA.
m A
'A,
Miners crossing! the border.
parent. The result in retaliation by
the Government of the United States
is also easily imagined. The Domin¬
ion Government has already established
a custom house on the border, and is
doing a fair business collecting duty
on the goods that go into the new will
country, and miners think they
be satisfied with that. The exclusion
of Americans would practically close
the country for a time, for the best of
the means of transportation to that
frozen region are owned by American
companies.
In the past miners of any national¬
ity have been free to enter any new
diggings and stake out their claims
without restriction. Canadian miners
are now free to work across the border
in the Alaskan fields. What the result
of an exclusion act would mean to
Canada in a retaliatory measure by the
United States, Canadians know better
than they can be told.
It is not believed, however, that
Canada will attempt to exclude Amer¬
ican miners. It is true that the United
States excludes Chinese, but Canada
probably recognizes that keeping out
Chinamen and barring the way for
Americans are two different tilings.
Queer Place of Refuge.
The passengers on a Tenth street
trolley car were treated to an unusual
sight early yesterday morning. As
the car was bowling along in the
vicinity of Parish street a couple of
sparrows, one in chase of the other,
swooped down in front of the car.
The pursued, by a quick flank move¬
ment, eluded its tormentor by darting
under the roof of the front platform,
and before the motorman knew what
was up the bird had perched on his
hand which gripped the lever. There
it sat contentedly, while the passengers
craned their necks to get a view of the
odd spectacle. The sparrow didn’t
seem to mind the fact that the motor-
man’B hand was constantly turning
around as he manipulated his lever,
and, after riding on its queer perch
for fully a block, chirped its thanks
and flew away.—Philadelphia Record.
“Brcttki'imt I’icnics.”
People get up early in the morning
out in Nebraska, and from this habit
some enterprising social leader has
evolved an idea which has become a
fad in the neighborhood of Grand
Island, where “breakfast picnics” are
in vogue. The guests start out at 4
o’clock, ■ breakfast in the woods, and
come home before the sun makes
things too hot for comfort.—New York
Sun.
I
HER ADDRESS A FEATURE OF THE
AGRICULTURAL MEETING.
•‘LYNCH AS OFTEN ftS NECESSARY."
A State Fair For 1898—President I5ro\vij
Is Ke-Kleoted—-Other Officers of
the Society Selected.
One of the features of the session of
the Agricultural Society at Tybee was
tbs address by Mrs. W. H. Felton, of
Bartow county, in which she discussed
at length the public questions of in¬
terest in Georgiu at this time, and
dwelt with particular emphasis on the
lynching problem. She reiterated her
plea for co-education at the state uni¬
versity. of necessity
Mrs. Felton spoke the
for the better education of farmers’
daughters as a protection from the
assaulter, aud declared that instead of
so much money being expended for
foreign missions it might he used to
even better advantage in educating
the heathens at home, even in Geor¬
gia. the millions
“I hear much of sent
abroad to Japan, China, India, Brazil
and Mexico, but I feel that the heathen
at home are so close at hand and need
so much that I must make a strong
effort to stop lynching, by keeping
closer watch over the poor white girls
on the secluded farms.
“I do not discount foreign missions.
I simply say the heathens are at your
door, when our young maidens are de¬
stroyed in sight of your opulence and
magnificence, and when your temples
of justice are put to shame by the
lyncher’s rope. If your court houses
are shams and frauds and the law’s
delay is the villain’s bulwark, then I
say let judgment begin at the house of
God and redeem this country from the
cloud of shame that rests upon it! *•
“When there is not enough religion
in the pulpit to organize a crusade
against sin, nor justice in the court-
house to promptly punish crime, nor
manhood enough in the nation to put
a sheltering arm about innocence and
virtue—if it needs lynching to protect
woman’s dearest possession from the
ravening human beasts—then I say
lyn«h, a thousand times a week if
necessary.”
On the subject of co-education in
the state university, Mrs. Felton said:
“The women on the farms of Geor-
gia demand greater advantages for in¬
tellectual improvement. Let the leg¬
islature at its approaching session
open the university of this state to the
young women of Georgia. If there
are any young men who cannot then
afford to risk their presence in such
classic halls let such leave and perhaps
seek more attractive influences with
inter-collegiate baseball exercises—
and I’ll wager that for every one that
leaves for this cause, fifty more de¬
serving and chivalric young men will
be glad to enter.
“Let the legislature make the uni¬
versity such a school as the state will
be proud of and, undeterred by de¬
nominational bigotry or ignorant dem-
agogy, appropriate money enough to
make it such a commendable school.
Then let the stats rule it, control and
manage it inside and out without fear
or favor.
State Fair for 1898.
Georgia will have a great state agri¬
cultural exposition iu Atlanta in No¬
vember, 1898. That was decided up¬
on by the executive committee of the
State Agricultural society at Tybee
Thursday morning, Mr. Joseph
Thompson, of Atlanta, pledging every
requirement asked by the committee.
These are that the city donate $3,000
in cash to the society, the full use of
the Piedmont park exposition grounds
aud buildings, free lights, free water
aud free police protection. On the
guarantee made by Mr, Thompson, a
committee was appointed to begin at
once to make preparation for the
largest and most attractive state fair
ever held in the south.
Officers Fleeted.
The election of officers resulted in
the unanimous re-election of Hon. J.
Pope Brown, of Pulaski, as president;
James Barrett, of Richmond, general
vice president; Dr. Hape, of Atlanta,
secretary, and W. C. Clemens, treas¬
urer.
The other vice presidents are: First
district, Dr. R. G. Norton, of Savan¬
nah; second district, R. E. Critten¬
den, of Shelbyville; third district,
Colonel J. H. Black, of Sumter;
fourth district, R. Leonard, of Tal-
botton; fifth district, A. J. Smith, of
Conyers; sixth district, W. O. Wad-
ley, of Bollingbroke; seventh district,
J. Lindsey Johnson, of Rome; eighth
district, G. W. Holmes, of Madison;
ninth district, G. H. Jones, of Nor-
cross; tenth district, B. H. Baker, of
Warrenton; eleventh district, Dr. W.
B. Burroughs, of Brunswick.
The following executive committee
was elected:
First district, G. S. Rountree, of
Swainsboro; H. C. Evans, of Halcyon-
dale; second district, C. L. Tuinlin, of
Cuthbert; third district, J. J. Easter -
lin, of Montezuma; fourth district, M.
R. Russell, of Carrollton; fifth district,
W. B. Henderson, of Decatur; J. N.
B. Goode, of Conyers; sixth district,
R. W. Je.mison, of Mason; seventh
district, Sterling N. Roberts, of Car-
tersville; J. O.Waddell, of Cedartown;
eighth district, G.W. Holmes, of Mad¬
ison; T. W. McAllister, of Lavonia;
ninth district, T. E. MeElroy, of Nor-
cross; H. H. Summerouv; tenth dis¬
trict, P. B. Walker, of Warrenton;
eleventh district,W. A.Clark, of Jack-
sonville.
