Part 1

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ALL ABOUT THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES.

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.

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.