USA > Alaska > Alaska and the Klondike > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
Nome is something of a summer resort, judging not by its attractions for pleasure-seekers, but solely by the fluc- tuations in population. About 2,500 people spend the win- ter there every year while the summer arrivals approxi- mate 6,000 annually. Not all of them, of course, remain in Nome any considerable length of time, but this greatest and most wonderful and most interesting of Alaskan cities is the gateway through which arrive and depart the thou- sands who are scattered over the richest gold field of equal area on the American continent, and probably the richest in the world, the Seward Peninsula.
I have spoken in a previous chapter of its deplorable lack of harbour facilities and protection for shipping, and if there were any other point on the south side of this pen- insula any better favoured in this particular it is probable that it would sooner or later, and not much later, take the place Nome now occupies with respect to the Alaskan trade. It was the discovery of gold in the beach sands and on the creeks near by which determined the location of this city; there was no other influence at work in it. While the boom is over and the multitudes attracted by the first discoveries and the chance to stand on the beach and wash
Nome in 1899
-
S
154
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
out $100 to $300 a day have melted away, thousands of tons of merchandise are received here every week, supply- ing the 12,500 to 15,000 people who are scattered over the peninsula; and of the $6,000,000 to $7,500,000 of gold taken out of Alaska annually, two-thirds goes out of Nome.
The reception accorded the senatorial party at Nome was hospitality itself. This was the first stopping place since leaving Dawson, where there were any considerable number of ladies. Here they had assumed the responsi- bility for a formal reception and ball the first night after our arrival. This very " swell " event took place in the Arctic Brotherhood hall, which was tastefully decorated for the occasion. This hall is the social centre of Nome and the members of the brotherhood and their wives con- stitute the " 400." Their hall was formerly a theatre, and, slightly remodelled, it provides splendid accommodations for every sort of social function. It is a kind of club- house and here the best element of Nome socially strug- gles almost nightly through the long winter against thoughts of home and of the leagues of impassable ice and snow which lie between them and the outside world. Dancing and cards avail when more serious occupations fail to beguile the lonesome hours. For it should be under- stood that there is very little to do in Nome in winter. The mining has stopped almost entirely, the ships come no more, half the people have gone "outside "; the rest eat and sleep and amuse themselves and wait for summer to come again.
The Senatorial Banquet at Nome
156
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
This is the situation from November to June. Add to this the fact that for a long time in winter the sun almost fails to come up, rises but a short distance above the ice packs of the Bering Sea and four hours later sinks out of sight again. The gloom of the long Arctic night con- tributes materially to the depression which at last over- comes the winter resident in spite of his effort to resist it. All these things, together with the close association of the inhabitants of this " desert island," produce a peculiar result. As one lady expressed it: " I get tired of my best friends, and I know that they get tired of me because they act like it. From cordial friendship and real enjoyment of each other at the beginning of the 'shut in' period, we come to tolerate and finally to feel a positive aversion for each other, till along in the spring when the days lengthen and the sun comes back and we can get outdoors, and be- gin to count the weeks and then the days till the first ship may be expected-then we get over it and we are friends again."
The Kegoayah Kozga, the woman's club of Nome, were hostesses at the ball. If you think this was a blue-flannel- shirt, pants-in-your-boots, cartridge-belt and knife-sheath affair, that shows how mistaken you are about Nome. There were a few men present who were not in evening dress, but very few, while the ladies had had time since the arrival of the first boats from the States, those of them who were in Nome all winter, to prepare the new dresses they had planned for this special event. It was a brilliant occasion and was certainly worth what it cost in
157
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
the impression it gave to the senators of the kind of men and women there are in farthest Alaska.
For the banquet the next evening at the same place the hall was entirely redecorated. One hundred and twenty- five of the leading men sat down with the senatorial party and after a dinner served in first-class style the requests and suggestions prepared by the general committee of citizens, as to legislation by Congress, were formally pre- sented. The extremely favourable impressions created the previous evening were strengthened by this well-con- ducted and creditable affair. It is doubtful if anything ob- served or experienced during the entire trip of the senato- rial party did more to promote the interests of Alaska than these social events at Nome, so well calculated to create the most favourable impressions with regard to the char- acter of the people who are developing the resources of the great country, of whose natural wealth the general public has such inadequate knowledge.
So much has been written about the wonderful results of washing the beach sands at Nome for gold and the beach sands proved to be so rich that the impression has prevailed in some quarters that not only has this been the source of the greater part of the gold output of the Nome district, but the important discoveries in this district are supposed to have been made first on the beach. This is not quite true, however. The first discovery of gold in the beach sands was made at Sinook, a point about twenty- five miles west of Nome. This led to some prospecting in the vicinity of Nome, but the prospectors were not then
158
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
fortunate in finding in the beach sand paying quantities of gold, and they proceeded inland, where the first im- portant discoveries were made on Anvil Creek and on Snow and Glacier gulches. H. L. Blake claims the credit for having made the original discovery. Some prospect- ing had been done in 1896 and 1897 in the region of Golofnin Bay and on the streams flowing into it. Word was brought there, to a camp near the Swedish Lutheran mission, of discoveries of gold in the beach sands at Sinook. Blake made up a party, including Hultberg, the Swedish missionary, to investigate the Sinook rumours. They found nothing of importance there, and soon re- turned to the creeks above Nome. On the 26th and 27th of July, 1898, they prospected in that vicinity but staked no claims.
A little later the same season Erick C. Lindblom, John Brinterson and Jafet Linderberg went to Anvil Creek, where they staked out claims. They also staked on Snow and Glacier gulches. These men were the first to discover a sufficient quantity of gold in the Nome district to induce them to stake a claim, and are probably entitled to be regarded as the real discoverers. Some of the claims they then staked proved to be very valuable, and were ulti- mately the properties over which occurred that famous litigation which resulted in the removal of a judge of the United States district court and the marshal of the district from their official positions.
The bitter animosities which were developed between individuals and factions in Nome at that time were not
159
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
exposed to the visiting senators, but they can be dug up very easily there at any time if one manifests the slightest interest in tales of woe.
The second day in the Nome district was spent out on the creeks among the miners and prospectors. The Seward Peninsula is just about as well equipped with good wagon roads as is all the rest of Alaska; that is to say, it hasn't any. Nome, however, has a railroad. It is nine miles long and " all under one management." It is called the Wild Goose railroad. A narrow-gauge track laid over the tun- dra winds around among the hills and along the gulches, over which runs a light train made up of two side-gear locomotives adapted to steep grades, and covered so that they look like box cars, but capable of pulling a heavy load. The passenger " coaches " are flat cars, some with roof and some without; but this little railroad is so much of an improvement over none at all that without it many of the claims within reach of it could not be profitably worked on account of the cost of transportation of supplies and machinery.
In a placer mining country a sufficient water supply is quite as essential to success as the gold itself, and at Nome two companies are engaged in building ditches and dis- tributing water for use, not only on their own properties, but for sale to other mine owners. A pumping plant be- longing to C. D. Lane's company stands near the railroad track about a mile and a half from Nome, from which point it is pumping water up into the mines eight or nine miles away and 800 feet higher up on Anvil Creek and
160
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
Snow and Glacier gulches. Another company on the other side of Anvil Mountain, the Campion company, is also constructing an immense system of ditches and providing for the distribution of water on a large scale. During the summer of 1904 the Wild Goose mining company paid $1,000,000 for a controlling interest in the sixty miles of ditches and pipes of the Miocene Canal company, and announced a reduction in water rates to other mines be- sides their own. Such improvements as this not only sug- gest confidence in the permanency of the gold deposit, but they are establishing the only possible conditions under which the immense wealth of that rich, gold-bearing sec- tion may be successfully developed.
Near the end of the railroad the whole company left the train and mounted horses. Among the mines visited was Discovery, on Anvil Creek, and in our company was Jafet Linderberg, one of the discoverers and locators of this claim. Linderberg is now a millionaire. When he started on the trip which led to this great discovery he was an employé of the Government at one of the reindeer stations, from which service he obtained a release in order that he might engage in prospecting. He is a fine-looking, gentlemanly-appearing young fellow, exceedingly diffident, but a brief conversation with him develops the fact that he is a man of intelligence and capacity, a fact which helps explain his election to the presidency of the Pioneer Mining company, a strong corporation which owns Dis- covery and other valuable claims on Anvil and nearby creeks. Another interesting member of our company was
161
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
Mr. Linderberg's bride, who was spending her honey- moon on the scene of her husband's very fortunate opera- tions.
A few days before our arrival no little excitement had been created in Nome, where thrills of this kind make
Jafet Linderberg and Party
life endurable, by the discovery of a pocket on Nikkala gulch, where " Caribou Bill," whose name isn't Bill at all, but Thomas Dettern, one of those unscientific, unlettered, lucky chaps, had struck a pocket in his mine which pro- duced $1,285 from twelve pans in a yard of gravel; this was at the rate of $ 10,700 to the cubic yard, and naturally produced a sensation while it lasted. This property was on
162
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
the route of the day's travel and not far from the " Hot Air " mine, which was just now being successfully washed out by means of a hydraulic giant. Other mines were visited on Snow Gulch and Dexter Creek, illustrating the different methods of handling the gravel, some by hy- draulic lifts and others by simply shovelling the gravel from the bedrock into the sluice boxes.
One of the most interesting propositions, as the miners say, was the Snow Flake mine, where a shaft had been sunk to a depth of 130 feet to a bed of pay gravel. This is supposed to be a deposit similar to that found on bed- rock in the gulches and along the streams, but, by a change in the face of nature, to have been covered with earth to this depth. The gravel is taken out of this underground deposit and sluiced out, just as if scooped from the surface of the ground as in other mining operations there. The work of taking out the ore can be carried on all winter, but the sluicing must wait, of course, for summer weather.
An interesting fact developed here was the depth of the frost line. As has been heretofore stated, perpetual ice is found practically all over Alaska at a depth of two or three feet. That is to say, the surface thaws only about that much during the summer. The close covering of grass and moss protects the surface of the ground so thoroughly from the rays of the sun that the frost is not disturbed at a greater depth. The question naturally arose: How deep is the frost line? I asked this question a number of times on the trip through Alaska, but no one seemed to have found the limit of ice. Here, however, I was told that the
A Clean-up on " No. 8 Above," on Anvil Creek
164
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
ground was frozen solidly for a depth of ninety-five feet, and a drill working in another shaft nearby afforded partial confirmation of this statement, as it was still chip- ping the ice at an apparent depth of sixty feet.
An excellent lunch was served to the entire party of twenty-five or thirty at the messhouse of the Wild Goose company and we were then invited to witness a clean-up on "No. 8 Above," on Anvil Creek, which means the eighth claim above the original discovery claim. This claim belongs to Mr. Linderberg's company, but was being worked on a "lay," which is the miners' term for a percentage lease, by the Wild Goose company. The sluice box shown in the accompanying illustration had been running two days and when the riffles had been taken up and the gold in the bottom literally shovelled up, it was found that there was more than a miner's pailful, the value of which was nearly $8,000. And beautiful stuff it was, too. The Nome gold is brighter and prettier than that which is found in the Klondike and assays $2 or so more to the ounce-about $15 to $17 in the one case and $16 to $19 in the other. The greater part of it is in fine particles about the size of the grains of rock salt, or smaller, but a great many nuggets worth from $2 to $7 were found in this clean-up. I saw one piece that day said to be worth $300, and have learned that after we left there a nugget was taken from one of these Anvil Creek bench claims which weighed out $3,285.90.
Late in the season of 1904 a sensational discovery was made on Little Creek, about three miles from Nome and
165
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
between the city and the centre of operations on Anvil Creek. Pans of gravel yielded as high as $135 and one pan is said to have contained ten ounces of gold or $170. The deposit is found at a depth of forty-two feet and
Sluice Boxes on Anvil Creek
promises to rival the original discovery on Anvil Creek, of which ore streak it is probably a continuation. The lucky discoverer is J. C. Brown, a pioneer on the peninsula.
Did I get the fever? No, not exactly, but when you see the yellow metal gathered up by the panful and see it picked up in chunks as big as hen's eggs, you no longer wonder at the fascination which holds the prospector to his life of solitude and privation from year to year. Hope
I66
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
never fails; he hasn't " struck it rich " yet; but he may to- morrow. I saw, on an island off the south coast of Alaska, a typical prospector-a prospector is a miner who hasn't struck it yet. This old man was bent with age and crippled by rheumatism. He came aboard our ship to get some medicine from the ship's doctor. The doctor ministered to him the best he could, but told him plainly that he had a serious infirmity and that if he didn't stop work, stop camping on the ground and take good care of himself he would soon die. The old fellow limped down the gangway to his little boat, saying that he was just about to strike a rich lead and he couldn't stop now. Our pilot knew him; he had a family in San Francisco and sons able and will- ing to care for him, but he preferred the great game of chance to which he had given twenty years of his life already, and lived in hope. Some day he will be found dead in his cabin, and his name, unlike those of the few fortunates, but like the great majority of gold-seekers, will not be read in the newspapers.
But not all the prospecting or all the mining of western Alaska is going on in the vicinity of Nome. Thanks to our exceedingly defective mining laws it is possible for the dog in the manger to play his part in Alaska to the limit, and he is doing it. There is nothing to prevent a single prospector from staking as much ground as he pleases, and where the indications are good he pleases to stake every- thing in sight. Owing to these same legal defects he may hold his claims indefinitely without doing anything to develop them, if only he is clever about it. And he is
167
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
holding them, in more than nine cases out of ten, hoping that some one will come and buy them or till some one, thinking they have been abandoned, files on them. If they prove to be valuable he is then prepared to pounce on the one who has spent the money to prove their value and,
Washing out Gold with a "Long Tom " near Nome
aided by a lot of others of the manger breed, compel him to pay a large sum for a quit claim or to divide the out- put, or possibly to vacate altogether. The senatorial com- mittee took stenographic reports here and at all the places visited of the recommendations of miners and business men and lawyers, and will undoubtedly endeavour to so change the mining laws as to compel those who do not
168
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
develop their claims to abandon them so that others may make them productive.
This dog-in-the-manger practice has had one partially compensating result-it has compelled the late comers to go on further into unprospected parts of the peninsula and develop the fact that there is " pay dirt " scattered pretty nearly all over the peninsula. Some of it is of too low grade to admit of profitable mining by the crude methods of the pan and the rocker, but may be made exceedingly profitable when handled by machinery on an economical scale. It is no exaggeration to say that there are thou- sands and thousands of acres of ground on the Seward Peninsula alone which will pay rich returns when they come to be handled by improved methods. That means that large numbers of individual claims must pass into the hands of a few having capital; that the business of taking gold out of Alaska has scarcely commenced; that it will yet become a permanent industry-as permanent as coal mining in Pennsylvania-and that it will take genera- tions to exhaust the mineral wealth of those marvellously rich and marvellously extensive gold fields.
Other sections of the peninsula where important gold- mining operations are going on are the Council City dis- trict, seventy-five miles northeast of Nome and forty or fifty miles from the sea; the Solomon River country in the same direction, but not so far away, and along several of the streams flowing into Kotzebue Sound on the north side of Seward Peninsula. The Council City district is becoming the scene of very important operations. Con-
169
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
siderable quantities of machinery have been taken into that section through Golofnin Bay and by boats up the river. A short railroad supplements the river craft, cheap- ening transportation and adding to the profit of mining. A railroad is also under way from the coast up the Solomon River and it is expected that eventually it will connect with the Council City road, and also be extended westward along the beach to Nome. This railroad construction sug- gests the confidence of the builders in the future of these mining districts.
Nome is an incorporated city. The board of alder- men elect one of their number to the office of mayor. Of course, there is no lack of that element which is the curse of every mining camp; but good order seems to be main- tained and perhaps is not so difficult to secure, for a part of the year, at least, as in the frontier towns in the States, from the fact that in winter, which means eight months of the year there, escape from the officers of the law is ex- tremely difficult. The fugitive from justice who leaves Nome in winter is likely to be found in some melting snow- bank when spring comes. When he leaves Nome there is no other place to which he can go. The federal authorities had taken a hand in the suppression of vice and public gambling just prior to the senatorial visit. Nome was up- to-date in another important particular, too. It had an aldermanic boodle trial in progress. Nome has a good school building, several churches, and two semi-weekly newspapers that are creditable to the city, the Nugget and the Gold-Digger. The city is built of wood, as are all the
-
I 70
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
other towns of Alaska. No fire insurance is written here except on the warehouses of the large commercial com- panies. The fire service uses in summer water from the main which brings in the city supply by gravity from the
Curio Peddlers at Nome
hills, but in winter water for fighting fires must be pumped from the sea through the ice.
Living in Nome is much less expensive than in any other part of northern and central Alaska because it has ocean transportation, and in summer, when Bering Sea is open, prices are not much higher than in Seattle.
Fort Davis, with its garrison of one company, is three miles east of Nome, on the beach, but since the early days
171
NOME AND THE GOLD FIELDS
of beach mining the soldiers have had little to do. There is also an equipment for a life-saving station for which Congress, in its inability to appreciate properly any of its duties toward Alaska, has provided no crew. It would take $5,000 to $6,000 to maintain a crew for four months when the sea is open, but that is a trifling sum compared to the importance of the work to be done. During our stay two expert oarsmen and swimmers were capsised in the surf and were rescued with great difficulty and nearly dead. Many lives are lost there every year, which might be saved if this station were manned at the light expense mentioned.
In summer Nome gets mail on nearly every steamer from Seattle, but in winter letters, but no papers, are supposed to be brought from Dawson once a month, al- though the service is uncertain. One of the severest hard- ships of winter residence in Nome is the fact that it takes at least a hundred days to get an answer by mail from any place in the central or eastern part of the United States. What this often implies in the way of anxiety and home- sickness and mental depression can be imagined. Insanity is not unknown in Alaska. Telegraphic communication now established with the outside world, and bringing the most important news of the day, will do much to relieve the long Arctic winter of its dreariness and gloom.
The Nome district, by which is meant the Seward Peninsula, has appeared in the gold reports for eight years. The total output, including 1903, is approximately $28,000,000. The production of the Nome district and
172
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE
all Alaska for the year 1904 is not yet officially stated, but judging by preliminary estimates from official sources it will approximate $6,000,000, more than two-thirds of it coming from the Nome district. This is at least a million dollars under reasonable expectations for present development, the shortage being due to an insufficient water supply and a short sluicing season. The water fur- nished by the ditch companies is taken now from what might be described as local sources, and a season of light rainfall or a season of light snowfall, which sometimes fol- low each other, as happened last year, creates a water famine, so to speak. What the Nome district needs, along with better facilities for transportation over land, is a larger and more permanent water supply. Some time this will undoubtedly be obtained from the Kigluaik Mountains, 40 miles to the northward. There an abundant water sup- ply can be had for all mining operations, and the fall would also provide power which could be converted into electricity and applied to the various mining operations.
When you compare the gold of Nome with the value of the crops in a good agricultural section of equal area in the United States it does not amount to much; but it must be borne in mind that the entire white population of Alaska is only 30,000, about that of an average county in the Middle States, and that the Nome gold-bearing area has scarcely been touched as yet.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.