USA > Alaska > Alaska, its neglected past, its brilliant future > Part 21
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The mercury sometimes reaches as low as 80 de- grees below zero and at such a time hot water if thrown in the air will form icicles.
Gold can be found in the gravel on nearly any Yukon river, creek or gulch.
All business is transacted with gold dust, and not with currency or coin.
Laws, made by the miners themselves, are recog- nized in the distant camps.
Mosquitoes are said to be as thick as snow flakes, and are found in every part of the gold country. They are exceedingly annoying and a mosquito bar is as necessary in summer as an overcoat is in winter.
Circle City is practically deserted (October), the
377
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people having gone to Dawson, or on up to mining camps. Many will return or new comers will event- ually take up a settlement here.
The Indian River and its tributaries will prove to possess valuable diggings next winter.
It is stated that Vitus Bering, who discovered Alaska, or Russian America, also named the great peak St. Elias.
The gold brought down from the Klondyke region this season, now closed, will foot up two millions of dollars or more.
A liquor used by the native Alaskans was once an innocent drink made of rye flour and water, permitted to stand until it fermented and grew clear. This was called Quass, and was much used by the Rus- sians. But they improved the mixture, by adding sugar or molasses, producing after crude distillation, the "Koochinoo " which is extremely intoxicating.
It is generally estimated that from ten to twelve thousand Esquimaux live in the cold, barren regions of the Upper Yukon, the district in or near the Arctic Circle. The manner of salute habitual with these Esquimaux, is the rubbing of noses, a fashion also belonging to the Maris of New Zealand. It is an unpardonable offense to refuse the salutation, how- ever uninviting the physiognomy of the one offering it.
The Yukon is said to freeze to the depth of from six to eighteen feet in midwinter.
378
ALASKA.
Although the weather in Alaska is exceedingly cold, the air is healthful and invigorating. The climatic changes are sudden and very severe.
Since the discovery of gold in the Klondyke region, wages at the Treadwell Mill have advanced to $6 per day.
Whisky, beer and all kinds of liquors have been transported into Alaska and the necessities of life ne- glected.
It rains copiously, more than half the season on the ocean side of the mountains and mining hills.
Hundreds of homing pigeons have been taken in on the Klondyke routes. One flew from the top of Chil- koot Pass to Portland, Oregon, a distance of 1,200 miles in eight days.
In 1866, Professor Debendeleben claimed to have discovered in central Alaska, a mountain, said to be full of gold. It is thought to be the highest peak in that region. It was called Mount Debendeleben, after the discoverer.
Under a charter from the Canadian Government, two trading companies have the monoply of supplying the inhabitants of Klondyke with clothing and pro- visions.
The Salvation Army have established a post and planted their flag in the Klondyke district.
A large sawmill is to be erected at Teslin Lake.
The Cassiar Central Railroad Company has de-
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cided to enter its territory by way of the Stikine River Route. It embraces about 750,000 acres of mineral land.
Although there are plenty of salmon in the river, good sized fish at Dawson City were selling at $ro each.
The Bonanza Creek district has been called Tron- dike instead of Klondyke.
It is asserted that at least seventy tons of gold could be taken from the Klondyke alone, provided the miners had proper nourishment and mining facilities.
The largest nugget found in the Yukon was valued at $583. It was brought from the Klondyke.
It once took sixty days to carry the mails from Cir- cle City to Juneau over the Chilkoot Pass, but if relay stations and good roads should be established, it could be accomplished in fifteen days.
The gold in Alaska is really being covered up in- stead of uncovered, owing to the rivers filling up, as they have been flowing for some time past.
It costs $25 a day to feed a horse in Circle City.
The past season being extremely dry, the Yukon is low and thus prevents quick navigation from St. Mich- aels.
Until the discovery of the Klondyke field, the gold finds in the interior of Alaska were comparatively small, but very profitable, however.
Before the Klondyke discovery there was only known one instance, where a man took out $40,000 at once from his claim.
380
ALASKA.
The gold bearing district extends in a northwesteriy direction from the Hootalinqua River to the Arctic Ocean.
Each gulch or creek has a Recorder, appointed by popular vote, he being the chief officer in the Re- public of Miners.
The discoverer of a gold bearing creek is allowed a claim of 1000 feet instead of 500.
One clain only is allowed to each man, and crowded creeks are staked off at 300 feet to a claim.
An effort is being made in the gulches, not paying well, to stake claims 1320 feet long.
The Copper River Transportation and Mining Company have located at Port Townsend and will operate a line of schooners in passenger and freight traffic, between this place and Cook's Inlet, Kadiak, the Prince William Sound country and Copper River points.
Game is very scarce, although at times, moose, cari- bou and hare are found in large quantities. Hunters for fur-bearing animals have for many years scoured the Yukon River country for this kind of game.
By international postal arrangements between Canada and the United States, there will be a mail once a month from Dyea to Dawson City conveyed by the mounted police.
A post-office is to be established at St. Michaels, and it is hoped that the Government will soon see
381
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
the importance of all the Alaska towns and establish an office at each.
All arrangements have been made for fitting up a post-office at Tagish Lake.
Vegetables of the hardier sorts can be raised. Wild onions, rhubarb and wild celery can be found any- where, and small berries, such as the blueberry, cran- berry, salmon berry, wild raspberry and currants grow in abundance on some of the islands, and on the sides of the mountains. Fresh vegetables used in the States are quite unknown as yet in Alaska, but in time the hardier and rapidly growing ones will be success- fully raised in the warmer regions of the territory.
A rapid fire Maxim gun has been placed on the steamer Portland, as a protection to those returning from Klondyke in case of meeting with pirates.
In the Klondyke region during midwinter, daylight only lasts about four hours, as the sun does not rise until about 9.30 or 10 a. m., and sets from 2 to 3 p. m.
The climate of Alaska varies, and that part which includes the islands on the Pacific coast, north of Dixon's Sound and about twenty miles inland, is termed temperate Alaska, winter not setting in until the Ist of December, and the temperature seldom fall- ing to zero. By May all the snow has disappeared except on the mountains. The rainfall of this section is very peculiar. It comes in long continued rains and drizzles. There are only about sixty-six clear days in the year, the rest of the time it is cloudy and foggy.
382
ALASKA.
HOSPITALS.
At Sitka there is a thoroughly equipped hospital, which has twenty beds and all modern conveniences, at the Industrial School.
There is also a hospital and doctor at Fort Adams, in connection with St. James Mission.
SCHOOLS.
An enterprising woman of San Francisco has gone to Dawson City and taken a school house with her. It is in sections, well planned as to conveniences.
She has also taken a good supply of books and writing material.
There are twenty day schools in Alaska with teach- ers and 1267 pupils.
TRANSPORTATION.
Men have had to work night and day in order to supply the demand for launches and small boats. One firm having built fifty has been obliged to refuse any more orders.
Since the exodus to the Klondyke region the car- penters have been kept busy, as 500 sleds have thus far been made costing about $12 apiece.
The Pacific Coast Steamship Company have formed an Express Company to carry merchandise, money, bonds, and valuables from Tacoma to Dyea and inter- mediate points touched by their steamers.
The miners have built a bridge about one and a half
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SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
miles from where the Skaguay trail was forded. It is a crude affair 6 feet wide and 200 feet long, on four trestles with one span of 66 feet.
Skaguay, a town which a short time ago did not contain a dozen inhabitants, now boasts of a pop- ulation of nearly four thousand, with stores, saloons, and restaurants, all as yet under canvas.
In February, 1890, in the northern districts, the thermometer was 47 degrees below zero for five con- secutive days. It was the longest cold spell that has ever occurred. About the first of March it moder- ated slightly, but still continued below the freezing point.
The police have orders not to allow any miner to enter the British Territory, unless provided with 1, 100 pounds of food.
Miners are paid $10 to $15 for a whole day of eight hours, but in winter when they only work six hours for a day their wages are reduced to $5 or $8 per day.
Nuggety masses of gold of $5 weight are found in the Franklin Gulch in the Forty Mile district.
This gulch was discovered in 1887 and the first year produced about $4,000.
In the summer of 1886, Birch Creek was in a flour- ishing condition. Mines were working on double shifts, night and day, as most of the gulches were then running.
Forty Mile district, in the summer of 1896, looked
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ALASKA.
as though it had seen its best days, and unless new creeks are discovered, will lose its old standing.
At Mastodon Creek, the best producer, over 300 miners are at work, and they expect to winter in the gulch.
Taiya, or Dyea River, is a mountain torrent of no extensive size. It empties into Lynn Canal, about one hundred miles north of the city of Juneau.
In looking back from the summit of Chilkoot Pass, the Pacific Ocean is sometimes to be seen like a stretch of rolling clouds against the shore line.
Lake Linderman, in which the Yukon River rises, is but a small sheet of water, one mile in width and six miles long.
Caribou Crossing is a shallow stream connecting Lake Tagish and Lake Bennett. It is so-called be- cause the Caribou pass that way in going southward.
Chilkoot Pass has an altitude of three thousand five hundred feet, and above it the snow-capped moun- tains tower, from which the drifts of snow are carried into the gorge by the winds, making almost perpetual snow storms, thougli the sky may be cloudless.
Windy Arm, is so called because the impetuous winds from the White and Chilkoot Passes rush to- gether at the head of Lake Tagish, into which Windy Arm extends. The war of winds makes the waters of the Arm so tempestuous that it is generally more wise to haul the boats around by land until a safer point is reached.
AUK GLACIER.
385
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
Mt. Tacoma, or Rainier, holds no less than fifteen glaciers in its keeping.
Mt. Fairweather is two hundred miles southeast from Mt. St. Elias, and, in favorable weather, can be seen at sea for more than one hundred miles.
A species of kelp, or sea weed, is gathered by the Alaskan women and pressed into cakes forming a nu- tritious and strengthening article of diet.
A coarser kind is collected for burning, fuel being scarce along the coasts of the extreme north.
Rev. W. W. Kirby, a missionary among the Es- quimaux of the Upper Yukon, in speaking of the summer sun says, "Frequently did I see him (the sun) describe a complete circle in the heavens."
The aurora borealis is the substitute for the sun during the winter. The time of its most brilliant ap- pearance is chosen by the natives for catching fish.
The Cassiar gold mines are situated in British Co- lumbia.
Captain White, of the United States Revenue Ser- vice, reported the largest nuggets of gold in the Terri- tory to have been found on the mountain near Wran- gel, one thousand feet above the sea level.
Douglas Island was named in honor of a Bishop of Salisbury, who was a friend of Vancouver's.
Chilkat blankets, the Alaskan's wealth, are manu- factured by women. One of them requires six months in its creation. The colors are blue, black,
25
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ALASKA.
yellow and white; the dyes being made by the na- tives. The blankets are generally six feet long and four feet wide, not including the fringe, which is usually rich and beautiful. These are valued at from forty to eighty dollars a piece, and are very dur- able.
Travelers estimate that there are five thousand gla- ciers, great and small, in the Alaskan Territory.
Gold, having been found so abundant in Alaska, its other resources are eclipsed; but copper, silver, coal, iron and petroleum are also destined to supply their part in her resources of wealth.
Agassiz Glacier, sloping down from the southern side of Mt. St. Elias, is computed to be twenty miles wide, fifty miles long, and to cover an area of nearly one thousand square miles.
Mt. Wrangel is the home of some of the largest glaciers in the world, the extent of which seems al- most fabulous.
At certain stormy seasons, Seymour Narrows, a part of the Inland Passage, is extremely dangerous for vessels.
Sitka, the capital of Alaska, is situated five hun- dred and fifty miles from Kodiak, or Kadiak, the more ancient capital.
There are more than fifty islands in the Aleutian Chain, not counting the smaller islets and volcanic rocks. Of these Unimak, or Oonimak, is the largest,
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SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
it is twenty miles wide and upwards of seventy miles long. It has a volcanic peak nine thousand feet high. Oonalaska has one five thousand, seven hun- dred feet tall, and even little Attoo, or Attu, boasts of its mountains, the tallest of which is three thousand feet in height. The whole Aleutian group is sup- posed to be of volcanic origin.
King's Island is the home of cave dwellers, who have literally made caves for their dwellings in winter, while their summer homes hang like swallow nests to the face of the rocks, secured by whale and walrus bones and covered with their hides.
These caves are two hundred feet above the water.
The Aleutian Islands contain a number of hot springs, and many extinct volcanoes.
In some of the streams near Dawson City, from 500 to 700 pounds of salmon can be caught daily, dur- ing the summer.
Typhoid and malarial fevers are feared at Dawson City, it being impossible to drain the ground in the warm season, owing to the plateau being covered with a dense spongy moss and tundra.
Moose and reindeer may be killed all winter, but bear can only be found in the fall and after it leaves its cave in March.
By next spring efforts will be made to try the new routes to the gold districts-one going from Sitka by way of Yakutat, Disenchantment Bay and the White
388
ALASKA.
River, the trail distance being only 425 miles, while from Juneau over the present trail it is 700 miles.
A general stampede is being made for Munook Creek, since a young prospector went there in the spring of 1897 and made rich discoveries. The gold is coarse but purer than that along the Upper Yukon.
It is 400 miles below Circle City and 700 miles below Dawson City, and it is reported that food will be plentiful there this winter, as the Alaska Commercial Company is building a store, and will stock it well.
The rights of squatters who have improved their holdings are considered to be secure against invasion.
Titles given by the original settler are valid, even though the holders shall be absent from the premises.
By actual count, 2,030 pack horses recently passed over the Skaguay trail in one day.
The Steamer Rustler makes regular weekly trips from Juneau to Chilcat and Dyea.
The first gold mining in the Upper Yukon district was done in 1880 by 25 or 30 miners, who entered by way of Dyea.
The first discovery of coarse gold on the Upper Yukon was made by a Mr. Franklin on the Forty Mile Creek in 1886.
The first discovery of gold in the middle Yukon region was made in 1872, by Messrs. Harper and Hart, who went in over the Stikine River route.
In 1881 gold was discovered on a stream between the Yukon and the Tanana rivers.
389
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
A Canadian expert believes that quartz mining in the Yukon country will soon be more profitable than washing gold from the placers.
49,000 cases of salmon were shipped from Prince William Sound during August and September.
The copper mines on the Copper River are exten- sive and will soon create excitement.
Experts are being sent to Alaska by the United States Government, in search of mica. It is in great demand for electrical appliances.
The quartz mines in Southeastern Alaska are in- creasing in value as depth is reached on the lodes.
Owing to the growing trade of the Portland merchants, the steamer George W. Elder will run regularly and permanently from Portland to Alaska.
619,379 cases of salmon were caught and packed in Alaska during the year 1895.
There are 29 canning establishments employing 5,600 men.
At Karluk, last July, 100,000 salmon were caught.
In 1878 gold was discovered on the Lewis and Hootalinqua Rivers by George Holt, the first white inan to enter the Yukon country by the Chilcoot Pass route.
In 1875 Edward Bean and a party of prospectors started from Juneau over the Chilcoot Pass route to the Yukon district. Mrs. Bean, the wife of the trader, who was married to him in Chicago, was the first white lady in the Yukon district.
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ALASKA.
In 1875 they went to their post, fifty miles up the Tanana River and shortly after arriving there a son was born, it being the first white child born on the Yukon or in the interior of Alaska.
In 1878 a difficulty arose between Mr. Bean and the Tanana Indians, the latter becoming angry be- cause the trader would not take all the skins, good or bad which they brought him.
Upon his determined refusal, three medicine men determined to kill him, but fearing his wife, who was noted for her courage and skill with a pistol, they planned to kill both and one day coming upon them unawares shot and fatally wounded Mrs. Bean. The husband, seeing the harm done, quickly picked up his boy jumped into a canoe and escaped, going to Nulato.
The steamer South Coast made the trip down from St. Michaels in eleven days.
Were it not for the many difficulties in the way, the output from the Yukon placers would amount to nearly $20,000,000.
The largest nugget found in the Inlet-section in 1897 was on Bear Creek. Its value was $93.
The Kensington lode will be tapped at a depth of 1,700 feet. That is the greatest depth that any mine in Alaska has ever been tested.
Enormous prices are being asked for the claims on the bonanza tributaries of the Klondyke. It
ALASKAN BURIAL PLACE.
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SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
would be possible, however, to purchase some of them at prices from half a million upwards.
A fair log cabin, already built, costs $1,000 and the time and labor in constructing a new one, would amount to almost the same.
Lieut. G. M. Storey proposes a naval patrol and three garrisons for the Yukon River.
The majority of the houses at Dawson are con- structed from poles, the largest of which measure about four inches in diameter. Poles of this size and sufficient length for a cabin cost from $4 to $8 a piece.
Fully half of the 6,000 people at Dawson were living in tents. Lumber and logs having to be handled or floated 15 miles, command fabulous prices.
Horses and mules at present cost from $250 to $400, pack animals being a necessity in the Yukon.
The only collection made by the Canadian Govern- ment, from the miners, is the miner's license of $15, and $100 on a claim in the second year. On wood there is a tax of 15 and 25 cents a cord, and a set of house logs is levied $8. Wood costs as high as $100 a cord in Dawson City.
There are no glaciers in the northern interior of Alaska, but instead a singular phenomenon of the ground-ice formation, a state of affairs in which ice plays the part of a more or less regularly inter- stratified rock, above which are the clays containing remains of the mammoth and other animals, showing
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ALASKA.
that they became extinct not because of the refrigera- tion of the region, but co-incidently with the com- ing of a warmer climate.
On Wood Island, Kadiak Harbor, a twelve-acre field of oats is planted regularly, and although it seldon ripens, it is used for food for the horses, which have been kept for years on this island.
ALASKA OFFICIALS.
WHENCE APPOINTED AND DATE OF APPOINTMENT.
Governor, JOHN G. BRADY, of Alaska. June 23, 1897.
Clerk of Court at Sitka, ALBERT D. ELLIOT, of D. C. July 26, 1897.
Surveyor-General at Sitka, WILLIAM L. DISTIN, of Illinois. August 7, 1897.
Register of Land Office at Sitka, JOHN W. DUDLEY, of D. C. July 27, 1897.
Receiver of Public Moneys at Sitka,
ROSWELL, SHELLY, of Oregon. July 27, 1897.
United States District Judge of Alaska, C. S. JOHNSON. Residence, Sitka.
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA. 393
United States Attorney at Sitka, BURTON E. BENNETT.
Assistant United States Attorney at Sitka, ALFRED J. DALY.
United States Marshal at Sitka, JAMES M. SHOUP.
Deputy Collector at Juneau, MR. ORMAND.
Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, W. C. PEDLAR.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior, WEBSTER DAVIS.
Townsite Commissioner at Juneau, R. L. LYONS,
Deputy Collector at Juneau, C. S. HANNUM.
Chief Deputy of Sitka, W. P. MCBRIDE.
Deputy at Wrangel, JOSEPH ARMENT.
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ALASKA.
Inspector Afloat, J. S. SLATER,
Deputy Collector at Skaguay, JAMES FLOYD,
Dominion Land Surveyor, J. J. MCARTHUR.
Three Assistants, MESSRS. RILEY, HELDANE AND COOPER.
COMMISSIONERS-OLD POINTS.
Sitka- CALDWELL W. TUTTLE, of Indiana. June 22, 1897. Wrangel- KENNETH M. JACKSON, of Alaska. June 6, 1896. Unalaska-LYCURGUS R. WOODWARD, of California. April 24, 1894.
Juneau- JOHN Y. OSTRANDER, of Alaska. February 19, 1897. Kadiak- PHILIP GALLAGHER, of Washington. June 24, 1897.
COMMISSIONERS-NEW POINTS IN 1897.
Circle City- JOHN E. CRANE, of Illinois. July 6, 1897. Dyea- JOHN U. SMITH, of Oregon. July 8, 1897. St. Michaels- LENOX B. SHEPHERD, of Alaska. July 26, 1897. Unga- CHARLES H. ISHAM, of Maryland. July 22, 1897.
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SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
SUMMARY OF ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA AND KLONDYKE
GOLD MINES.
NAMES
NUMBER OF STAMPS
WHERE SITUATED
Bear lode.
Berner's Bay
Berner's Bay Mining and Milling Company.
Berner's Bay
Comet mine
Berner's Bay
Eureka lode.
Berner's Bay
Ivanhoe mines
Berner's Bay
Jualin mines.
Berner's Bay
Kensington lode.
Berner's Bay
Northern Belle mine.
Berner's Bay
Portland and Alaska Mining Com- pany
Beruer's Bay
Thomas Seward lode.
Berner's Bay
Alaska-Treadwell Gold Mining Com- pany ...
300 (Others be- ing added)
Douglas Island
Bear's Nest mine
Douglas Island
Grindstone Creek
Douglas Island
Lorena mine.
60
Montana Creek
Douglas Island Douglas Island Douglas Island Douglas Island
Snettishham mines
Douglas Island
Davis Creek
Forty-Mile district
Poker Creek.
Forty-Mile district
Willoughby mine.
5
Cassiar mines.
Funter Bay, Admiralty Island Headwaters of Deese River, British Columbia
Bald Eagle mine
10
Holkham Bay (Sumdum)
Lynk mines.
Inlet Section
Mills mines.
Inlet Section
Polly Mining Company
Inlet Section
Bonanza mines.
Klondyke, United States
Dominion Creek
Klondyke, United States
Eldorado mines.
Klondyke, United States
Hunker Creek.
Klondyke, United States
Indian Creek
Klondyke, United States
Mexican mine
Ready Bullion
40 (Adding more) 20
396
ALASKA.
SUMMARY OF ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA AND KLONDYKE GOLD MINES-Continued.
NAMES
NUMBER OF STAMPS
WHERE SITUATED
Munook Creek.
Klondyke, United States
Sulphur Creek mines
Klondyke, United States
Victoria Gulch
Klondyke, United States
Healy North American Transporta- tion and Trading Company.
Near Dawson
Dora mine
Near Juneau
Gold Creek.
Near Juneau
Humboldt mine
5
Near Juneau
North Star mines.
Near Juneau
Taku Consolidated pany
Mining Com-
10
Near Juneau
Silver Queen Mining Company ...
10
Sheep Creek, Juneau
Glacier mines.
Sheep Creek
Keystone mine.
Sheep Creek
Leap Year mine
Sheep Creek
Norwell Gold Mining Company.
30
Sheep Creek
The Apollo Gold and Silver Mining Company of Unga ..
Shumagin Island
ยท
Eastern Alaska Mill and Mining Company
10
Silver Bow Basin
Fuller First mine
5
Silver Bow Basin
Cash mine
Sitka
Haley and Miletich mines
Sitka
Lucky Chance mine ..
Sitka
The Pande Basin Placer mine.
Sitka
Cleveland mines
Near Sitka
Porphyry mines.
Near Sitka
Birch Creek
Yukon district
Copper River.
Yukon district
Forty Mile Creek
Yukon district
Hootalinqua River.
Yukon district
Klondyke River
Yukon district
Lewes River
Yukon district
Miller Creek
Yukon district
Pelly River.
Yukon district
Stewart River
Yukon district
Many other mines have been opened recently, and new claims are being taken up and Klondyke Gold Mining Stock Companies are forming all over the country.
397
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA.
COPPER AND SILVER MINES.
Rich silver and copper ores are found on the west coast of Chichagoff Island and near Sitka.
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