USA > Alaska > Alaska, its neglected past, its brilliant future > Part 3
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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 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
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ALASKA.
the eyes, the first consideration must be some kind of residence, for the building of which you will re- quire lumber, procurable at the modest sum of $750 per thousand feet. These facts are somewhat dis- couraging, but we are assured that they are true. If so, poor men must stay at home, unless capitalists undertake to fit out and send colonies to the mines. When they do, there will be a great demand for strong, able-bodied, willing men. Others must stay among the more civilized communities, and be content to let the dazzling pictures of instantaneous fortune pass before them without losing their mental equilibrium in the contemplation. "Grub-stake" min- ers are men employed by others for a consideration to prospect or work and thus make a division of their finds.
Many fortune seekers may, however, find it con- venient to content themselves in South-Eastern Alaska, where the climate is much like that of Boston and possibly of cities a little further south. This tempera- ture is owing to the warm Japan current, called the Kuro Siwo, which sweeps northward like the Gulf Stream of the East, washing the shores of the myriad Western Islands and modifying the temperature for a considerable distance inland. This warm stream, flow- ing from the mild coasts of Asia, curves around the bleak Aleutian Islands and tempers with its gentle breath the whole southern region. There is a great
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HOW TO REACH ALASKA.
deal of good mining in this neighborhood, now aban- doned by miners for the more promising fields further north and east. Just here the belated miner may find some balm for his disappointed hopes, and doubtless the day is near when thousands of men and women will find comfortable homes and a good living as the country becomes more settled, which is now certain to happen in a short time. Miners will go so far, find it impossible to get north, and in desperation take work in the mines in which such hands are now in great demand, or find other more profitable occupations. The consequence will be that they will find the climate agreeable, the work lucrative, and they will soon gather their families around them. Thus the wildly boiling fever for Klondyke gold will become the calmer desire for home and competence, and the benefit accruing to one part of the Territory will be a steady advancement to the honor and dignity of both commercial and financial importance in Alaska, while the natives will at last be brought into com- munion with the true and honorable type of citizenship and of our home-like life.
CHAPTER IV.
A FEW IMPROVEMENTS FOR ALASKA.
AT LAST there comes a cry from Alaska for the railroads and telegraphic communications that the writer has been earnestly advocating as absolute requirements for its development for a num- ber of years. The folly of claiming that it is impossi- ble to build railroads in places where men can carry loads like pack horses is distinctly evidenced by the magnificent engineering on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the railway over Marshall Pass and other parts of the mountains of Colorado, while the single example of the Cog Wheel Road to the top of Pike's Peak, as well as similar wonderful enterprises, is sufficient demonstration of what may here be done if the demand for it was authoritatively pronounced. Civil engineering can surmount all the difficulties, the only question now is when shall capital be thus directed. Allowance must at this time be made for the exaggerations in reports regarding the extensive finds of coal, oil, and especially gold, in the Territory. At the same time such evidences have been given that no one can doubt that the products are truly there and in large quantities. And now the disastrous results of procrastination are beginning to fall upon
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A FEW IMPROVEMENTS FOR ALASKA.
the hundreds to whom the prospect of riches, held towards them in such glowing colors, has completely eclipsed the gloom of certain hardships and possible disappointment, if not starvation and death next winter.
To-day the Government itself would be powerless to stay the human tide that is even now swelling on- ward toward the wonderful El Dorado in the Klon- dyke Region, but it certainly could have prevented the bold announcement that is setting the New World almost insane, if measures had been started to open the way before the on-rush came, for it was authenti- cated reports of valuable gold fields along the Upper Yukon that set the wheel in motion that should have been kept in check until good roads and proper means of transit had been provided. The success of every enterprise undertaken on the Pacific Coast has been assured, but it was through the stubborn perse- verance of the Russian, the acute, farseeing deter- mination of John Jacob Astor, and the men selected by his keen knowledge of requirements; and the ex- traordinary business tact of the men working under the Alaska Fur Trading Company, that combined in a chain of mighty links to make each enterprise a surety. Mr. Astor in particular was never prodigal of liuman life. He always warned those to whom he entrusted the work of all the hardships and priva- tions attending their duties. He equipped them lux-
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uriously, he paid them well, and he selected careful, competent and experienced men to pioneer the way. The consequence was that many of them were willing to risk their lives in his service, while one or two held on to the enterprise against such odds as seldom were met by men who lived to tell the story. The work so well begun and of late advancing with less dil- atory pace could have been continued until a proper number of boats had been prepared for the carriage of men and provisions, and some other plan could have been devised for the transportation of freight over Chilkoot Pass, other than human carriers. If the little burros, or donkeys, who have done so nobly at mountain climbing in other parts of the United States and Mexico had been taken to that point, at the proper season, it is more than probable, that they would have been found as faithful aids as they have ever been elsewhere. But the greatest of all considerations must hinge upon that season. All preparations should be made toward it. Boats made ready and provisioned, tools laded, burros trained to the Pass and guides-faithful native guides-secured. Then when open weather arrives there would be no loss of time in preparation. Upon the arrival of the men, there should be companies appointed to take turns in preparing and provisioning tenements for the rugged winter, so that the miners may re- main to be ready for the work in the summer, instead
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A FEW IMPROVEMENTS FOR ALASKA.
of attempting to make the dangerous journey in winter.
A cursory glance will show that every private prop- erly organized plan for the improvement of the Terri- tory has also been successful. Missionary work pro- gresses favorably at every point. Steamers have made successful touring trips for years. The Fur Trade has had phenomenal success. The fisheries are among the finest in the world. Dr. Sheldon Jackson has proved the benefit of introducing reindeer into the bleak and barren North-West. The Treadwell Mine and Stamp Mill on Douglas Island are ranked among the most advantageous enterprises of the kind ever organized in this region, or even in the world. Therefore the fever for gold should be calmed down to a reasonable realization of the ways and means of reaching the spot first; afterward the manner of obtaining the metal should be systematically considered, and men who have not capital may hope to obtain work that will insure a living until such times as they too may be able to strike rich claims.
While advocating this the author does not lose sight for an instant, of the plan, that in his view should be adopted by the Government-that is to take possession of all new gold regions, holding them as vast banks for the benefit of its Treasury, and pay- ing men fair prices for their claims, at the same time
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developing the mines through the aid of properly remunerated workmen.
To the men who are won by the glaring stories of fortune awaiting them, we would say, better take ad- vice, and make a smaller profit by staying nearer the bounds of civilization along the coast line of Southern Alaska, than to risk both health and life in an unsuit- able climate, where the thermometer often runs down to 60 or 70 degrees below zero, and where pneumonia, or the hardships and dangers of a heed- less, reckless life among a very lawless population, may end in your bones being laid beneath the pitiless snows of some frigid valley.
Alaska is one-sixth the size of the whole of the re- maining portion of the United States, so there is room for all who desire to go, only lay your plans de- liberately and carefully, equip yourself with every con- venience and wait until the next season opens, when ample provision will be made for you as to transporta- tion, as well as for your support and comfort.
CHAPTER V.
GOLD MINING IN ALASKA.
T HE sudden and uncontrollable excitement in connection with the discovery of rich placer gold mines on the Klondyke River, a branch of the Upper Yukon, that extends eastward into British Co- lumbia Territory, by no means demonstrates the first finding of gold in and adjacent to Alaska. There have been localities all along the coast from which gold and silver in paying quantities and of more or less purity, have been obtained for many years. It is almost a matter of wonder that the traders, who trav- ersed both the water and land of this neighborhood for over a century, did not become enthusiastic in its search, for evidently they must have known some- thing of its presence. Possibly they thought it better policy to ignore the knowledge, than to arouse the antagonism of the owners of the soil, for it has been said, that an individual told the Russian representa- tive, Count Baranoff, of finding gold and showed him a portion of it, when the tyrannical old ruler threat- ened him with severe punishment if he either delved for more or told of his discovery. This may be only a legendary fragment touching upon the despotism of the blustering Governor, but it is undoubtedly true
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ALASKA.
that so far as the development of mining in the Terri- tory is concerned, there was no attempt made in that direction, while it was under Russian government. But when we take into consideration the enormous wealth in furs, both from amphibious and forest animals and the comparative ease with which the pelts were obtained, together with the impossibility of working for metal without tools we can comprehend the reasons for the apparent indifference. Not only were the beautiful furs plentiful, but they were in de- mand, and when the voyageurs loaded their canoes to their fullest capacity they were certain of their profitable sale. Perhaps even to-day if there were the old time millions of seal, otter, fox and other fur bearing mammals, the great enthusiasm concerning gold would not reach to such a height as at present.
Let the reason have been what it might, certainly the first real discovery of gold in quantity was made after the Territory had been in the possession of the United States for several years, for it was in 1872, that two soldiers, named Nicholas Haley and Edward Doyle found treasures on the shores of Silver Bay, where it cleaves its beautiful way through the moun- tains near Sitka. Doyle never succeeded in making a fortune but Haley, who in fact was the first to at- tempt blasting the rocks of the Alaskan mountains for gold, continued for many years a faithful miner and one who expressed peculiar characteristics for
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GOLD MINING IN ALASKA.
one of his class. He remained in the neighborhood of his discovery and increased his claims as his toil was rewarded with success sufficient to insure the further expense of developing the ledges. Doyle has been dead for a number of years, but his companion be- came one of the reliable citzens of Sitka, whose stories of perils and successes have interested many an em- bryo miner and hunter.
It was not until October, 1880, that the mines about Juneau were discovered, and they were actually lo- cated by Indians, who found the metal in the sands of the creek near Auk Glacier. Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau were authorized by a business man of Sitka, named Fuller, to examine into the prospect of the find. The men made such a satisfactory investi- gation that they concluded to go into business at once. So the two held a meeting, organized a corporation called the Harris Mining District of Alaska. The company consisted of these two, Harris being elected Recorder of the District. Juneau was the location of the mining camp. It was named for Harris at first, but it gradually became settled as Juneau, and its pro- pinquity to the mines insured its growth, which has raised it to the importance of a trade centre for the gold output of Alaska, as well as a starting point at which provisions, dog teams and general out-fits can be secured, if one has taken a sudden resolve to go to the mines, though he must consider that the prices
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ALASKA.
at Juneau are so exorbitant that it would be better to have obtained them at Tacoma or Seattle, if not at the principal market, San Francisco. For years the basins, gulches and creeks around Juneau and in the close neighborhood of Taku Inlet were worked with rich results, but the lawlessness of the ungoverned, therefore unprotected, district was the scene of many a crime of murder, debauchery and rascality. This con- tinued until a Governor was appointed for Alaska and a certain shadow of law made itself known, and pros- pectors found that they could have some hope of con- trolling their claims against the odds of daring en- croachers, or the threats of native gold hunters. Placer mining was, except in a few places, the only mode resorted to in obtaining the dust and possible nuggets. When the rocks were washed off clean and there were no more glittering grains in the sandy bottoms, the men left the diggings and moved on to new fields. Such in fact has been the dependence in placer mining that the solid beds of rock have been forsaken, when the small seams of gold were actually in sight. The reason is readily explained. Very few had tools. It was easy to go from point to point with basins, or rockers, picks and shovels, but shafts, engines and stamps, being neither cheap nor readily transportable, there was nothing to be done but march on through mountain gullies and beside running streams, each hunter gleaning as much as his rapid movements and his patient endurance could obtain.
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GOLD MINING IN ALASKA.
Later gold was found on Douglas Island, a spot of land lying in the channel apparently only a fair ad- junct to this prettily situated town. It was prospected by some late comers who turned in its direction when they found the points around Juneau fully occupied. Disheartened at their late arrival it was probably merely a half desperate chance that led them to strike the Island. Their discovery amounted to the taking up of some placer claims. So little was thought of the rich quartz lode that the claim established as the "Bean and Matthews Claim" became the property of John Treadwell, who had loaned the men one hun- dred and fifty dollars. Treadwell was a builder, whose business laid mostly in San Francisco. He scarcely knew what to do with the claim when it came to him instead of the money. Evidently he either could not dispose of it, or he resolved to risk his fate in mining, for he soon after bought the claim which ran into the seam on the op- posite side of a small stream from his property. He paid three hundred dollars for it, thus becoming pos- sessed of the right on Douglas Island for the sum of four hundred and fifty dollars. He soon proved that it was a business man who had taken hold of these claims, for in a short time he had so far discovered their possibilities that he, Senator J. P. Jones of Ne- vada, and three others, of San Francisco, obtained a title from the Government and then invested eight
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ALASKA.
hundred thousand dollars in the preparation for devel- oping the mine. Success was assured from the first, though the gold is not as plentiful as in many other places, but as it is proportionately easy to obtain it the enterprise has been extremely lucrative. The output is called low grade ore, but two hundred and forty stamps work night and day grinding the unwilling rock. The copper discs, with their quick-silver cover- ing, greedily seize and hold the precious dust which is amalgamated from the imprisoned quick-silver, and then separated afterwards, realizing on an aver- age from sixty to seventy thousand dollars or more per month. The grade of the mine and the man- ner in which the tunnel, and drifts, and shafts are run, make the work a matter of gravitation, after the rock is blasted. It is stoped down, descends to the cars through chutes, from the cars it runs to the mill and here into the hoppers; it is then crushed and pow- dered by the ever going stamps, and from the stamps to the plates or amalgamators and riffles, and by a con- tinuous process it is gathered and passes from the mines to be sold or sent to the smelters, where it is separated and made into bars of yellow gold. From the "finds" of a few. discouraged gold seekers has ema- nated a harvest of wealth to the men who grasped the situation with systematic energy, and doubtless many another such source of revenue is lying within easy distance of properly regulated labor and management.
LIFE IN A MINING CAMP.
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GOLD MINING IN ALASKA. 49
In direct contrast to the Treadwell success is the Bear's Nest failure, or apparent failure. Possibly it will one day prove equally valuable, when the right hands turn to work and bring its hidden treasures to light. Within a few miles of Juneau and Douglas Is- land there are several mills patiently grinding out the precious deposit, unmindful of the half-crazed rush hither and thither by uninitiated gold hunters who leave one spot in the wild hope of doing better at others. So hundreds of them start out as pros- pectors, while the mines of Berner's Bay, Taku Inlet, the region about Sitka, Cook's Inlet and its surround- ing country, and the rich promises from the Yukon River and other districts, show that there are spots to which they could go where they can locate and from which they will certainly obtain rich results if they are gifted with endurance and perseverance, and use proper tools and machinery.
The fate of "Shuck," a mining camp situated about seventy miles south of Juneau, will prove the uncer- tain stability of character of a great number of gold seekers. It was the first scene of actual placer mining in the Territory. Work was begun there in 1876, when there was quite an extensive camp includ- ing between thirty and forty miners. The returns were very satisfactory, and all went well for Shuck's mines, until the noise of richer prospects further on left its cabins forsaken, and its work in the hands of the few,
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ALASKA.
who chose to remain. There is gold there still, but the boom of another region makes the place dull al- most to lifelessness. More perseverance, a greater outlay of money, and the ore might pan out more richly, with transportation convenient and no fear of perishing with cold and starvation. Why will Ameri- can citizens risk their lives and their all, in prospecting the Klondyke and other streams on British territory, when those waters are really only branchies of the grand trunk that belongs within entirely undisputed United States property? Like children trampling beauteous blossoms underfoot, while reaching for others beyond, so are the miners of the United States, when they clamber over the mountains and row through the waters of their own land to reach that of another nation, when if the country through which they travel was searched and prospected as eagerly as they intend to investigate the Klondyke region, they will surely find sufficient riches to pay them for stop- ping under the flag whose protection is theirs by right, and no international entanglements or suits for mining claims would be likely to ensue.
CHAPTER VI.
THE STORY OF ALASKA.
T 1 HE spirit of adventure, that has been so often the incentive to achievements, surprising even to those who have accomplished them, led Vitus, or Veit Bering to turn his attention toward the West, in which direction geographers of the Old World began to look for the authentication of the theory of the earth's completely rounded form. He set forth with the determination to prove the exist- ence of another continent, with two vessels, named respectively St. Peter and St. Paul, each manned with sturdy sailors ready to meet every hardship. He commanded the St. Peter in person, while his Lieu- tenant, Tschericov, controlled the St. Paul. The hardships and sorrows of those fated sailors give a color of sadness to the story of the discovery of Alaska, though none of the sailing party ever landed upon its shores. The vessels were swept apart dur- ing a fierce storm and nothing more was ever heard of the St. Paul or its crew. But the St. Peter, after actually touching either the coast of the mainland, or of one of the larger islands, was cast out to sea again, landing at last, after days of frightful storm and privation on one of the Kommander Islands, a
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small group off the coast to which the eyes of the Discoverer turned so longingly. After all his suffer- ings and hardships he never accomplished his heart's desire, to reach and explore a new continent, but it will ever remain in history that he, Vitus Bering, dis- covered in 1741 the inland sea that separates the Old World from the New, and some of its now important islands. It was named the Sea of Kamtchatka, but afterward, in his honor, received his name. This he never knew, for heart-broken and discouraged at his supposed failure he pined and died, leaving his weary body to rest for all time upon the desolate land, against which his storm-tossed ship was cast in its extremity-for a few more hours of wind and surf and it too would have gone down forever. By the strange contrariety of circumstances that some call fate, some of the crew survived to ac- complish the discovery of the proof for which their Commander had staked his life, and in a few months they returned to Russia laden with furs and other valuable samples of the riches of the new country, sufficient to induce their Government to take posses- sion of the islands and the coast.
Vitus Bering was a Russian subject, sailing under the Russian flag. From the date of that discovery until the purchase of Alaska in 1867 Russia held un- disputed sway over the sea.
In 1745 the Aleutian Islands were discovered, and in 1768, the interest of the Russians becoming more
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THE STORY OF ALASKA.
fully awakened, the sea, its islands and coast, were explored by order of Queen Catharine.
In 1790 the Pribylov Islands were found. They were desolate and uninhabited, but the Government, finding them to be the great assembly ground of the fur seals, transferred Aleuts from their native homes to these islands. After a time they became contented, and finally settled on the fog-dimmed Pribylovs. After- wards nothing could induce them to forsake their adopted home.
Having found otter, seal and other valuable ani- mals within the limits of its territory, Russian pro- tection was extended, and as early as the year 1764 the right to trade with the islands was granted to merchants by Russia, the Government always requir- ing a percentage of the gains. From 1725 to 1867, a period of 142 years, Russian monarchs held as ab- solute a sway over Bering Sea as over any other part of their domain. If individual or company desired to trade within its boundary, the permission came from the Czar, with rules and stipulations to which they were compelled to adhere.
In the Treaty of Cession to the United States, the western limit of Russian America, or Alaska, is as positively stated as that of the eastern limit, viz: "The western limit within which the territories and dominions conveyed are contained, passes through a point in Bering Straits on the parallel of sixty-five
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degrees thirty minutes north latitude, at its inter- section by the meridian which passes midway between the island of Krusenstern or Ingalook, and the island of Ratmanoff, or Noonarbook, and proceeds due north without limitation into the same frozen ocean. The same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, proceeds thence in a course nearly southwest, through Bering Strait and Bering Sea so as to pass midway between the northwest point of the island of St. Lawrence and the southeast point of Cape Chou- kotski, to the meridian of one hundred and seventy- two west longitude, thence from the intersection of that meridian in a southeasterly direction so as to pass midway between the island of Attou and the Copper Island of the Kormandorsky couplet or group in the North Pacific ocean, to the meridian of one hundred and ninety-three degrees west longi- tude, so as to include in the territory conveyed the whole of the Aleutian Islands east of the meridian."
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