USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 71
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In 1885 the most prominent mine in Alaska, and one of the most prominent on the Pacific coast, was the Treadwell, or as it is now usually termed, the Paris lode, at Douglas Island, discovered44 and re- corded in May 1881, and deeded in November of that year to Mr John Treadwell. The property was. afterward transferred to an incorporation styled the Alaska Mill and Mining Company, of which, in 1885, Mr Treadwell was superintendent,45 and under whose direction $400,000 had been expended on the develop- ment of the property.46 The results, however, fully justified the outlay.47
A short time after the company took possession of its property two tunnels were run into the ledge, and thence and from the surface ore was extracted and worked in a five-stamp mill, for the purpose of thor- oughly testing the mine. The returns being satisfac- tory, a third tunnel was run, at a vertical depth of 250 feet. An uprise of 275 feet at the foot-wall, having been made to the surface, is now used for an ore chute. The width of the ledge was found to be 450 feet, the
" By Pierre Joseph Ernsara. Freeborn's Alaska Mill and Mining Co., MS.
45 Receiving this appointment under the first organization, when James Freeborn was chosen president, the directors being J. D. Fry, E. M. Fry, H. L. Hill, and H. H. Shinn. In October 1885 the proprietors were Senator J .. P. Jones, Messrs Freeborn, Treadwell, Hill, Shinn, J. D. Fry, and E. M. Fry, all of these gentlemen, with the exception of the first, who held a sixth interest in the property, being still officers of the company. Id.
46 By the company. Id. In Kinkead's Nevada and Alaska, MS., 15, the. total outlay, including what was expended before the transfer of the property by Mr Treadwell, is given at $500,000.
47 In the S. F. Chronicle, Nov. 17, 1884, it is stated that there was at this date $12,000,000 in sight. I give the statement for what it is worth.
741
GOLD YIELD.
ore-body averaging $8.50 per ton in free gold and five per cent of sulphurets, with an assay value of $100 per ton. Thereupon the company decided to erect a 120- stamp mill, with a capacity of 300 tons per day, and with 48 Frue concentrators and 24 Challenge ore- feeders, the mill being completed in the summer of 1885. Between June 19th and September 19th of that year the aggregate yield amounted to $156,000,48 though for various reasons, the principal one being an unusually dry season, and the fact that during the sum- mer the snow and ice disappeared altogether from the neighboring mountains, the mill stood idle for one third of this period.49 About the close of 1885, or early in the following year, the superintendent proposed to erect two additional furnaces, and to place electric lights in the mine, mill, and surrounding works.50
Adjoining the Paris ledge, and a continuation of the same vein, was the Bear ledge,51 believed to be
48 For the month ending July 19th, $55,000, and for the other two months $60,000 and $41,000 respectively, the yield being entirely from free gold and apart from sulphurets. Freeborn's Alaska Mill and Mining Co., MS.
49 Soon afterward a despatch was received from the superintendent, stat- ing that there was a plentiful supply of water, that the works were all in running order, and that the next bullion shipment would probably be the largest yet made from the mine. Id.
50 The frame-work of the mill was built of lumber cut by the company's saw-mill, which, up to September 1885, had turned out some 2,250,000 feet, the remainder being used for chlorination-works and the usual buildings needed for a mine of this description, among them being boarding-houses for the men, of whom nearly 300 were employed at good wages, the Indians receiving $60 per month, and white men in proportion. A tramway had been constructed for hauling ore from the chute to the mill, and hydraulic machinery has been forwarded for that purpose, which has greatly reduced the cost of transporting the ore. The mine, some 100 miles north-east from Sitka, is 350 yards from the shore of Gastineaux Channel, and the mill 860 feet from the foot of the chute. The president states that during two seasons the company was robbed at least to the amount of $120,000 by surface-miners, who washed off the top of the ledge, and as there were no laws, or none in force, did very much as they pleased.
In Freeborn's Alaska Mill and Mining Co., MS., I have been furnished by the president of the company with a terse and reliable statement as to the condition and working of this mine, from which the above facts and figures are taken.
In this connection may be mentioned recent advices from Kadiak, under date Sept. 22, 1885, according to which this section of Alaska had been totally neglected by the United States and district authorities. From the civil government at Sitka nothing had been heard, and the people were still without official notification of its existence 18 months after the passage of the act creating Alaska a civil and judicial district. S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 5, 1885.
51 Owned in 1884 by Carroll and his partners.
742
ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT.
also a valuable property, though as yet the latter has been but little developed. Elsewhere among the mountains that ridge Douglas Island from end to end are quartz lodes innumerable, some of which seem promising enough to warrant the investment of capital. That the most permanent mines so far discovered in Alaska should be found on an island -the island surveyed by Vancouver more than ninety years ago-is somewhat of an anomaly in min- ing annals; but Alaska, with her inland seas, her glaciers, her midnight suns in midsummer, her phantom auroras in midwinter, and her phantom government at all seasons of the year, is the land of anomalies.
At present it may be said that the mining interests of Alaska are mainly centred in Douglas Island. Elsewhere there may be large deposits of ore, but none of them have yet been extensively worked. Those in northern and central Alaska are too remote to be made available, and the lodes discovered near Sitka have proved of little value, the gold-bearing ore being of low grade and the veins broken in formation. In a country where travel is difficult and the cost of transportation excessive, only those mines can be made to pay which are situated near the coast, unless they be exception- ally rich. Moreover, on account of the forests and the dense growth of moss which hide the surface, Alaska is a very difficult country to prospect. As a rule, outcroppings are rarely found, and leads are usually discovered by following float ore and tracing it up stream to the main body. That the territory will, however, at some future date, contain a not inconsider- able mining population, is almost beyond a peradven- ture. Provisions are much cheaper than in most of the mining districts of British Columbia, and fish and game can be had for nothing. The main drawback appears to be that in Alaska miners are not content. with such earnings as would elsewhere be considered a reasonable return for their labor.
743
FISHERIES.
Concerning the fisheries of Alaska, a few items re- main to be added to those which have been already mentioned. The cannery established by Cutting and Company, at Kasiloff River, on Cook Inlet, in 1882, has been fairly successful, considering the difficulty in establishing a new enterprise of this description, the pack, after the first year, averaging some 20,000 cases. The varieties packed are the king salmon, the silver salmon, and what is known as the red fish, the last being similar to the red salmon of the Fraser River. The Kasiloff is not a navigable stream, its source being a lake about twenty miles from its outlet. Vessels freighted with goods for the cannery, or waiting for the season's pack, are compelled to lie in an open road- stead, where there is a heavy fall and rise of the tide. Notwithstanding this drawback, however, the firm is satisfied with results so far, considering the depressed condition of the market. The Alaska Salmon Pack- ing and Fur Company, at Naha Bay, has also been measurably successful, though in 1885 the pack was only of salt salmon. At that date there were two other canneries in operation, one at Bristol Bay, named the Arctic Packing Company, and the other at Karluk on Kadiak Island, the pack of the latter for 1885 being about 36,000 cases.
The total pack of Alaska salmon was estimated for the year 1885 at about 65,000 cases, and the fact that, in the face of extremely low prices, this industry has not only held its own, but increased considerably, while on the Columbia there has been a considerable decrease in the output, is significant of its future suc- cess. Thus far, however, profits have been very light. The amount of capital needed to establish and con- duct the business is disproportionately large. Pay- ments for material must be made at least four or five months before the product is laid down in San Fran- cisco or in other markets, and it is found necessary to carry a large surplus stock of stores. The cost of the passage of employés is paid at all the Alaska canneries,
744
ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT.
together with their wages while journeying to and fro; and the repair of machinery is an unusually expens- ive item. The prospects of the business depend, of course, mainly on the continuance of heavy runs of fish on the Columbia River, and it is stated that the enor- mous catch year by year has already begun to tell very seriously on the run.52 The supply of salmon in the waters of Alaska is practically unlimited, and it is probable that the take is more than offset by the destruction of fur-seals, which devour the food-fish that frequent her shores, as salmon, smelt, and mack- erel, each one consuming, it is said, no less than sixty pounds a day.
At Killisnoo, on the island of Kenashoo, originally a whaling-station, the Northwest Trading Company had, in 1885, a large establishment where codfish were dried, and herring and dog-fish oil, and fish guano manufactured. Large warehouses and works were built, near which was a village of Indians employed as fishermen, and receiving two cents apiece for the catch of codfish, boats being provided by the com- pany. About $100,000 was invested in this enter- prise, the oil-works alone having cost $70,000. The cod in these waters average about four pounds in weight, and as many as eight thousand are sometimes taken in a single day, producing about fifteen hun- dred boxes of the dried fish. Of herring, as many as five hundred barrels are occasionally caught at a single haul of the seine, each barrel yielding about three gallons of oil.
Thus it would appear that the fisheries of Alaska alone might furnish the basis of a considerable com- merce; but under such conditions as now exist in that district, there is little field for commercial or in- dustrial enterprise, and it may be said that com- merce, in its legitimate sense, does not exist. Im- ports of duty-paying goods, which, as I have said,
52 Cutting and Co.'s Alaska Salmon Fisheries, MS. In this manuscript I have been furnished with a brief and impartial account of the condition and prospects of the Alaska canneries.
745
COMMERCE.
for the twelve months ending March 1, 1878, were $3,295, amounted, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882, to $8,484; and meanwhile domestic exports showed a slight increase.58 For the latter year, if we can believe official reports, the entire foreign trade was with British Columbia, though, during that year, fifteen American vessels, with an aggregate measure- ment of 9,461 tons, and twenty-nine foreign vessels of 8,073 tons, entered Alaskan ports, while the clear- ances were twelve American vessels of 8,993 tons, and twenty-nine foreign vessels of 8,156 tons.54 Meanwhile the ship-building industry had fallen some- what into decadence. In 1882 there was built a single vessel, probably a fishing-smack, with a meas- urement of 6.43 tons-somewhat of a contrast, com- pared with the days of the Russian American Com- pany, when, as we have seen, a fleet of sea-going ships was launched in Alaskan waters.
A country where there is no commerce, where there are few industries, where there are no schools except those supported by charity, where no title can be had to land, where there are no representative institutions and no settled administration, and where the rainfall is from five to eight feet a year, does not, of course, hold out any very strong inducements to settlers. Of 690 persons who arrived at Alaskan ports during the year ending June 30, 1880, 583 were merely passengers, the remaining 107 being miners from British Columbia. For the year ending June 30, 1882, matters were still worse, the total arrivals mustering only 27, of whom 17 were miners, while the departures for that year were 387.55 These, however, are merely the re- turns forwarded from the customs districts, and I give them for what they are worth.
53 In the report on commerce and navigation, in House Ex. Doc., 7, 47th Cong. 2d Sess., 24, domestic exports for the year ending June 30, 1882, are stated at $38,520; and in Id., 7, 46th Cong. 3d Sess., xvi. 24, for the year end- ing June 30, 1880, at $31,543.
54 Id., 7, 47th Cong. 2d Sess., 736, 739.
55 Report on commerce and navigation, in House Ex. Doc., 7, 46th Cong. 3d Sess., 688, 703; 47th Cong. 2d Sess., Id., 7, 678, 696, 730.
746
ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT,
While Alaska remains, as it is to-day, little more than a customs district, though in name a civil and judicial district, no better results need be anticipated. If it should happen that in the year 1890, when the lease of the Alaska Commercial Company expires, its privileges be divided, then there would doubtless be a considerable influx of population; but whether such influx would, under present conditions, be of benefit to the territory or to the United States is a somewhat doubtful question. Laying aside, however, the com- ments of the press, and of disappointed political adven- turers, it would seem to an impartial observer that the claims of the company are not altogether unworthy of recognition. Leasing a few leagues of rock, hanging almost midway between thecontinents, they have, while making larger returns to stockholders year by year than were made by the Russian American Company in a decade, paid over to the United States almost the face of the purchase money, and by their forethought and business tact furnished, though perhaps incident- ally, means for wasteful extravagance in other sections
of the territory. It is probable that the lessees of the Prybilof Islands were at first no less sorely dis- appointed with their bargain than were the purchasers of the Treadwell lode, and it is almost certain that in neither instance did the parties foresee the difficulties that lay before them. The fact that they have con- fronted and overcome those difficulties, and while doing so have laid bare some of the resources of Alaska, is one that needs not be pleaded against them.
What there is to be pleaded against them, save perhaps their success as a business association-the fact that in 1885 they gathered nine tenths of the world's supply of sea-otter skins and three fourths of its supply of fur-seal skins, their chain of posts ex- tending from Kamchatka56 far inland to the wilder- ness on the purchase of which the secretary of state
56 Where they collect a few sea-otter skins, a large number of sables, and from 1,500 to 3,000 blue fox skins, the fur of the last, though of a dingy slate color, being considered almost as valuable as that of the white fox.
747
A GOOD BARGAIN.
was accused of wasting $7,200,000; that when they entered upon this business seal-skins were barely sala- ble at a dollar, and have since found a ready market at from twelve to twenty dollars-the reader will judge for himself from the statements that I have laid before him.57
Excepting, perhaps, Mr Seward, none whose names are known in Alaskan annals provoked about the year 1870 so much of cheap ridicule as did the firm that now controls the seal islands. "What, Mr Seward," asked a friend, "do you consider the most important measure of your political career?" "The purchase of Alaska," he replied; " but it will take the people a generation to find it out." 58
57 Of land peltry the bulk was still gathered in 1885 by the Hudson's Bay Co., which collected 250,000 to 300,000 mink skins, against perhaps 15,000 or 20,000 purchased by the Alaska Commercial Co., the latter also gathering 8,000 or 10,000 beaver, 3,000 or 4,000 marten, 2,000 bear, and 5,000 or 6,000 fox skins.
58 Presenting to the reader the facts now laid before him and the con- clusions at which I have arrived, it remains only to be said that both have been stated not without research and hesitation. Whether these facts and conclusions are such as he will indorse is a matter now submitted to his con- sideration. Concerning the annals of Alaska after the transfer, there are many conflicting opinions, and even as to the military occupation there is some lit- tle conflict of opinion. Says Capt. J. W. White of the revenue service, who was ordered to Alaska in 1867, in command of the cutter Lincoln, bearing Professor Davidson, senior coast survey officer, and in charge of the party: 'As I understood at the time from my own observations, and from intercourse with the Russians who could speak English and understood the language, the trouble there was caused by the fact that Prince Maksutof did not hap- pen to be versed in the English language, and there being no trustworthy interpreter present, did not know what he transferred to the United States authorities. His people would go to him and say: "This was my house; the Russian American Company donated it to me. I am informed it belongs to the American government, and am ordered out officially." He would reply: "Go out officially, then." Who the parties were that took possession of the houses I don't know. They might have been government officials, or per- haps mere adventurers; many were renegades from all parts of the world.' White's Statement, MS., 5-6.
Captain J. W. White, a native of old Virginia, and by profession a sea-far- ing man, entered the government service in 1855, being then in his 26th year. During the civil war his vessel was stationed at the mouth of the Potomac, and, as he relates, 'would drop inside the cnemy's lines at night and pick up the mail-bags.' In command of the U. S. steamer Lincoln he voyaged round the Horn in 1865, and returning to California, superintended the build- ing of all the life-boat stations on the Pacific coast, also the construction of nine steamers for the government. Ordered to Alaska in 1867, it remains only to be said of this well-known officer that, arriving at the Prybilof Islands at a somewhat critical juncture, he interfered very reluctantly, though at length decisively, to stop all sealing then and there, only granting the natives
748
ALASKA AS A CIVIL AND JUDICIAL DISTRICT.
the privilege of killing what they needed for food, and recommended that St George and St Paul be made a government reserve, which was accordingly done.
As with the five preceding chapters, I have been compelled to rely mainly on the reports of congress, magazines, newspapers, and in this instance the United States statute relating to Alaska, in presenting to the reader the re- cent annals of the territory
With the exception of Alaska, Its Southern Coast and the Sitkan Archipel- ago, by E. Ruhamah Scidmore, I am not aware of any work, apart from those of a scientific nature, published within the last two or three years, that contributes anything worthy of note to the small stock of information which the Ameri- can public now possess concerning their possessions in the far north-west. Most of the above work was first published in serial form in the columns of the St Louis Globe-Democrat and the New York Times, during the years 1883-4; to which are added the author's notes of a trip made to the Sitkan Archipelago during the summer of the latter year, with brief paragraphs containing information to a later date.
Subjoined I give a more complete list of the authorities consulted in the closing chapter: H. Ex. Doc., 7, 46th Cong. 3d Sess., pt 1, 1-25, 86-130, 320-41, 688-90, 703, 740, 743, 834, 842; Id., 1, pt 2, 47th Cong. 1st Sess., 190-3, 594, 768-89; Id., 7, pt 4, 80-1, 88; Id., 1, pt 5, 278, 361; Id., 2, 269; Id., 1, pt 5, 47th Cong. 2d Sess., 84, 212; Id., pt 5, 278-82; Id., 7, pt 4, 4-24, 90-135, 222-77, 680, 691-6, 736, 846, 888; H. Misc. Doc., 42, 47th Cong. 2d Sess., 1-80, 93-6, 124-77; H. Com. Repts, 47th Cong. 1st Sess., 236, 1106; H. Jour., 48th Cong. 1st Sess., 1282; S. Ex. Doc., 46th Cong. 3d Sess., no. 12, p. 45, 67; Id., 48th Cong. 1st Sess., 30; U. S. Stat. at Large, 1882-3, 612; Id., 1883-4, 24, 26, 91, 157, 179, 206, 223; U. S. 10th Census, i. 695-9; Cir cular Bureau Educ., no. 2, 1882, 61-75; Kinkead's Nevada and Alaska, MS., 5, 15; Burchard, Report, etc., 1881, 169-71; Id., 1882, 184; Id., 1883, 17-35; Report Direc. of the Mint, 1881, 19; Id., 1882, 14; Contemporaneous Biog., ii. 333-5; Scidmore, Alaska, 81 et seq., 93 et seq., 194-5, 246-7, 260, 307; The Mines, Miners, etc., 507; Elliott & Co. Hist. Ariz., 1, 206; N. Mex. Revisita Cat., 1883, 279; Tucson, Fronterizo, Jan. 27, 1882; Salt Lake Tribune, June 5, 1883; San Francisco Alta, Mar. 24, 1881, Sept. 25, Nov. 12, 1882; Bulletin, 1881, Mar. 12, 30, May 11, 21, June 2, 13, 17; 1882, Apr. 24; 1884, June 3, July 29, Aug. 19, Dec. 18; Call, 1884, May 14, July 30, Oct. 28; Post, May 5, 1885; Chronicle, 1882, Jan. 17; 1884, June 30, Oct. 28, 29, Nov. 5, 10, 17, 23; 1885, Jan. 22, 26, Feb. 5, May 8, 30; Sacramento Record-Union, 1881, May 20, 21. Aug. 26; 1883, Dec. 31; 1884, Feb. 18, June 28.
INDEX.
A
Abo, whaling established at, 584. "Abram," ship, 114. Acapulco, Malaspina at, 274. Achakoo Island, Ismaïlof at, 268. Adakh Island, natives of, 72; Tolstykh at, 128; expedt. at, 131.
"Adams," U. S. steamer, 723. Affanassic, missionary, 360.
Affleck Canal, 277.
Afognak, settlement, 208, 228, 229, 682; Ageic at, 687, 688.
Afognak Island, settlement at, 230, 287; trees on, 329; chief of, 349; fort on, 414; locality favored, 680. Agatoo, hunting expedt. at, 102; na- tives attacked, 103.
Aglegnutes, natives, 144, 320; fight with, 326, 346.
Agriculture, soil, 3; experiments, 300, 355; settlements for, 352, 353, 390; at Ross Colony, 483-5.
Aguirre, Juan Bautista, in Spanish expedt., 218. Aiakhtalik, village, 143, 308.
Aiakhtalik Island, expedt. at, 146; vil- lage at, 230. Akamok Island, 278. Akun, 209. Akun Island, villages on, 562.
Akutan, expedt. at, 154; attack on, 165. Akutan Pass, 353.
Alaska, geog. division, 1, 2; climate, 2-5; discovered 1740-1, 63-74; Spanish at, 197-202; offl explora- tions, 203-20; colonies, 224-32, 350-61, 490-509; fur trade, 232- 54; mission work, 360-74; as a U. S. colony, 590-629; commerce, 630- 59; fisheries, 660-70; settlements, 671-86; agric. resources, 687-9; mining, 693-8; as a civil and ju- dicial district, 717-48; profits of purchase, 722; interior explored, 732-6.
Alaska Commercial Co., actions of, 1869-84, 636-59; charges against, inquiry into, 643-51; lease granted to, 644; stores of, 681; payments to govmt, 722; claims of, 746, 747.
Alaska Mill and Mining Co., opera- tions of, 740-1.
Alaska Salmon Packing and Fur Co., 743.
Alaskan Mts, descrip., 2, 3. Alaska Traders' Protective Assoctn, actions of, 649.
Alava Point, origin of name, 277.
"Albatross," voy. of, 480.
"Alert," ship, at Sitka, 406.
Aleut, origin of word, 106.
Alieutian Islands, vegetation of, 4; visitors at, 111; expedts at, 130, 137; shipments from, 242; map, 297, 683; discovered, 375; industries of, 627; surveyed, 629; whaling- ground, 668.
Aleuts, hunting expedts, 235, 236, 286; despondency of, 289; treat- ment of, 291, 310, 313, 603; tribute paid, 297, 639-41; character of, 642.
Alexander I., visits Krusenstern, 423. Alexander Archipelago, foreign traders in, 321, 325.
"Alexandr," ship, 426, 414; wrecked, 494.
"Alexandr Nevski," ship, 185, 187.
Alexandrovsk, trading post, 262, 321, 679; Shelikof Co. at, 334, 335; Bar- anof at, 395; Russians at, 522.
Alexandrovsk Fort, named, 522.
Alexeief, Fedot, expedt., death of, 22-4.
Alexeïef, Ivan, at Unalaska, 291. Alin, Luka, partnership with Sheli- kof, 182.
Aliseia region, Cossacks subdue, 1646, 21. Aliseia River, 30. Alitak Bay, 145. Aliulik Cape, 144, 145.
( 749 )
750
INDEX.
Allegretti, Peter, in Billings' expedt., 283, 291, 294.
Almirante, Boca del, named, 218. Althorp, Port, Vancouver, at, 279. Amchitka Island, 181, 285.
American Russ. Commer. Co. with- draws bid, 644.
Americans in Alexander Archipelago, 321; forestall Baranof, 384; en- croachments of, 398, 399.
"Amethyst," voy. of, 481.
Amik Island, 191.
Aminak, Arsenti, deposition of, 144-7. Amla Island, school on, 709.
Amlag Island, 128.
Amlia Island, 122, 128, 260.
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