USA > Alaska > Our northern domain: Alaska, picturesque, historic and commercial > Part 5
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
Before Kath-le-an, who went off for reenforcements, returned, the British man-of-war " Osprey " arrived in Sitka and furnished the inhabitants protection. The fact that American citizens had been obliged to appeal for aid to the soldiers of another nation was mortify- ing, and having been severely criticized by the press of the country, led to the station of a United States war-vessel in the harbor of Sitka.
All authorities agree as to the shameful neglect of Alaska and its inhabitants, both native and immigrant, by the United States after the country had been adopted. There were no courts for the settlement of lawsuits, no laws which could be invoked; there was no jurisdiction to decide title to lands; any man preempting a holding, and making expensive improvements, was likely to be ousted on the strength of a ruling by the Secretary of State that " such claims and settlements are not only without the sanction of law, but are in direct violation of the provisions of the laws of Congress applicable to the public do- main secured to the United States by any treaty made with a foreign nation; and if deemed necessary and advisable, military force may be used to remove the intruders." No patent could be obtained to mining, milling, or lumbering properties. No provision was made for the conveyance of real estate, and no arrangements for any records. No mortgages could be made. A man dying in Alaska could not dis-
68
OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
pose of his property there by will. There were no probate courts or judges. It was said that " a man might be murdered in Alaska, his will be forged, and his estate scattered to the four winds, and there would be no power to give redress." No debts could be collected. There were no mail facilities.
In such a condition of lawlessness, it is no wonder that a writer like General Greely declared that " civil conditions after the departure of the army can not be recounted without a sense of shame. A pande- monium of drunkenness, disorder, property destruction and personal violence obtained at Sitka, which eventnated in murder, followed by a threatened Indian uprising, and frantic appeals for protection, which was temporarily accorded by a British man-of-war." Nor is it any wonder that Mr. Dall should call Alaska " a country where no man could make a legal will, own a homestead or transfer it, or so much as cut wood for his fire without defying a Congressional prohibition; where polygamy and slavery, and the lynching of whites prevailed, and no legal authority to stay or punish criminals."
Attempts were made to induce Congress to act, but, apparently, no one had sufficient interest or eloquence to melt the indifference. In August, 1878, the " San Francisco Chronicle," after telling some of the outrageous acts perpetrated in Alaska, within three hundred yards of the seat of United States authority, said : - " It is a national shame and disgrace that such a condition of lawlessness should be suffered to exist in a Territory of the United States, and Congress can not under- take a more creditable work of legislation than providing a government for the people of that outlying territory of our common country."
In October, 1877, I. C. Dennis, the alert and courageous collector of customs at Fort Wrangel, sent in a petition signed by many resi- dents, and accompanied by a dignified letter of protest. He said: -
" This petition is not our first effort in striving to be recognized by the Government as a people having rights worthy of consideration. We have petitioned and repetitioned to the heads at Washington to do something for us, and thus far our petitions have accomplished
69
ALASKA BECOMES UNITED STATES TERRITORY.
nothing; hence we try again, and our prayer is that the present Con- gress will enact a law whereby whites and Indians in Alaska may obtain justice. We, as American citizens, claim an inalienable right that we are entitled to protection in life and property. Ten years have elapsed since the acquisition by our Government of this country, and during that time the Government has neither encouraged nor sanc- tioned the development of its resources. Nothing has been done toward improving the condition of its inhabitants, either intellectually or mor- ally. All that has been done has had a tendency to stagnate our com- merce, impede enterprise, and debase and demoralize the native inhab- itants."
CHAPTER VII.
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
F ROM the first appointment, in 1868, of treasury officials to look after customs receipts, it was evident that the new region was going to pay handsomely as an investment. The Alaska Com- mercial Company, which succeeded the Russian-American Company, assumed the lease of the Pribilof Islands, and, in 1869, agreed to pay a tax on seal skins and an annual rental. The amounts paid by this company alone, up to June, 1876, amounted to nearly two millions of dollars. But this large return did not awaken Congress. That was effected only by the discovery of gold, in ever increasing quantities.
In 1884, the laws of Oregon were extended to Alaska; a governor was appointed; also commissioners, and district courts were estab- lished; that is to say, these improvements existed on paper; the means for carrying them out was not provided. Not until 1899, when the gold production alone had risen to almost six million dollars a year, did Congress grant Alaska its first penal code, and a code of criminal pro- cedure. The following year it provided a civil government, made the Territory a civil and judicial district, and moved the capital from Sitka to Juneau. The powers of the governor were enlarged; provision was made for caring for the insane; district courts were established for three districts; some attempts were made to settle the land question, and to provide for secondary education. In 1906, when the gold pro- duction reached the amount of more than twenty-two millions, Alaska was finally recognized as a Territory entitled to representation in Congress, but it had no legislative body, and still depends on Congress for all law and legislation.
70
71
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
It is certainly a romance of history, that this once despised land, which sensible men proposed to call " Walrussia " and " Icebergia," should, within less than twenty years, have added to the resources of the world in gold, one hundred and forty-two millions, and nearly forty millions in seal skins; while the grand total from furs, fisheries, and minerals, from 1868 to 1908, amounted to three hundred and twenty-seven million, five hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hun- dred and thirty-seven dollars; to say nothing of a constantly growing import trade in coal, lumber, hardware and machinery, provisions, liquors and the like, which amounted to nearly sixty millions of dollars in the last four years.
Is it not strange, that in view of all this, in the very latest authori- tative book on Alaska, the author should be compelled to make this arraignment of Congress : -
" Judicial provisions are still inadequate to the needs of the country. In default of a supreme territorial court, appeals necessarily go to the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, causing seri- ous delays and enhanced expenses. The Aleutian Islands are practi- cally without courts, and the enormous area of the third judicial dis- trict - the Tanana and Yukon valleys - overtaxes the judge, delays trials, and enormously increases costs. Minor cases are tried before United States commissioners - stationed at about forty points - who are appointed and are removable by the district judges. The power of the commissioners is great, as they are committing magistrates, can try civil cases involving values to one thousand dollars, and criminal cases of certain classes, where not exceeding a year's imprisonment may be imposed. They are also empowered to perform almost every kind of judicial act pertaining to their own localities."
This El Dorado of the north has a hundred fold justified the pre- dictions of Sumner and Seward. Had men of equal foresight and ability been in Congress at the time of the so-called Oregon compromise treaty, British Columbia might have been retained by the United States, and the whole Pacific coast from Southern California to Bering
72
OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
Strait would have been an integral part of the United States. But even granting that the claims of the United States were justified, and that the whole disputed territory was ours, one need hardly go so far as to call it an " infamous " treaty. The country was better governed by Canada than it would have been had the United States taken pos- session of it, and the power and wealth of a friendly neighboring country is probably as advantageous to us as if we owned it.
The Alaska purchase gave the United States a strip of land, ten marine leagues in width, from the Portland Canal, that is to say, the southern limit of Alaska, to the vicinity of Mount St. Elias. After the discovery of gold in the Klondike, the Canadians put forth the claim that the so-called " lisière " should be measured from the general direction of the coast, and not from the head of the various inlets. This question came up during the session of the Joint High Commis- sion on the settlement of pelagic fur sealing, and the British and Canadian members suggested that the United States should transfer to Canada, Pyramid Harbor, the best on that coast, and a strip of land across the " lisière," thus giving a desirable route to the Yukon. The question came up again in 1903, and the majority of the Commissioners decided that the Canadians had no right to the waters of any of the inlets, and that the original treaty between Russia and Great Britain meant that the strip transferred to the United States was intended to separate the bays, ports, inlets, and waters of the Pacific, north of British Columbia, from the British possessions.
Had the United States Congress realized that climatic conditions in the far northwest corresponded generally to those in the northwest of Europe, that the influence of the warm Kuro Siwo, or Japan current, is much the same on the coast of British Columbia and of Alaska as that of the Gulf Stream is on France and England, there might have been more interest felt in those distant regions.
The first gold production from Alaska, of any account, was extracted from placers at Windham Bay and Powers Creek, north of Fort Wran- gel. Miners, who had been disappointed in the newly discovered Cas-
73
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
siar mines, went prospecting and took out about forty thousand dol- lars' worth in 1870. Ten years later, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris were sent by N. A. Fuller of Sitka to investigate the coastal belt be- tween Windham Bay and Sullivan Island in Southeastern Alaska. By the middle of August they reached Gold Creek, and found rich gravels and quartz containing free gold. From ledges which they investigated, they brought away nearly half a ton of ore, and staking six placer claims and a dozen and more quartz claims for their employers and themselves, they returned with their prize to Sitka in November. In spite of approaching winter, a stampede of excited miners followed. Many locations were made, and this was the beginning of the present capital of Alaska. The following year, the " Treadwell " and other paying mines were located, and the town had a permanent population. Its first name was Rockwell, afterwards Harrisburg, but the seventy- two miners who held a meeting in December, 1881, voted to call it Juneau, in honor of the elder of the two discoverers, and the district was called after Harris. In two years' time, Juneau was the mining centre of Alaska.
The famous Paris lode, on Douglas Island, was transferred to John Treadwell by its original discoverer for the sum of five dollars. Before the new owner could establish his rights to hard-rock mining, placer- miners, who disputed them, had washed out several thousand dollars' worth of free gold. Many of them made handsome returns with an ordinary shovel and sluice-box.
The ore was of not very high grade, and a number of stamps were erected, at large expense, and never worked. Treadwell, however, as- sociated with himself San Francisco capitalists, and, after obtaining what was regarded as sufficient ore to warrant the expenditure, a mill of one hundred and twenty stamps was erected in 1887. The returns from the Treadwell properties had amounted to not less than twenty- four million dollars in 1903. That was exclusive of returns from other mines in the same belt.
The most exciting and dramatic episode in the history of Alaska
74
OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
was the discovery of gold on the shores of that desolate far northern district separating Bering Sea from the Arctic Ocean, and now named Seward Peninsula, in honor of the great Secretary of State. Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, in his interesting sketch of the mining industry of the Seward Peninsula, says : -
" A decade ago, Seward Peninsula was little more than a barren waste, unpeopled except for a few hundred Eskimos and a score of white men, whereas it is now the scene of intense commercial activity, supporting a permanent population of three or four thousand people, which in summer is more than doubled. Then, the igloo of the Eskimos and a mission were the only permanent habitations; now, a well-built town, with all the adjuncts of civilization, looks out on Bering Sea, and a dozen smaller settlements are scattered through the peninsula. This region, which then produced nothing except a few furs, now in- creases the wealth of the world annually by nearly eight million dollars. A decade ago, the only communication with the civilized world was through the annual visit of the Arctic whaling fleet and the revenue cutter; now, a score of ocean liners ply between Nome and Puget Sound during the summer months, and even in winter a weekly mail service is maintained by dog teams. Moreover, military telegraph lines, cables and wireless systems, and a private telephone system, keep all parts of the peninsula in close touch with the outer world. Railways, con- necting some of the inland mining centres with tide water, traverse regions which a few years ago were almost unknown to white men."
The first survey of the coast line of the Seward Peninsula was made by Captain Cook in 1778. Russians naturally first encountered this region because its westernmost point, Cape Prince of Wales, lies almost within sight of Siberia. Their first trading-post was established on St. Michael's Island in 1835, but little was done toward exploring the interior until thirty years later, when Baron von Bendeleben, in search- ing for a practical telegraph route, ascended the Niukluk River, crossed the portage to the Kruzgamepa and reached Port Clarence, where the whaling fleet had its summer rendezvous. According to William H.
75
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
Libby, who was a member of this expedition, Baron von Bendeleben found alluvial gold on the Niukluk River, but little importance was attributed to this discovery. In 1881, John C. Green, with a party of natives, traced the source of the leaden bullets that were in use in the eastern part of the peninsula. He followed up the river that emp- ties into Golofnin Bay, and there located the mine of Galena, and or- ganized a company to exploit it, under the title of the Alaska Gold and Silver, Milling and Trading Company. Some ore was shipped, but the mine is said never to have paid its expenses.
An employee of the company, named Sanderson, found alluvial gold on the Niukluk in 1892; natives also had reported its presence in the Nome region. Even when the luring wealth of the Klondike gold placers drew men by the tens of thousands to the interior of Alaska, and bands of prospectors, enduring every kind of hardship, were searching all the tributaries of the mighty Yukon, the rumors of gold on the Seward Peninsula had not as yet spread beyond its confines.
Prospectors, who had failed, gradually drifted into this region. About fifteen hundred men tried their fortune in the region of Kotze- bue Sound, north of the peninsula, and failing, made their way to John Dexter's trading post on Golofnin Bay. Dexter had taught some of the natives how to wash out a pan of dirt, and an Eskimo, named Tom Guarick, while on a fishing or hunting trip, in August, 1897, brought back a half ounce of gold dust which he had found on Ophir Creek. In the following September, Daniel B. Libby, who had been a member of the Bendeleben expedition of 1866, and three other men, who had been sent by San Francisco capitalists to try their luck in " grub-staking," landed at Golofnin Bay and saw this gold. They engaged the Eskimo, Tom Guarick, as a guide, and he led them to the creek, where they found that his discovery was no dream. They, and other adventurers, spent months in prospecting, and in April of the next year called a " miners' meeting and organized the 'Discovery District,'" and elected a recorder; all in accordance with the estab- lished custom in such cases. Although the miners were ill-equipped
76
OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
for their work, they managed to make sluice-boxes from the spruce timber which the region provided, and these pioneers, who may have numbered two or three hundred men, took ont during the first season perhaps one hundred thousand dollars' worth of the precious metal. But the news of it did not excite interest even at St. Michael's, only a hundred miles away - a fact explained by Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, who was there at the time, for the two-fold reason that " the first Alaskan public had become tired of unfounded rumors of rich dis- coveries, and, second, the excavations on Ophir Creek had not, by any means, gone far enough to prove the great richness of its gravels."
It having been reported that a government reindeer-hunter had dis- covered coarse gold on the Sinuk River, which is one of the largest of the southern watersheds of the peninsula, four men started out in a small boat, and were storm-bound near what is now the town of Nome. They found specimens of fine and even coarse gold on the bar of Snake River, and on what was afterwards called Snake Creek. This did not satisfy them, and they proceeded to Sinuk, there finding nothing. So all of them returned to Golofnin Bay. J. J. Brynteson, one of the party, a native of Sweden, and an experienced coal and iron miner, who had come to Alaska to prospect for coal, was not satisfied with the hasty survey of the Snake River district, and in September, with two other men, he quietly set out for a closer investigation. His two companions were a fellow Swede, Erik O. Lindblom, a tailor by pro- fession, who had been lured to Kotzebue Sound by fabulous reports of gold there; and Jafet Lindeberg, a native of Norway, who had come to Alaska to help Dr. Sheldon Jackson in procuring reindeer. Lindeberg gives a simple and graphic account of the world-famous discovery which he and his two companions made : -
" We three men met by chance at Council City, in August, 1898," he says in a letter to Mr. F. L. Hess of the Government Survey, " and after prospecting around in that district for some time and staking claims, formed a prospecting companionship, and decided to prospect over a wider range of territory. Even at this early date, the Council
ENKIMO AND KAYAK IN THE SURF.
79
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
City District was overrun by stampeders, and staked to the mountain tops; so we proceeded to Golofnin Bay, and taking a large open boat and an outfit of provisions, on September 11, 1898, started up the coast toward Port Clarence, stopping at the various rivers to prospect on the way, in which we found signs of gold but not in paying quantities, and finally arrived at what is now known as the town of Nome. From there we proceeded up Snake River, which we named, and camped at the mouth of Glacier Creek, prospecting as we went along. The first encouraging signs of gold we found on the banks of Snake River were at about the place where Lane's pumping plant is now located. After locating our camp as before mentioned we proceeded to prospect along the tributaries of Snake River, which tributaries we named as follows: Anvil Creek (taking the name from an anvil-shaped rock which stands on the mountain on the east side of the creek), Snow Gulch, Glacier Creek, Rock Creek, and Dry Creek, in all of which we found gold in paying quantities, and proceeded to locate claims, first on Anvil Creek, because we found better prospects in that creek than in the others, and where we located the ' discovery claim ' in the name of us three jointly. In addition to this, each man staked a separate claim in his own name on the creek. This was the universal custom in Alaska, as it was con- ceded that the discoverer was entitled to a discovery claim and one other. After locating on Anvil Creek, claims were staked on Snow Gulch, Dry Creek, and Rock Creek, after which we returned to Golof- nin Bay and reported the discovery.
" It was then decided to form a mining district, so we three original discoverers organized a party, taking with us Dr. A. N. Kittleson, G. W. Price, P. H. Anderson, and a few others, again proceeded to Nome in a small schooner which we chartered at Golofnin Bay, pur- chasing as many provisions as we could carry on the boat, and on our arrival the Cape Nome mining district was organized, and Dr. A. N. Kittleson elected the first recorder. Rules were formulated, after which the party prospected and staked claims, finally returning to Golofnin Bay for winter quarters. The news spread like wildfire, and
80
OUR NORTHERN DOMAIN.
soon a wild stampede was made to the new diggings from Council City, St. Michael, and the far-off Yukon.
" At this period very few mining men were in the country, the new- comers in many instances being from every trade known. The con- sequence of this was soon well known; a few men with a smattering of education gave their own interpretation to the mining laws, hence jumping mining claims soon became an active industry. Especially from Council City came the jumpers, who were the original men John Dexter, by an Eskimo, had guided to the first discovery of gold on the Seward Peninsula. They were angry to think that they had not been taken in at the beginning, so a few of them promptly jumped nearly every claim on Anvil Creek, although there was an abundance of vacant and unlocated ground left which has since proved to be more valuable than the original claims located by us and our second party who helped us to form the district. This jumping, or relocating of claims by the parties above named, poisoned the minds of all the new- comers against every original locator of mining claims, and as a con- sequence every original claim was relocated by from one to a dozen different parties.
" At that time L. B. Shepard was United States commissioner at St. Michael, and in no case did a jumper have a chance to profit by his villainy, if Judge Shepard could prevent it. Another strong factor for good government at St. Michael and vicinity was Capt. E. S. Walker, of the United States Army. With exceptionally good judg- ment and a fearless attitude he held the lawless element in check, and great credit should be given him.
" In the early months of 1899 we hauled supplies to the creeks, and as soon as the thaw came began active mining on Snow Gulch and on Anvil Creek. Soon a large crowd flocked to Nome, which was then known as Anvil City. Among this crowd was a large element of law- less men who soon joined forces with the Council City jumpers, and every effort was made by them to create trouble. Secret meetings were held and a plan formulated whereby arrangements were made to
81
THE MAGIC WAND OF GOLD.
call a mass meeting of miners, and at this meeting declare all the acts of the original miners' meeting that organized the district invalid, and to throw open all claims for relocation. This nefarious scheme leaked out, and word was sent to Captain Walker at St. Michael, who promptly dispatched Lieutenant Spaulding with a detachment of troops to Nome. A few days after their arrival the projected mass meeting was called. Here the agreed-on resolutions were offered, which, if passed, would have created bloody riot. Lieutenant Spaulding dispersed the meeting, receiving the thanks of the entire mass of law-abiding citizens of Nome and vicinity for this act, ... and had it not been for the military, who proved themselves to be the true men to the American Govern- ment, much riot and bloodshed would have resulted from the conduct of the aforementioned parties."
The vanguard of prospectors, arriving too late to do any mining, spent their energies in staking claims, using a power of attorney for such friends as they could call to mind. In this way, though the mining laws prescribed the limits of claims, forty men preempted an average of nearly two hundred acres apiece. Occasionally, rich finds were made. One nugget taken out from Anvil Creek weighed one hundred and eight-two ounces, and brought three thousand two hundred and eighty-five dollars.
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.