The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-01-08
The Skagit Gold Mines.

These mines, says Mr.. GOOdell, one
/ of the first miners on that stream, are
located on the upper Skagit, and two
of its branches, Ruby and Canyon
creeks. The country is almost impas-
sable to the surest footed, and so full
of precipices, gOrges, sink-hOles and
swamps, and tangled thickets that
miners, who are as class the best
pathfinders in the world, have fire.
quently spent weeks in coming from
the mouth of the Ruby to my place, a
distance of barely 20 miles. Men have
frequently tainted on the trail and the
hardships endured last season would
fill volume. Rapids must be passed,
steep mountains assembled, and at one
place thread-like trail less than one
foot i'm width leads right round prec-
ipice, to the sides of which the miner
must cling with tooth and nail to es-
cape being dashed into the river boil
ing and surging thousands of feet be-
low him. l tell you, says Mr.. Goodell,
it requires nerve. To get there you
take the boat at Seattle, and go 40
miles down the Sound to the mouth of
the Skagit. You then ascend to Mt.
Vernon, ten miles from its mouth.
Steamers take you daily from Seattle
to Mt. Vernon for SO. You are now
on the Skagit proper, which is sup
posed by some to be navigable for the
light boats distance of eighty miles,
or within % miles of the mines, but
no steamer has yet accomplished it.
The river above Mount Vernon to my
store is very swift-running stream,
but free from distractions. The pres
ent mode for navigating the river is
for three men to charter a canoe, with
Indians to manage it, The canoe can
be obtained at an expense of $50, and
will hold, besides the Indians and the
three whites, from twelve to fifteen
hundred weight of provisions, enough
to last three careful men five to six
months. The canoe voyage from Mt.
Vernon by the portage will occupy
fully five days. Itis not necessarily
dangerous, but requires considerable
caution, as tumble into the ice cold
mountain waters of the Skagit means
cramps and death. A few lives were
| lost last season from canoes, but none
| while the Indians had them in hand.
For eighty miles this canoe route
passes through one of the finest bodies
of agricultural land in Washington
Territory, which now lies unoccupied.
|
Baker river Joins the Skagit from the
north, forty miles above Mt. Vernon.
The Baker is stream of considerable
size, and may possibly be navigable
for light draft boats. The Baker bars
were once the cause of a mining furor,
but We're long ago abandoned. The
| Sauk next joins the Skagit from the
south, and is stream about the size
| Af IN hIf ie n m
Traces of gold have been found along
its banks. From the mouth of Sauk,
as far as any miner has ascended, the
Skagit bars all prospect in gold. Even
| at my place have rocked out 81 per
day with an old rocker. The bars are
all extensive; some of them are two or
three miles long and n quarter mile
wide, and prospect gold in all places.
No one having yet prospected to bed
rock their exact richness is unkown.
The entire river is but huge conjec-
ture. The next stream to be passed is
the Cascade, river about the size of
the Sauk, and like it shows signs of
gold. About ten miles above the
mouth of the Cascade is the portage,
where is huge rapid full of immense
boulders barely passable for canoes.
Here the men disembark and carry
the loading about five hundred yards,
over fair trail The Indians either
carry the canoes over the portage, or
bring them over the rapids by means
of ropes. From the portage to my
place, distance of eight miles, there
is no serious obstruction TO canoe nav
igation, but great care must be exer-
cised as the river is full of suck-holes.
The country above the portage is "A
bleak and mountainous one. High
hills spring one above the other, hun
dreds of feet into the air, and catching
the eternal SHOWS render their sides
and passes impregnable to all. Their
formation is mostly of granite, bleak
and lifeless. Avalanches are frequent
and craters of extinct volcanoes stand
on all sides. My place is next reached,
and the miner finds himself i'm the
"bad lands of the Indians, n rough,
unbroken, dismal solitude. Fifteen or
twenty miles above my place the
Ruby flows into the Skagit, and here
the diggings commence, extending up
the Ruby to its forks, a distance of 40
miles. Though this Is large space of
country it is all claimed and staked
of. Its richness is Of course not yet
known, as no gold was struck on this
stream until about the middle of Sep
tember. Only one claim was opened
and operated last season, that one be-
ing the 'sNip-and- Tuck" which, ope-
rated only a few days yielded its OWL
ers over $12OO In gold dust The men
who were drifting About, rocking ev-
erywhere they could, took out consid-
eSable dust. From Its mouth to the
s0urQe the stream prospects In gold
lully q well - the 'Nip.snd-f Tuck, ~