Omaha daily bee., 1890-05-04
MORSE DRY GOODS co
THE GOLD FIELDS OF ALASKA
Statistics of the Mineral Wealth of the Ac-
QUESTION of 1867.
AMERICAS MOST PROFITABLE MINES
Great Mountains Of Mineral Wealth
Awaiting DevcIopment-The Need
Government Aid in Max
ing Explorations.
AMERICAS MOST PROFITABLE MINES

ALASKA, in the Arena for MaD.
Since the acquisition of Alaska in 1867
public attention in regard to it has been
mainly directed to the salmon fisheries
= in its waters and to the seal rookeries in
Behring sea. The value of the country
rs Il dependency has been wholly deter
mined by the public from the rental
which the Pribolotf islands yield to the
national treasury. Few references in the
intervening period have been made by
public journals and in the periodical
literature of the country to the gold
yielding capabilities of Alaska, or to the
degree of development already reached.
The truth is that hundreds of thousands
of Intelligent Americans are profoundly
ignorant of the fact that some of the
largest and most profitable gold mining
enterprises within the limits of the
United States are conducted in Alaska.
Gold in variable quantities and under
different conditions has been found in
three principal districts of Alaska-the
Juneau and Douglass Island district, $50
miles northeast of Sitia and bordering
Gasteneaux channel, narrow inlet
which separates Douglass island from
the muinland; the Sitka district, the
quartz deposits of which are found at
Silver bay, n narrow, tortuous arm of
the Pacific, indenung Baranoif island,
and in the valley of the Yukon river in
western Alaska. Gold bearing quartz
has also been found at Unga island, one
of the smaller of the Aleutian group, and
some egort has been made there at de-
velopment, but more of that hereafter.
"A = ppntAI.ns thn NIl.nn ot
tention has been paid by explorers and
prospectors to discover gold bearing
quart, and the only results, so far, re-
late To placer mining. At the head of
Lynn canal, one of the inner pass
ages adapted to steamer navigation,
about 800 miles northeast of Sitka. is the
mouth of the Chilcatl river, navigable
for canoes Tor score of miles. At the
head of this canoe navigation are three
large Chilcatl villages, and it is mt this
point where commences what is known
as the Chilcatl Portage, across the rance
To the head waters of the Yukon river in
British territory. The distance from
the Indian villages on the American
side of the divide to the first lake, the
source of the Yukon, is about thirty
miles, but the source is one of the most
difficult in the territory, yet the only
practicable one to reach the Yukon
valley from the south. During the past
three years the reports that the bars of
the Yukon and its tributaries, Stewart
and Pelly rivers, and Forty-Mile creek
We're rich in placer gold, have induced
several Alaska miners to venture across
the range, at the Chilcatl crossing and
descend these streams. Several parties
are all known to have perished in this
perilous search for the new gold fields.
In the history of gold mining in the
states and territories, no obstacle was so
stubborn that II was not finally over
come, This, too, will be the history OF
he gold fields Of western Alaska. Army