Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-09-29
rLAcEa MINING IN ALASKA.


ter Of Mr.. McGrath OF the Yukon riv.
er boundary survey party, will be Of
interest to miners:
"The most important, indeed, Il.
most the only industry in this coun-
try is mining, bnt it is hard to arrive
At any satisfactory conclusion IS to
the real value of the country for min
ing purposes. Men have run about
in all directions prospecting, but
have found no good permanent wash
ings except those on Forty mile creek.
On the Stewart river, l believe that
400 day per man has been taken
out on ono Of the bars, but now all
the miners have deserted that stream
and the only work there is done by
Mayo with . steam pump operated
by bis boat, the New Racket. This
pump is the first one ever brought IN
10 the country, and we have not yet
heard what results have been OBJ
tanned. On every stream in this re-
gion, sscolor" can be found, but un.
less man can MAKE a. or &5 a day
on bar from the FIRST, he must leave
II to 90 on to another place to try for
better luck. The cost OF living is
very high in this country and the
working days are few, SO that miner
must get good wages to enable him
TO pay his expenses. In fairly good
season 4 miner working for another
wants % per day As wages. and /
doubt ifevcn on these terms any man
has ever made much Of stake after
: seasons work. The country is very
wet, and when tho creeks rise, the or
binary workable bars are flooded;
water wheels, fumes and bitches are
swept away, and time aud again it
happens that miner gets hrs prepar-
atory work finished only to have il all
carried away by sudden freshet.
"Not having tho command Of any
considerable capital, the miners can
not put in extensive works, and thus
many Of their improvements are de-
stroyei because thcy are not SD ostan-
TALLY constructed. Even on Forty
mile creek, however, no fortune has
been made, and man who gets out
with couple OF thousand dollars is
not to be met with every day. Some
miners have lost all faith, and tell us
that the creek IL worked out, and that
when a little more cleaning up is
done, there won't be living in it for
Chinaman. Another man will come
down the river and report that many
men are doing we'll, and that the
creek has been hardly skinned over.
About the end Of July, 1890, some
miners came down with most dis
heartsning reports. They said that
the men were on short rations and
had almost all been standing about
idle on account OF tho flooded state
OF the river; that last year was un.
usually bad, aud the little money
some possessed had to be paid out for
living. They themselves had pros.
peoted around and finding no good
place to work, had decided to leave
while they could; most OF the men
would have to go down the river to
get enough food to keep them alive,
or use the remainder of their provs.
ions in reaching the coast over the
Chilkoot trail. Well, this story
turned out almost entirely wrong.
All the miners except four stayed in
tho creek get low, aud by tho time
that Trader McQuestsn reached his
store, on Aug. Goth, il was estimated
that there was not half dozen men
on the creek who couldn't pay cash
Tor their years suppiss, Nuggets
were plentiful, one worth 500 having
been taxed out during the summer.
On the first day after MeQuesten
opened his store he took in $4,000 in
cash, aud the whole camp was joyful. |
l suppose that 1890 will be- red let.
ter year on the creek.
"From what have said you will
gather ths, mining is rather hazard
GUS here, but still think that tho in.
dustry will attain great Importance
in this region. Personally, l should
not care TO come here to mine, but
then l should not care to take the
risks that any practical miner is ready
aud accustomed to take. | should !
think that a strong company that
could put in good machinery, and
could afford TO do q great deal of
preparatory work, would make mon.
ey on many Of these streams, but
when McQuessen and Mayo get their
steam pump TO work on some of the
bars, they will probably be able to