Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-11-29
Seine River until he came to the Atticll

Seine River until he came to the Attick
0kan.
While in the Attic Okan River he met
with another adventure and one that
proved decidedly serious. He left his
camp one morning taking with him
only his compass, revolver and pick.
Everything else was left with the
canoe as he had not seen living per
son for days and had no thought of
danger. He returned at night only to
find bis camp rihed. His vest, in
which he left his watch and all his
money, was taken as we'll as half Of the
provisions which remained. BY far
the most serious loss, however, was that
of his maps which were all taken with
the other things.
Without these maps he soon came to
grief, for the country was new to him
and the maps had been his only guide.
He soon made a wrong portage and
found himself lost III the network of
the little rivers and lakes, each exactly
like the other, with which the country
is broken. He was lost for nearly two
weeks and then, after he had wandered
blindly from lake to river and from
river to lake, he came one day upon q
well-defned trail. 1t was the old Daw-
son route, which once extended from
Port Arthur far up into Manitoba. In
old days the route was used in convey
ing supplies to the Hudson Bay
Company and also as a military post
road. Then the pOrtages from lake to
lake were carefully cleared and on each
portage were kept teams to transport
the supplies. The building of the Cana
dian Pacific made the old trail useless
and it is now abandoned.
To Davis the old most road was
savior. He recognized at once what it
was from what he had heard of it in
former days, and fixing his direction by
the compass he started to retrace his
steps to Rainy Lake. His progress was
still slow for the portages were hard to
find and instead of cutting across the
lakes he was compelled to follow along
the shore line until he came to the we'll
defined break that indicated the trail.
Even along this trail which was once
the highway of northwestern Canadian
commerce he travelled for nearly two
weeks without meeting man, either
friend or enemy.
He found his first friend at La Croix
Lake, where Jabez Williams of Fort
Francis is in charge of trading station.
Mr.. Williams furnished him informa-
ton as to his route and finally gave him
al Indian guide who accompanied him
for several days until they came to
Rainy Lake where it is reached by the
Dawson trail. He struck the south
branch Of the lake and then followed
along this shore exploring it as he had
the one to the north. Finally when he
had covered nearly half the distance
along the shore he came upon the tale
formation for which all the time he had
been searching and that same night he
camped on the little island which is
officially known as lot Z, section %,
township II, north of range % west.
On this island the next morning he
found favorable signs, and in less than
twentv-four after he had come upon
the tale slate he had found the quartz
rock. \ fragment was crushed in a
small mortar and the pieces washed in
a pan. AS the dirt was washed away
the bright yellow specks appeared and
gold had been found in Minnesota
beyond a doubt. After exploring the
ledge and the surrounding islands and
gathering quantity Of specimens of
the quartz, Davis set out on the return
journey, but this time followed the
canoe route to Tower.
This island known as lot is the
property now owned by Hutch Bevier
and 4. ) Chase. Davis brought back
with him minutes of other gold claims,
and five of these were sold last week.
Homestead entries were made to cover
them and all are now contested
Detroit Tribune.