The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-08


expeditions fitted out by miners and pros
pectors was one bound on a search for the
long lost and fabulously rich Lost
Rocker" claim. Every summer at least
one party fits out at Juneau TO hunt for
it. Usually there are several searching
parties, and occasionally some adventur-
Gus prospector starts out of Sitka and
drops down across Chatham straits, hop
| ing by going as nearly as he can in the di-
rection taken by the pTospectOrs who
I found the Rocker to come again on the
lost gold mine. The Rocker is tradition
in Alaskan mining towns now, and each
/ year, as the season goes by and none of the
searcheTs finds il, the stories of its vast
| riches grow and increase in number.
It was in the spring of 1876 that the
/ only two men who ever saw the Rocker
! left Sitka on the prospecting trip which
! has started out all the subsequent parties.
| They were looking for placer diggings,
| and they meant TO strike the mainland
| somewhere down toward Fort Wrangel.
Their big canoe was well stocked, and
they took their time exploring the is
lands along their route and prospecting as
they went along The islands didn't show
much color" however and along in the
early summer they crossed Chatham straits
/ and coasted along the mainland until they
| came to the mouth of creek The creek
| bed gave evidence TO their experienced
! eyes of the presence of the metal for which
| they were searching 1t was strevn with
| quartz, and the gravel showed q good
color" for every pan.
The two prospectors pitched their camps
and began work. The gravel always
panned color but it wasn't rich
| enough for them, so they cached their
store, pulled out their boat and pushed UP
stream, climbing over big powders and
smashing through the heavy underbrush
until they reached the head waters of the
creek. From there they went on to the
top of the divide. Beyond and below
stretched broad basin, in which lay a
beautiful little lake. A small stream emp
tied into the lake, coming down from the
east and another flowed out of it toward
the north. The prospectors went down
the slope Of the divide to the lake and
camped near the stream which flowed down
the eastern slope.
The stream had a gravel bottom, and
the first wash showed the miners that they
had struck a bonanza. The gravel yielded
coarse gold the size of bean and always
washed more than 81 to the pan. The
down to business. One went back TO the
cache for supplies, and the other set to
work to build rocker or cradle as some
placer diggers call it. When the rocker
was finished the two miners worked as hard
as they could, realizing that the short
Alaskan season was well under way They
stcpped only to make occasional trips back
to the beach for supplies, and spent all the
rest of their time panning the rich gravel.
They had been at it about two weeks
and had washed out something more than
So, 600 worth of rough gold, when one day
when they quit work about noon to pre-
pare dinner they were ambushed by In
dams who had tracked them from the
beach. The Indians opened fire from be-
hind clump of bushes near the camp. One
of the miners was killed at the first fire,
bat the other escaped unhurt. AS he saw
his companion fall he dashed into the
short timber on the western slope beyond
his camp and raced up the divide. The
Indians sent a shower of bullets after
him, but not one touched him, and he
managed to elude them all and get back to
the cache 1t didn't take him long to
tumble some provisions into his canoe and
push out into the channel. Hard padding
soon put him out of rifle range from the
shore, and he had chance to ease up and
take stock.
lie was safe and sound, and ne figured
that he had provisions enough to take him
back to Sitka, where he could organize "A
party, return to the diggings, avenge his
comrade and wash out a fortune So BE
shaped his course, as he supposed, so that
it would bring him to Sitka But the
prospectocs had travelled devious way
from the little old Alaskan capital. They
had stopped at several islands and crossed
and recrossed the winding, tOrtuOus chan
ncls, and the survivor of the attack of the
Indians on the Rocker diggings as he aft
erward called them, soon found that he
wns lost in the intricacieS of the ever
changing courses. At last he was picked
up by a gunboat bound down from the
Rering sea 20 Puget sound He was land
ed III Port Townsend with something
more than 81, 500 in coarse gold. which ne ,
carried slowed in a leather belt around his
waist. 1t was his share of the two weeks
work at the Rocker In similar belt
around the waist Of his dead comrade there
was as much more.
Promptly the miner started back 10 Sit
ka. There he told the story of the murder
OF his companion, hut the showing of gold
he made and his description of the fabu-
lCus riches of the little stream where he
got it made the hardy miners forget the
danger, and party was quickly organ
lied TO recover and work the Rocker. Aft
er great hardshipS the expedition failed, as
did all those which have since followed il.
AS season after season rolls by the story
grows At the winter headquarters of the
miners in Juneau the prospectors roll it I'M
der their tongues Srhey shift their guilds.
Every season one expedition NJ least starts !
ont, half hopelessly and expecting 70 be
jeered. Sometimes two or three start,
some from Sit6a and some from Juneau
As each one comes back empty handed the
story of the mine they hunt grows Large
rewards have been offered to the Indians
if they would guide miners TO the lake.
But perhaps because they fear they would
be implicated in the murder, perhaps be
cause they don't know, perhaps because I
there is 10 Lost Rocker they always
refuse. some Gay the country will be
opened up, and then Juneau will learn
the true story Of the Lost Rocker. -
New York sun.
The number Of Jews in the world is es-
timated 70 be 3, 00e 600. OF these about
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