St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-14
RICH GOLD FIELDS
Found in the Frazer River Valley
by Osborne.

Found in the Frazer River Valley
by Osborne.
Gold fields which have produced 81, 900
an hour, coarse gravel yielding 35 cents
in gold per pan, with nuggets from the
size of crushed grain of wheat up to
an ounce or more each, is the cheerful
intelligence brought by Capt. William
Osborne, of Duluth, who returned from
Frazer river, British Columbia, yester-
day, Ell route to Duluth, for which point
he leaves this morning. Frazier river,
il will be remembered, gave the greatest
gold excitement of the age In the early
sixties, or about that time. and a city of
10000 people was the result of a few
months excitement, but was as quickly
abandoned because it was impossible to
obtain supplies, and impossible to work
the diggIngS with profit with the facili-
ties then at hand. though they have
been worked by Cinnamon and persist
ent miners with wonderful results ever
since.
The country of which Capt. Osborne
speaks is about 200 miles from the coast.
so to IS miles north of .Lillicoot. The
surface of the country is glacial drift
about 400 feet in depth, through which
the river, about 200 yards in width, has
cut channel to the primitive rocks
lying underneath. The banks are gen
orally at an angle Of forty-five degrees,
but occasionally more slOping and again
abrupt bluffs. The current of the river
is from three to seven miles all hour.
The water in the river sometimes rises
sixty feet, washing the banks and form
ing high bars.
These frequent rises have washed the
bOulders from the coarse gravel forming
the glacial drift into the channel of the
river, making bed about three feet
thick Of solid boulders. every crevice
between them being filled with sand
and gravel rich in gold. Underneath
this bed of boulders there is deposit
of coarse gravel and sand intermixed
with Doulders from few inches to
twenty feet or more in depth, every
square yard of which is rich in gold.
Occasionally rifles are formed by the
primitive rock rising to within few
feet OF the surface, and against these
the gold lodges, and from one of these
pockets MI. Osborne says party of
miners took $4,000 in coarse gold in less
than six hours. sit
The sloping bluffs and the table lands,
known as dry diggings pay at the rate
of from ten to fifteen cents per square
yard, and it is from the washing of ages
that the accumulation of GOLD in the
river bed has come.
The gold bearing mountain ranges,
perhaps, of Alaska, have been broken
down by glacial action and distributed
J over the surface in the Frazier river
valley basin, with the result stated.
Mr.. Osborne is one of a party of ex-
perts who have examined the country
and are EN- route to report to Duluth par
ties. The bars have heretofore been
worked with wonderful results, also the
small tributary streams. but there is a
scheme now on foot to work the bed of
the stream by clam shell dredges. which
will clamp and remove the boulders,
when the gravel will be worked by sue
ton pumps which have lifted nuggets
weighing as high as an ounce each, as
we'll as the fine gold The banks are
being worked by hydraulic mining.