The record-union., 1896-05-04
UNPRECEDENTED RUSH
TO COOKS INLET.
Greeks and Streams There Said to
Abound in Gold.
Pieces of Quartz Show There Are
Mother Ledges in the Mountains.
Fears for the Safety of Vessels Bound
for Alaska-Grand Lodge of For
esters COnvenes at WatSOnville-
Opening of Ingleside Coursing
Park-George e. Atkinson Missing
at Oakland.

SEATTLE, May 3.-The steamer Lak-
me. four weeks out, reached Seattle t
/ O'Clock this morning from Cooks In
let after fine passage both ways. On
board was Will A Steele, special corre-
spondent of the San Francisco Cali
and Secretary of the Washington Press
Association, who reports his ooSerVa-
tions as follows:
1.-The rush this spring to the gold dis
trict of Turnagain Bay, Cooks Inlet,
was unprecedented. Although compar-
atively uneXplored, numerous creeks on
the bay have given up gold dust ana
nuggets of such value as to encourage
the hopes of prospectors, numbering
into thousands, that wealth may oe
rapidly amaSSed there. During the past
six weeks a score Of vessels have head
ed for far Alaskan shores, but they all
started too early this year, for an eA-
ceptionally severe winter has LETT its
impress in huge cakes of ice that nave
not yet been blown out to sea ana snow
that still remains on the ground to a
depth of several feet. A fleet OF FesSelS
is living off Coal Point in Kachek1nak K
Bay, awaiting a favorable opportunity
tc go 100 miles further up the inlet.
"I spent two weeks cruising on the
Inlet and from careful examination OF
the existing conditions and authentl-
Gated reports of developments and hnds
along numerous creeks, am hrmly OF the
opinion that the proper KIND OF men
hazard no chance in casting their nnes
into the golden waters that flow into the
Inlet. Every creek and river shows the
fine gold, which increases in coarseness
as the streams are ascended, Whlie
pieces of gold-bearing quartz are ire
quently found in placers, demonstrating
that farther back toward the mountains
are mother lodges. Auriferous deposits
cover a territory Of almost unknown ex-
tent while prospecting thus far has
been comparatively slight.
"At Sitka, Fort Kenai, Kussilof, Coal
Point and other places on the Inlet,
met and talked with prospectors who
have claims on the creeks and worked
them late last year, realizing from SO
to $50 per day and in exceptional cases
as high as $50 per day.
Probably 1000 men are now on the
inlet waiting to get into the creeks, and
several hundred more are distributed
at other ports of entry waiting for
spring to open.
Representative of the Boston
Alaska company, numbering S1Xly,
have taken possession of Coal Point, a
strip five miles long, laid out streets and
called the town Homer. A petition for
a Postoffice for the place has been sent
to Washington. A fine quality of lig-
mite coal is found in inexhaustable
quantities in the surrounding hills.
The camp will build bunkers from
which coal can be shipped to San
Francisco
THE schooner Lincoln, which left
Seattle with twenty-one passengers on
March 1th for Cooks Inlet, had no.
been sighted up to April 25th. Grave
fears are felt that she has been lost
The Hope, small schooner that plies
between the villages on Cooks Inlet.
sailed from Kodiak on April 14th for
Coal Point with considerable mail for
the Boston-Alaska Company. The dis
tance is only 100 miles. For twelve days
nothing was heard of her and much
anxiety exists in consequence.
When the Lakme left Coal Point on
April 25th nothing had been seen of the
steamer Hattie Gage, the bark Theo-
bald, the barkentine Marion or the
schooner Sutherland, which vessels left
San Francisco on April I'd to 9TH for the
Inlet. Neither had the Lizzie b, Berry,
Prescott or Candy from Seattle been
sighted -