Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-04-03
|Up IN CHILLY ALASKA
no SUN ron THREE MONTHS ANB
THERMOMETER 70 BELOW.
Miners All Broke and Prospecting
Mt the stores for Much Needed
Credit.

L. N. McQuesten, store keeper at
Circle City, has written 60 friend IN
Snohomish, and the letter Is published
in the Tribune Of that place. ii is a.
follows:
This Is great mining country.
Gold is found In small quantities for
1000 miles on the river, and in many
places 1t is very rich. The country is
not half prospected as yet. 1t Is very
difficult to prospect as the ground Is
frozen hard all summer. and one has
to thaw out the ground with fire, which
makes very slow work. This is the
largest camp on tho river. 1t was
struck one year ago last June. There
are 900 men winterinE here. and the
outlook is favorable OF It being double
that next year.
There are about 800 men at Forty
Mile. That Ia about $40 miles from
this place. / am doing business at both
places. Any one coming to this place
ought to have $500 to winter on, as he
Is liable not to make anything the first
year.
Wages are $40 day In the mines
when you can get work. The mining
season is about three months.
We have theatre once q week.
Tickets are $3.50. There are about Is
saloons, and there is dance about
every other night. There will be
school started next week. There are
Is white ladies' here.
This place ID near the Arctic circle.
Al this time we see the sun for one
hour In the middle of the day. We had
a very pleasant fall up to two weeks
ago, then 1t turned cold, and 1t Is now
go degrees below Zero
| A letter from Forty Mile, january
9TH, to Tacoma man, says:
"Of all the 200 or 300 who left the
basin at the beginning of winter, so
Tar as have been able 10 learn. nearly
| every one of them was broke. There
| was one Frenchman who took out q
couple of thousand dollars. My great
est surprise since leaving Tacoma was
when entering the basin last March.
| There were about dozen In our party,
some of whom had spent eight and
| ten years in the basin, and they were
| all broke. Still they had made people
on the outside believe they were rich.
AT present our best prospect is the
| hope Of getting trust at the stores. but
| II the miners are fortunate next sum-
| mer everything will be o. K Last sum-
mer was failure There are no new
| prospects to speak OF, there being but
two places in the neighborhood where
| gold has been found in sufficient GUAM
titles to pay for the working The
| problem l am now trying to solve Is
the buying of whole years provisions
| Some of the prices will have to pay
are: Flour, So per 100 pounds; bacon,
10 cents per pound; dried fruit, gb
cents per pound apples, rs cents per
| pound: canned goods, so cents per can.
Up at the mines last summer the
| standard prices were $3S per 100 pounds
| for flour; 95 cents pound for bacon:
% cents pound for sugar, etc. II
man can make enough money in the
summer time to buy a years grub
1 stake and clothing, he would run a
good chance of finding paying dirt,
| prospecting in the winter time. How
ever, miner might live here twenty
/ years and not find good prospect.
great deal of prospecting is now
| going on.
| The climate is good. At this time
the thermometer stands 10 degrees be-
low zero. 1t feels little cold, but then
| we don't have 1t this way long. The
trip is long and dangerous one, and
| 1t took our party about three months to
make it."
| A. L. Smith has written to his BROTH
err at Maiysville, and the Globe prints
the letter. Mr.. Smith went to the
] Yukon a year ago. taking with him
| $4,000. He says: This country is not
| what it is cracked up to be by the
press. assure you. The mines have
not turned out as we'll as was expected,
| even by the miners.
1T has been a very pleasant winter.
not very cold; the coolest day was only
| 70 degrees below zero; 1t is 6s degrees
below today. Yet one does not mind
1t very much. MY nose freezes very
| easily; aside from that I can stand lots
of cold. The days are about four hours
long from 10 a. m. to Q p. IN. / have
! not seen the sun for two months, yet
| there is not cloud In the sky.
| Birch creek, emptying into the Yu-
kon about ESQ miles below here. Is
| said to be a good camp, but provisions
| are scarce there this winter, conse-
| quently it will hold everything back.
ut is a hard country to be in; shut
out from the world without any en-
| joyment whatever. The condition of a
| culprit awaiting the day of execution.
or of an exile in Siberia, Is preferable
to living in this God-forsaken hole.