The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-20
KLONDYKE FIELDS TAKEN
ENORMOUS WAGES BEING PAID
TO MINERS.
STEAMER PORTLAND, WILL BE CROWDED
On Her Return Trip to Her Utmost Capacity
Mrs. Gage Says the Wonderful Stories are
True--That the Country is Enor-
mousIy Rich.

Seattle. Wash. July 1S.-The excite
ment over the Klondyke mines, is on the
increase. and hundreds of people are pre-
pairing to sail for Alaska. The steamer
Portland. which brought down over
$1,000. 900 in gold is on her return trip,
and will be crowded to her utmost ca
pacity. Conservative men who have peeh
in the country claim there rs room Tor
hundreds more in Alaska. They admit
that all of the lands in the vicinity OF
Klondyke have been taken. but every
river in Alaska, is, in their judgment,
filled with gold, which can be secured II
the men are willing to risk hardshps.
INSPECTOR Strickland, of the Canadian
Mounted Police, who came down on the
Portland. says: when / left Dawson
City month ago, there were about sou
claims staked out, and there were be-
tween 1000 and 5000 there. We can
safely say that there was about Sl.oOO,-
600 in gold mined last winter The wages
in the mines were $15 day, and the
saw mill paid laborers $40 day. The
claims now staked out will afford en-
ployment to about 5000 men, believe.
If a man is strong, healthy, and wants
work. he can find employment at good
wages Several men worked on an in
terest, or what is termed lay and dur
ing the winter realized from $4,000 to
$4,000 each. The mines are 30 TO 100
miles from Alaska boundary"
MRS. GAGE CONFIRMS THE RE
PORT.
Mrs. E. A. Gage, wife of the son of
the Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman
Gage, came down on the Portland. She
went North on it and was at st. Mi
ehaels. She said in an interview:
THE country is enormously rich The
present gold diggings are only very
small part of it, and there is little doubt
that there are millions only waiting for
the miners to come and dig out The
men from the Klondyke are not the men
to exaggerate, for | have talked with
people whom / know to be truthful.
1t is declared that there is no danger
of food giving out; all reports to the
contrary are not honest. The North
American Transportation and Trading
Company will not allow a man to take
any food North on the Portland, but 1t
will guarantee to furnish him food for
year at less than $500. he can secure
such guarantee before leaving this
city, so that starvation will not be one of
the difficulties to stare men in the face.
A letter received from Dawson City,
under date of June is. contains many
interesting facts. The writer Arthur
Perry. a well-known citizen of Seattle,
says:
'"The first discovery of gold on the
Klondyke was. in the middle of August,
1896. by George Cormack, on a creek
emptying into the Klondyke on the south,
called by the Indians Bonanza. He found
SLIGO to the pan on high rim, and af-
ter making the find known as ''Forty
Miles," went back with two Indians and
took out 81 400 in three weeks kith three
sIuice boxes. The creek was soon staked
from one end to the other, and all the
small gulches were also staked and re-
corded About September 10th man
by the name of Whipple, prospected a
creek emptying into the Bonanza, and
named it Whipple Creek. He shortly af-
terward sold out and the miners renamed
it Ell Dorado.
SOME OF THE RICH STRIKES.
when I first reached the new camp |
was invited by two butcher boys, Muir
ply Thorpe, of Juneau, and George
Stewart, from Stuck Valley, Washing
ton. to go down in their shaft and pick
pan of dirt as they had just struck
a rich streak. To my surprise it was
$2S3.50 In fourteen pans of dirt they
took out 81, $50 right in the bottom Of
the shaft, which was four by eight feet.
March Goth Clarence Berry took out
$500 to the pan, Jimmy McLain took
cut over 5000 to the pan, Frank Phisca-
ter took out $135 to the pan, and four
boys from Nanaimo took as high as S125
to the pan. They were the first men to
get hole down to the bed rock and get
any pay. They had Nos. IA and Is. In
fact, big pans were being taken out on
nearly every claim on the creek. and one
and two hundred pans were common
"April 18th Clarence Berry took in
one pan thirty-nine ouces, S495, and in
two days panned out over 81 200. April
14th we heard that some boys in No. 80
Eel Dorado had struck it rich and taken
out $500 in one pan. This was the ban
ner pan, and Charles Meyers, who had
the ground, told me that if he had wait
ed TO pick the dirt he could have taken
out 100 ounces just as easy. Jimmy
McLain took out $11 900 during the win
ter just in prospecting the dirt. Clar-
ence Berry and his partner, Anton
Stander, PANIED out about the same in
the same manner. Mrs. Berry used to
go down to the dumps every day to get
dirt and carry it to the shanty and pan
it out herself. She has over $4,000 taken
out in that manner. Mr.. Lippin, from
Seattle, has a rich claim, and his wife
has a sack of nuggets worth $4,000 that
she has picked up on the dumps.
when the dumps were washed in the
spring the dirt paid better than was
expected. -Four boys on a lay in Ell
Dorado took out $4,000 in four months.
Frank Phiscater, who owned the Grand.
had some men hired and cleaned up S94,-
600 for the winter. Mr.. Lippin, so | am
told, has cleared up $4,000. Louis
Rhodes, No. % Bonanza, has cleaned up
$4,000. Clarence Berry and Anton
Stander have cleaned up $4,000 last
winter.
''This is probably the richest placer
ever known in the world. They took it
out so fast and so much of it that they
did not have time to weigh it with gold
L.. 4.