Smyrna times., 1897-07-21
ALASKA, OUR LAND OF GOLD.
MANY WHO DECLARE ITS MINES THE
RICHEST EVER KNOWN.
Reports From the Yukon Country That Re-
call Fabulous EldOrada-Recent Dis
COVeries Seem to Indicate that
10 Alaska Is the mother
Vein of the Gold of
North America.

NOTtH AUeFiCds
From the New York Sun.
Those familiar with the history of
gold mining declare that the gold fields
of Alaska are among the richest both
in quality and in extent that have ever
been known. The stories that the
Spanish explorers heard about Edo
RADIO were no more wonderful than
those which are now coming down from
Alaska with every steamer, except that
the Spaniards heard of gold already re-
fined and mined, whereas the Alaska
gold is not yet dug. The Spaniards
never got their gold: the Alaskans are
getting theirs by the ton. Here, for
instance, is a quotation from the issue
of June 3Oth of the atlanta Mining
Record of Juneau. It relates to the
arrival of one Jack Hayes, the mail car
rier for the Yukon district. Hayes left
Juneau ON Jan. 14th and completed his
tour of duty ON June goth. After an
interview with him about his experien-
ces, the Record says:
'Much excitement prevails all
through the Yukon district over the
KlOndike discoveries, and all kinds of
stories of the riches there are told,
many of which Mr.. Hayes says are
true. 1t is true that two tenderfeet,
railroad men from Los Angeles, Cal.
Frank Summers and Charles Clemens
have struck it rich. They went in
year ago and located on the Klondike
district last fall Clemens sold his in
terest for $35, 900 cash, and his partner,
Summers, held on two weeks later and
got $500 The money to pay the
men was taken out of the dump which
had been lifted from the shaft on the
claim during the winter. These two
men had each panned out $4,000 on
their claim while prospecting it. The
man that bought Clemens's interest
bound the bargain with $232 nugget
which had been taken from the Klon-
dixie. Summers is a single man.
Clemens has a wife and two children
in Los Angeles. 1t is said that both
will come out on the next boat via st.
Michael, bringing with them their lit
tie fortunes. Neither man ever had
any experience in mining.
''Alec Mcdonald took one pan from
his claim which tipped the scales to the
tune of $500, and offered a wager OF
81, 900 that he could pick his dirt and
in twenty minutes get pan that would
go over 100 ounces ($1 5000. No one
cared to cover the wager.
''Dick Lowe is panning for a living,
and is taking out the modest sum O.
500 day.
''In personal letter dated at Circle
City, March gath, Oscar Ashby say
in part:
''Our town is very quiet at present
every one having gone to the big ex
element at Klondike. Everyone ha
gone crazy over it. This country ha'
an unparalleled future There are thou
sands of acres thai men viii not, il
, fact, cannot look at until provisions ar
cheaper. I understand that the wages
here will be $12 a day. There is no
enough help to supply the demand OIL
the creeks. Dogs are worth all kind
: of money, from $75 to $500 each.
There are one or two men in NeV
t York who know Alaska mining an
Alaska mines well. A Sun repOrte
asked one of them yesterday to tai
!, about the gold diggings of Alaska. H
did so, after stipulating that his nam
should not be printed. He opened
drawer of his desk and out of nun
ber of specimens of ore, selected
chunk as big as a mans thumb
1t was as heavy as bullet.
"This," he said, as he laid it in th
drawer again, "was picked up on tE
surface soil six years ago. Anotht
piece as big as my fist was picked up
the same place we have been offere
$3.50 for. Now, when there is gOl
like that lying around open, to the al
there is just one inference to be draw
1t comes from some place. The ma
who finds the place is rich. The ma
who tells the world in general what l
is looking for and why under such ci
cumstances is a fool. By the san
token he usually dies poor and cor
plains of hard times, sighs for the r
turn of the good old days of AS
Why man, 40 was nothing to this! j
hannesburg is no such centre OF go
fields as is Juneau.
''But there is a difference betwe'
California in 40 and Alaska in g
= Alaska is all staked out. The news b
- not gone abroad until the people ne
- at hand, the people who have spe
money, time, and their very lives
: developing the country, the people,
N. short, who deserved the reward h
y" seized on everything in sight DoV
along the coast in the quartz lodes t
stamp mills have been established o
by one, twenty stamps here, for
there. They have not any of the
begun to be worked as hard as t
available area of ore will permit. WI
mills running altogether $40 staml
more than half the stamps work.
only half a year, the product of
II quartz mines of Alaska in 1897 yield
9th 80, 1856, 900. 1 say to you earnest
honestly, that is only a pin scrat'
or Work in Alaska cannot be said
have begun. There was never al
IA an where any thing like it. To-day l
- ceived this despatch from a man who
y going over a collection of twenty
more mines all belonging to the &C
pany in which l am interested. Oh
Del. ing the names Of the mines, the q
- patch reads thus:
" Have just examined Pup and
ten. Pup has ten-foot vein and Kit
T thirty; grand showing.
"That staggers me, used as an
big quantities and queer developme
,e,, in Alaska veins. Still, there have b.
20 thirty-foot veins before, and there L
be lots more of them. The beaut,
Oe' it is that these veins grow richei
:, you work down into them. To S
4 a. u. IL 4I,s.,c. -, L lalsava Ah of ri