The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-07-24
THE ELDORADO
OF THE NORTH.

4AODk NACAA W - Jill \ l. VIM 10
interested in stamp mills, and has been
there frequently within the last few
years. Il am not ready to talk yet"
said Mr.. Plummer, "but you can not
say too much about the wealth of that
whole country. The Alaska purchase
was the browning act of William Sew
ards life"
San Francisco, July 49, A private
letter from a miner who had just re-
turned from the Klondike mines to Cir
ele City gives some new facts in regard
to the extraordinary Alaska bonanza
field, said to be the richest place the
New World has ever known. Accord
ing to the writer of this letter, who is
perfectly trustworthy, Klondike is a
place where day laborers are not to be
had for the wages of rail road presi-
dent, where thousands upon thousands
of dollars in gold are washed in sin
gle day from below beds of gravel that
never thaw beneath the suns rays;
where every man in camp expects to be
millionaire in short while and then
return home. The writer says;
Circle City is now deserted. Every
body is up at Klondike or preparing to
go soon. Klondike River is over 200
miles up the Yukon from here. 1t is
the richest district the world has ever
known, and will produce millions this
year. l returned from Klondike for
grub and will start back tomorrow.
Flour at Klondike is worth 500 a sack
of fifty pounds and everything else in
proportion, and none to be bought.
Live dogs are worth from So to So
pound; Thew are scarce in this coun-
try.
Gravel is frozen eighteen to twenty
feet deep to bed rock, but we burn
shaft down and then drift, using fire
instead of powder. The gravel runs in
gold from 80 to $3.50 pan, and the
young fellow on a claim above me
panned out $4,000 in two days. was
offered $250,0O0 cash for my claim l
still hold the ground, and will be either
millionaire or pauper in the fall.
"Men cannot be hired for wages.
Every newcomer IN the camp is offered
big wages, as high as $50 a day, but
seldom will any one work for another.
The only phantom that stands in our
way to the goal of millionaire is
grub. l have provisions enough to last
me until next June, and am as well
fixed as any man in the country. If the
boats do not get up In the river before
July we will be in hard times.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 14-The
stories of the fabulous richness of the
new Klondike mines near the Upper
Yukon were proved true today when
forty miners arrived from that camp
with gold amounting to over 100000. !
They came in on the steamer Excelsior,
which also brodght S250OOO in gold dust
for the Alaska Commercial Company.
This mass of yellow dust, which |
ranged in size frop hazelnut to fine
birdshOt and kernels of sand, was
poured out on the counter at Selby's |
smelling works on Montgomery street
and then shovelled with copper scoops
into the great smelling pot. Those
who saw the gold IN one heap said no
such spectacle had been seen in this
city since the days of 40, when miners
used to come down here from the placer
districts and change their gold for $40
pieces.
The luckiest of these miners are Mr..
and Mrs, 7, S, Lippey, who left here in
April, 1896. They brought back 100000,
They went in by the way of Juneau
over the divide and Mrs. Lippey was
the first woman to go over this trail.
She is small, wirY woman with skin
tanned to the color of sole leather. She
seemed none the worse for the hard
ships of Yukon life. She is good rifle
shot and brought with her the antlers
of a moose which she had shot.
Hollinshead and Stewart, two miners,
who had been at work for year, had
1900 ounces, worth about $4,000.
Other tenderfeet had done better, for
in few weeks some of them had
cleaned up from $4,000 to $4,000.
Several of the men who arrived today
had bought claims on time, paying a ]
small sum down and agreeing to pay all
the way frem $4,000 te s25. 600 in three {