The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-14
GEORGE w. voGEL, OF DAWSON
CITY, DOUBTS THE sTARyA-
TION STORIES.
HOW THE BUSINESS is DONE.
MOOSE AND CARIBOU ARE TO BE
FOUND IN UPPER KLON-
DIXIE.
PRAISES THE MOUNTED POLICE
Soldiers May Be Needed in the
Spring, Both at SI>aguay and
Dyeas

George w. Vogel and Colin Mcintosh
were included among the visitors in st.
Paul yesterday. They are both gold
seekers, and incidentally vice president
and resident manager and engineer OF
the Western Mining and Supply COM
pany, a concern which has valuable
holdings at Dawson City. Mr. Vogel
is at the Metropolitan hotel, and when
seen talked freely about his experience
in the far Northwest. With COM
panion and four horses he started two
years ago for Circle City. They left
for Dyea aboard the little steamer
Willapa, which was sunk the present
season, crossed the Chilkoot pass and
were camped for day on the present
site of Dawson City, then unknown. At
Taguish Houses, where the Indians
made their headquarters, the travellers
built big fatboat and proceeded to
Circle City, which was then and which
is still the biggest log house mining
camp in existence. Once there the two
men established a packing service from
Circle City, the then only mining camp
on the Yukon, to the mines in the Birch
creek district, some sixty miles away
to the south. They remained there
the summer of 1895 and the winter OF
1886. In August of the following year
word came to them Of the big dlscoV-
cries of gold at Dawson City, and, al
though the stories were thought to be
absurd at first, Mr.. VogePs companion
started to pack the distance some 290
miles down the river. Mr.. Vogel FOL
lowing in March of this year by the
first steamer to make the trip from
Circle City to Dawson City. With three
other men Mr. Vogel secured claims
No. SO Eldorado and q below Discovery
on Bonanza. They are winter claims,
and at present there are score or
men at work developing their wealth.
Mr.. Vogel means to return to the spot
in the late spring. When he left there
late in August he says there were
about 1000 persons in the place, most
Of whom, he believes, will spend rea-
sonably comfortable winter. The tales
Of starvation he does not take much
stock in. He adds that the Canadian
mounted police in a sense control the
supply Of provisions, and that no man
will be allowed to die for want Of food.
He explains that there is plenty of
food to be secured from moose and
caribou, which, he says CT his own
knowledge, abound in upper Klondike,
less than 100 miles from Dawson City.
This fact, he says, has not been given
the attention it deserves by the papers
which keep talking starvation. The
merchants at Dawson maintain the I'M
changed price for flour and other sta
pies, in spite Of the steady diminution
in the supply and the fact that no
more can be sent in until spring.
The mounted police, he says, are ex-
cellent fellows who mix easily with the
miners, and who, with the better ele-
ment have to date always easily held
the upper hand without recourse to
force. Mr.. Vogel has seen during his
stay there in the exciting times but
one or two street fights. and asserts
that there has never to his knowledge
been what he calls a ''gun play"
The mounted police at Dawson num-
bered fifty when he left, and there have
been additions since that time. Lieut..
Col. Randall, of the United States
army, with fifty men, is at st.
MiehaePs where there was a sign of
trouble just at the close of the season
when a number of travellers, having
paid for their transportation and hold
ing certificates, could not get through,
anu prov eu d bll uS y, OuI III Lie Op4lllOll
of MI Vogel developments will show
that the soldiers will be more needed
in the spring at Skaguay and Dyea
when the big rush begins and the
capacity of the two big trails six
miles apart becomes taxed by the
crowds of feverish gold hunters Those
who are in now fear little from the
rush in, but Mr.. Vogel says that none
but those who secure their steamship
transportation In advance will ever be
able to get past the Pacific coast
points, so great will be the demand on
the coast steamers which ply to Dyea
and other points for Alaska The
movement is conservativeIy estimated
at not less than 100000, a figure way
past the capacity of all the steamers
which can be placed in commission by
spring.
Mr. Vogel says that the experienced
Klondikers are forced to smile at the
men who bring short-haired, long
limbed dogs to the Northwest for
transportation purposes. He says IT
is almost true that none but dogs with
long, thick hairy coats are useful to
the miner and his pack. The short
haired beasts cannot stand the cold
and the Eastern bred animals easily
give up under the long trips and scant
food Messrs. Vogel and Mcintosh
will go to Chicago later In the week.