The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-25
ALASKA GOLD CRAZE
HOW PROF. MUIR, OF GLACIER FAME,
VIEWS THE EXCITEMENT.
He Says There Are Thousands of
Square Miles I'm the Yukon Valley
Laden with Yellow Metal.
SCENES At SKHGUAY CAMP
AND THE TRIP TO CHILCAT PASS
DESCRIBED BY TRAVELLERS.
j. o. HestwoOd's story of How He Be-
came the PossessOr of Claims
Worth Five Millions.

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Aug. "a. - Prof. John
Muir, the scientist. whose name will al
ways be connected with the history of Alas
ka, whose monument is the great glacier
that was named after him. gives his views
of the Yukon river gold fields in dispatch
to the Republic, dated Port Townsend
Wash. He says: Though the open season
of the frosty gold fields Of the North is
fast drawing to close and white winter
stands ready to lock the mountain doors
against all save the hardest mountaineers,
the tide of travel to the Yukon goes wildly
on like a hot stream that refuses to be
frozen, overladen with picks, shovels and
provisions. The eager throng is pushing
blindly northward in mad excitement. Ev-
erybody is anxious to get ahead of every
body else, jumping and grinding against one
another, like powders in flood time swirl
ing in pothole.
There Is nothing novel in this Klondike
discovery. Similar discoveries of the yell
low stuff, many of them with their attend
ant excitement, have been made in our fer
tile mountains North and South and in all
quarters of the globe. The bonanzas of Cali
fornia, Nevada and British Columbia are
still fresh in gold-burdened mines The Car
iboO mines, so destructive to many. boosted
their thousand-dollar pans A million and
a half dollars of ore was taken in a few
weeks from a pocket in Treasure hill. Ne
vada and other ore masses were scarcely
less marvelously rich, giving rise to the
most violent excitements that ever occurred
in the history of mining. All sorts of peo-
pie weak and strong, young and Old tailors,
shoemakers, farmers, as well as miners,
left their own right work, as so many are
doing now, and fell in a perfect storm of
energy upon the white-pine hills. covering
the ground adjacent to the rich spots like
grasshOppers and seeming determined by
the very violence of their efforts to turn
every stone into gold. With few exceptions
these mining storms pass away about as
quickly as they RISE giving place to steady
plodding labor and leaving a few rich and
many poor.
Il suppose that nothing | can write will
be of much avail toward calming the pres
ent rush into frostland. l would say to
every inexperienced fortune seeker be pa
tient and bde your right time. Those
barred out at the foot of the passes at Dyea
may spend the winter comfortably working
in the mines of the coast mountains or
prospecting for new ones. The climate of
northeastern Alaska is mild, timber for
fire and shelter abundant and a vast stretch
OF BOlu-Deaflng rock ana gravel beds is cas-
lily accessible by boats, in which wood and
clothing can be carried without fatigue. In
any case you will get a glorious outing
amid the grandeSt scenery on this CONT
nent. Then next spring you will make your
way over good roads with a steady pulse
You need not fear being too late. Nearly
all or the gold of Alaska is still in the
ground and centuries of mining will not
exhaust it. l am going north on the
steamer Queen to Juneau for short time.
My principal object Is to examine certain
Alaska spruce trees and compare them with
those have encountered in British Column
bia and California. While | am there |
shall take a walk over the Chicot pass.
have been there before. | have no pack to
carry ] know how to protect my feet and
my nose, and to men who are accustomed
to this kind of travel, the trip is not ar
duous."
The attention of Professor Muir was
called to a recent utterance of Prof. George
Davidson on the question of the klOndike
in lecture delivered in San Francisco.
The former chief of the Pacific Coast Geo
detic survey said that were the same energy
and earnestness displayed in and devoted
to the development of California mines
from San Diego to Siskiyou, California
would produce more gold than the Yukon
could ever yield.
Il can't think So" was Professor Muir's
comment There are thousands of square
miles on the basin of the Yukon laden with
gold. 1t is a country which is immensely
rich. l can speak dispassionately because
] have no ambition to possess any of 1t.
believe that more gold will be taken out
of California than has been heretofore, but
not more lndn can De taken out OF the SFSttI
basin of the Yukon. California is unques-
ticnably very rich in gold, and great placers
remain to be uncovered there. The revival
of interest in mining in California is due
to the fact that the deprt ssion in all
branches of trade has driven men back to
the first business the! ever learned. With
increased attention to mining new discover
les follow as a natural consequence, and
the fact must always he remembered that
the entire coast is great gold field of
varying width and richress. In California
the gold is all on the western slopes; in
southern Oregon the field varies and broad
ems out again, and in northern Oregon or
Washington and British Columbia it is the
same. but ii reaches its greatest extent in
Alaska and the northwest territory. In
these last countries where the finds have
been made there will he as great discoveries
on one side of the Observation-Disclosures
first meridian as on the other"