Arizona republican., 1897-12-11
IN ALASKA MANY YEARS AGO
A Member of the Hilton and Steel
 Party Tells of the Trip.

'1 was in Alaska seventeen years ago." said William Zobel to a Den yer Republican reporter, "and if we had known more about the country and had been better prepared, we should have found the gold then that everybody is looking for now. There was a party of twenty two of us hunt ing for gold We were headed by two old Caribou miners Hilton and Steele-who had been al over the country and down the Yukon, and knew there was gold in it. The rest of the party that I remember now were Ed Beam. Sol. Matthews, Fred Cushman- three California '49ers -Pat McClimchy, Pres. Claudman, Tom Preston, Tom Kern, Jimmy Me Farland, George Langtry-Warren n, "Slim Jim," John Libig, John Linn member the names of the other six, Some of the panty came up from Cali fornia for the purpose of prospecting and the others joined us in Alaska When we got up there we found that we could not get into the interior on account of the coast Indians. They ], and prevented ithe Stick Inidans from coming out, as they had a monopoly of the trading with the Indians of the interior, and wanted to hold it. We all gathered at Sltka, where we held a meeting to decide upon our plans The United States sloop Jamestown was at Sitka, commanded by Capt L.. A. Beardslee, now rear admiral of the navy. We invited Capt. Boards ee Ito our meeting, and, explaining the situation to him, asked him to give us protection I think he had to refer the matter Ito Washington, for we were there some time, and when he finally agreed to escort us we had to wait for the steamer till May g, when we started for Chilcal5 with tihe
 launch of the Jamestown.
 Nhem we arrived at Chilcat, we sent for hhree of the principal chiefs Of the Coast Indians and told them that we were not going to trade with the Stick Indians, but wanted only to look tor gold. As soon as they were satisfied on this point they made no further objections, but helped us al they could, and iuhey must have sent word to the Stick Indians of our com ing, for we we're met by them and treated very kindly all the time that we remained in the country.
 we crossed over Chilkoot pass and went down to a small lake which. think, is now called Lake Hinder mann. Here we stopped until we built two canoes and two boats, which took us until July 3, when we started down the lake. When we came tc the first rapids we took out the pro- visions and baggage and let She boats down with ropes. John Nc Kenzie ran the White Horse rapids ir his boat, load and all, but the othe, boats were unloaded ard let dowr empty. J think Mckenzie was tn; first man who ever made the passage of the White Horse rapids. When we reached the mouth of the Hootalin. qua river we started up that stream polling the boats along and prospect. ing as we went. The river was very swift and muddy and it took us nins days Ito get up to lake at the hsat of river We could not get dowr to bed rock in our prospecting on ac count of ths season and the water and all the gold we found was a few colOrs to the pan enough to pay for our salt. Hilton and Steele Wert all the time talking of the Stewar and Pelly rivers, where they wer, sure we should find gold, and after w had thoroughly prospected the Hoo talingua river without success w, started to go down the Yukon t, prospect ltIhOse streams. So swift wa the current in the Hootalingua tha we made the trip down to the moutl in half a day. When we reached tn Yukon we decided that it was too lat in the season to attempt to reacl Pelly and Stewart rivers, as we wer' not equipped for the winter, and ha, not enough provisions to last us. S we came out over Chilkoot pass, in tending to return the next season but the party got scattered and neve came together again.
 While we were in there we go the largest salmon in the Yukon an Hootalingua rivers that I ever saw. . have caught big salmon in the Colum bia, but they were not nearly so larg as those of Alaska, though the latte were badly bruised in attempting t get up the river Another fish tha we got there was pike, very large an fine eating. When the water was hig