San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-11-26
FIERCE INDIANS, LITTLE GOLD.
A Warning Against Stories of Rich
Finds ON Stewart River, Alaska.


Finds on Stewart River, Alaska.
An interesting letter about the re-
ported rich finds of gold ON Stewart
river, Alaska, has been received here
from a former officer of the United
States coast and geodetic survey, who
spent several seasons in Alaska and is
familiar with the Yukon country near
Forty-Mile creek and Circle City.
II have read with great deal of in
terest," he writes, "the many articles
that have appeared in the Sun from
time to time ON Alaska, but am moved
to utter warning word just now on
account of statement that saw in it
several times and which was repeated
in an article in the Issue of August 81.
In this article the writer spoke of the
great things to be expected In q short
time in Alaska, and went on to say that
wonderful developments were to be
looked for on Stewart river and that
the Canadian government had secret
information about the river that would
prove startling.
Stewart river is not an untried
stream. It was worked by hundreds of
miners before the riches of FortyNMile
creek were known, and the gold cannot
be picked of the bars in chunks and is
not awaiting the touch of the first COM
ers. McQuestin, Harper and Mayo had a
store there and did not leave until the
stream was practically abandoned by
miners. In my conversations with
these traders and men who had been on
the river never heard of anyone MAX
ing more than fair wages on it. The
stream was followed far to its head,
particularly by two men, an old Ameri-
can trapper and miner named Joe Gee,
and a Canadian Scotchman named
Mcdonald. The latter was very patri
| otto and would not desert British soil
and this, they say. is why he remained
in Stewart and refused to go to Forty
Mile creek when the rest stampeded tc
the new diggings. AS this man must
have spent at least eight years prospect
ing the stream, and so many men hal
been in it before, no virgin field is to be
found there with all the richness of e
| Dorado.
"The first application of machinery
| and steam to mining was made in this
river. The bars were known to contain
a fair average of god, but being very
fine, the gold could not proftably be
taken out by men working by hand
So in 1889 McQuestin sent the little
steamboat New Racket up to Stewart
with two men, Al Mayo and Frank
Dinsmore, in charge. They had pump:
and were to use the engine of the little
steamer for power, and summer was
put in in mining on large scale. II
proved failure, however, and mining
was practically abandoned on the river
that fall
| "Near the headwaters of the Stewart
is hunting ground of tribe of Indians
that you usually hear called the Ma
honys. The Yukon Indians fear them
worse than death. They are reported
to be menciless. 1t is claimed they kid.
| nap children, carry off women and slay
all the men that fall in their hands
The mere suspicion that they have come
near the country of the Yukon river
Indians will drive the latter from the
invaded section for years. The traders
seem to fear them, too, and stories OF
heircruelty and fierceness kept many a
| man back from the headwaters of the
| Stewart. But Gee and Mcdonald were
| not deferred. l never met a man who
had seen one of the Mahonys in the
Yukon valley, but 1 have heard that
when bands of them came to the Hud-
son Bay company's post the stockades
were shut up and all business was done
by both parties with very open precau'
tion against surprise and treachery. If
you look up Ogilvie's account of his trip
down the Yukon, in 1888, think you
will find references to what had been
done on the Stewart and of information
he got from Mcdonald
''There will be stories enough and to
spare about Alaska, and think it is
only right that when some individuals
try to stampede the country with wild
stories of the unlimited wealth to be
found anywhere, anything known
about that section should be made
public. 1t is no Coney Island trip to
the Yukon, and fear that many poor
fellow win rue this winter the readiness
with which he accepted the stories of
the wealth awaiting every one on the
Klondike."-N. Y. Sun.
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