The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-04
COL. JONES SAYS THE MISSISSIPPI
WILL SOON BE GIVEN MORE
WATER.
FLOOD EFFECTS ARE GONE,
WATER IN THE UPPER
RESERVOIRS.
is BACK FROM THE KLoNDIkE.
Orrin Gray, of Grand Rapids, Wis,
Talks About the Alaskan Gold
Fields.

If the Diamond 10 steamer Sidney
was delayed in her progress down the
river en- route for ST. Louis, by the low
! stage Of water, it was no fault of the
st. Paul district of the government
engineering department, for this dis
tr1ct extends only to Lake Pepin,
whereas the Sidney was troubled by
low water near La Crosse.
This statement is made upon the au-
! thority of Col. w. A. Jones, the govern
ment engineer at st. Paul, who return
ed home yesterday, after having spent
/ the entire summer on the New England
| coast where he went in search of bet
ter health. Col. Jones has been trans
ferred by the president, as already
| chronicled in the G 10 e, to the Bal
| timore district, and will be succeeded
in command of this district by Capt.
Fred Abbott, now in charge of the dis
trict at Charleston, S. c., Sept 1.
Capt. Abbott will arrive in ST. Paul
by the middle of the month. Speaking
of the river last night at the Mer-
chants hotel Col. Jones explained that
it is customary to open the five reser-
voirs in this district about the middle
F! of August, but that owing to the high
stage of water at that time it was not
done. The middle of August, when the
river is usually low, found it this year
quite high, owing to the fact that there
were two floods, the spring flood in
May, and the second one during July,
which, together, made much trouble for
people living on low country near the
Mississippi.
Now, however, the river is getting
| bit low. and in a short time Col.
Jones will order the sluices raised at
the reservoirs at Leech lake, Winnibi-
| goshish, Pokegama, Sandy lake and
Pine river
They will not be opened at the same
time, but in such a way as to deliver
! the water to st. Paul at about the
same time. This will be accomplished
! by first delivering the water from
Leech lake and Winnibigoshish into
Pokegama, and then releasing the
water from the latter. A day later
! Sandy lake will be opened, and two
/ days after that Pine river will be
| opened
| This move will have the effect of
raising the water at ST. Paul about
| foot, and it will remain at that height
until winter comes and the river
| freezes up.
| The new reservoir at Gull lake. near
! Brainerd, is not yet begun, owing to
! the provision of the law, which pro-
/ VideS that no; work shall be commence
| ed until all the land necessary is Sc
| cured. At Gull lake there are several
| cases where the land is owned by
i minor. heirs etc. and some time will
/ be required to.4secure' 1T. Probably no
work will be done other than securing
| this land until spring.
| "Alaska's gold fields are great; the
them, but no one here can have any
| idea of the hardships and perils in
volved in a trip to them"
The speaker was Orrin Gray, a
prominent and respected citizen Of
Grand Rapids, Wis, who stopped at
the Globe hotel last night on his way
home from the Klondike Mr.. Gray is
man well along in years, and went
! to Alaska last spring to look after
his two sons, Onnie and Albert. the
| latter having left for Klondike year
ago, with partner" Albert and his
! partner took up claims side by side
| and were very successful, finally pur-
| chasing interests in adjoining claims,
| so that now they are "Klondike
princes" Albert came down short
time ago, just about two weeks in
advance of his father and carried $685.
900 in gold dust, besides which his
| claims are worth fully 100000 more.
| He will return to Alaska this winter.
Mr. Gray, the senior, arrived in Seat
! tie on the steamer Portland Sunday
i morning, and although he spent but
a comparatively short time in the gold
! country, he brought out a good-sized
| bag of dust and proposes to return
! there but not to engage in mining. He
will interest men, if he can, in the
necessity of better transportation ia
| cilities and has other business mat
| ters on foot He left st. MichaePs
July a. on the Portlaad, the last boat
! of the season. On it, as passengers,
were eighteen Klondike miners who
brought out snug little wad of
wealth. aggregating nearly $500, 600.
! The Iuckest one in the party carried
| $40 600. representing years toll.
''The great trouble with the majority
Of the people is that they think they
| can go to the Klondike and shovel up
! gold dust and nuggets by the pailful,'
| continued Mr. Gray, when the fact is,
they have to work mighty hard for it.
They have to sink a shaft and Go not
strike it rich until they get nearly
| down to bed rock. Many of them will
get rich; many more of them will have
! hard work to get along, but I will say
! this. much. that if man will work
nara ne can get ALONG all right. Lay
wages at Dawson range from $40 TO SIS
a day The grub is poor and hard to
get sometimes, although there is a
great plenty for all the people in Daw-
son City this winter. The prices are
not so high, either. -four being only
| S12 per 100 pounds and bacon forty
cents a pound. Canned goods and
delicacies are much higher in proper
| ton, while some eggs, which were
| brought in overland. sold for 81 a
piece. Absolutely nothing is raised
there: it isr the most dismal, desolate
looking place 1 ever saw.
There is a lot of talk about the
claims on the KHondike all being taken
up, but there is nothing to that story.
The nearest claim to Dawson is seven
miles from town. and from that they
run out on all the little streams tribu-
tary to the Klondike, river, for miles.
the farthest being nearly forty-five
miles away from the city, and there
is every evidence that gold in I'M
limited quantities can be found far
above that. The only trouble is that
it is difficult to transport provisions so
far man would have to eat all that
he could carry on such long trip. but
in the winter, with dog sledges. he cam
get enough ont to his claim to las.
several months.
"a year ago claims could be pur-
chased close TO Dawson for $500; now
they are worth $4,000 to 100000. and
no one wants to sell.
Last spring the people in Dawson
City ran pretty short of provisions, the
steamers being caught in tho ice ap6