Arizona republican., 1897-11-03

PIONEER FROM THE KLONDYKE. J.I Clements Goes to Denver With
 His Famous Collection.
 J. I. Clements, one of the pioneers of the Klondyke diggings, locator of the first claim on Fl Dorado creek and builder Of the first cabin in Dawson City, arrived in Denver this morning, and brought with him one of the handsomest collections of Klondyl1e nuggets ever shown in this city, says the Denver Republican. MT. Clem- ents was for fourten years a brake man on the Southern Pacific railroad and a year ago last March started for Yukon, going in by way of Chil- koot pass, and down the Yukon to Forty-Mile-the route that has be- come familiar to the majority of news paper readers. The trip down the Yukon was made without special incl dent, Mr. Clements destination being the rich creeks in the neighborhood of Forty-Mile and on the American side of the Yukon.
 'We worked six months in that sec tion,'' said Mr. Clements, with only tolerable success and were then oblig ed to return to FortyAMile for sup plies My companions were Will Houser, John Doty, Frank Keller, Charlie Lamb and MT. Norcross, and while we were gathering our provis- ions to go back to the diggfngs in which we had been operating we heard that George Mccormack had made a wonderfully rich strike on Klondyke creek, and made up our minds to try our luck in that direc- tion. We had up to this time enjoyed very little romance on our trip. It had been for us, mostly hard work and up to that time very little pay. But the romance was coming and we were fortunate enough to be o1 hand to take advantage of it.
 George Mccormack and an Indian were out hunting moose and on com ing down Bonanza creek they occas- ionally stopped to pan some of the dirt in the creek. Of course they did not get very deep, only taking the surface dirt, but in banning some dirt taken from the rim rock they go5 from 50 cents to dollar to the pan. This was not so good, but taken from the surface was indicative of rich stuff below, and Mccormack staked off all the claims he wanted and then let the news get out. And then the rush com menced. Every one who could git there at all struck out at once for the new diggings. We were in the crowd, and got there among the first But as early as we reached the ground the greater part of the creek was taken up when we arrived. We located some claims above McCor- mack's, however, and as by this time we were again short of supplies we started back to Forty-Mile to get pro- visions. On the way down we stop ped one evening at the mouth of FL dorado creek As the locality seem ed promising, after supper I prospect ed a little and the first pans that I took from the surface gravel yielded from 25 cents to 75 cents to the pan. We at once located two claims, in which Frank Phiscator, Frank Keller, Anto2e Standard, William Whipple and myself were jointly interested. I had to cancel my Bonanza creek claims as no one can hold more than one claim there. The discovery on Eldorado creek was made on Sept. 1, 1896. Two of our party went on to Forty-Mile for provisions and the rest of us remained on the ground prospecting and making our arrange ments for the winters work, borrow ing provisions from Mccormack to sustain us until our companions re- turned.
 When we received our supply of grub we built cabins, laid in a big supply of fuel, and as winter had fair ly commenced on the 1st of October commenced sinking our shaft to bed rock The gravel got constantly rich CT as we gained depth, and when we struck bed rock at eighteen feet, the gravel averaged $10O to the pan. Then we sank another shaft to bed rock and struck a richer streak, this time securing some gravel that ran from $500 to SITS to the pan. There was not much of this, of course, but the average was high enough to sat isfy us that our fortunes were made.
 When we had our shafts all in good shape we hired all the men we could get, and for three months we had thlrty-five men employed, paying them $1.50 an hour, and during that time we cleaned up $50, ,OO00 at an ex- pense of $35,000 for labor.
 There are about 400 locations on Bonanza and Eldorado creeks and no OHe uIeW d Dlduh Ine pay streak averages about forty feet in width and there are twelve miles of claims To- cated on the Eldorado pay streak, while on Bonanza creek there are at least thirty-five miles of claims staked out The ground is held at a very high figure, the valuation being gener- ally ,000 per square foot.
 "I do not advise any one to go to KIOndVke There is a good deal of hardship in getting there, but there is gold, and if a man takes proper care of himself and goes prepared as he should be there is no reason why he should not be as healthy there as anywhere. Every one who goes must do so on his own motion. I feel car-