The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-27
THE STUART RIVER.
oo,ee OF RICH FINDS ON THIS
o-,eAM NOT WELL FOUNDED.

,.n,e VIII Connect stickeen waters
,,,,,,, Those of the Yukon.
, former officer of the United States
coast and geodetic survey, who spent
.ororal seasons in Alaska and is familiar
..h the Yukon country near Forty
w;,o creek and Circle City, wrote recent
= a verv interesting letter to friend
in Washington
81 have read with great deal OF in
...ost - he writes, 1.-THE many articles
,Sot have appeared from time to time
On Alaska, but am moved to utter a
warming word just now on account OF a
..o.o,,ont that have seen several times.
This was to the effect that wonderful
darolonments were to be looked for on
Stra,t river and that the Canadian gov
a.nrent had secret information about
,he river that would prove startling
"Stnart river is not an untried
stroom II was worked by hundreds of
liners before the riches Of Forty Mile
crock were known, and the gold cannot
10 licked off the bars in chunks and Is
nor awaiting the touch OF the first COM
ors McOuegtin, Harper and Mayo had
store there and did not leave until the
s.room was practically abandoned by
miners In my conversations with these
traders and men who had been ON the
river never heard Of any one making
more than fair wages on it. The stream
was followed far to its head, particular
10 nv two men. an old American trap
nor and miner named Joe Gee and a
canadian Scotchman named Mcdonald.
The latter was very patriotic and would
NOT desert British soil, and this, they
cav is why he remained in Stuart and
refused TO 20 TO Forty Mile creek when
the rest stampeded to the new diggings.
As this man must have spent at least
eight years prospecting the stream, and
so many men had been i'll it before, no
virgin field is 10 be found there with all
the richness of IL Dorado.
Near the headwaters Of the Stuart
lisa 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 merciless. 1t is claimed they kidnap
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 In
dams will drive the latter from the in
vaded section for years. The traders
/ seem to fear them, too, and stories of
their cruelty and fierceness kept many
a man back from the headwaters of the
Stuart But Gee and Mcdonald were
not deferred. | never met man who
had seen one Of the Mahonys in the Yu-
kOn valley, but have heard that when
bands of them came to the Hudson Bay
cOmpanys post the stockades were shut
up and all business was done by both
parties with every open precaution
against surprise and treachery. If you
look up Ogilvie's account of his trip
down the Yukon in 1883, / think you
will find references to what had been
done on the Stuart and of information
he got from Mcdonald
There will lie stories enough and to
spare about Alaska, and l 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.
Many poor devil will rue this winter
the readiness with which he accepted
the stories of the wealth awaiting every
one on the Klondike. -
SO much for epistolary information
concerning the great northwest. There
are other tidings from that region that
are not so discouraging. Late advices
state that there is to be an all British
vancouver, Stickeen, Teslin lake and
nukon river route to the goldfelds The
canadian Pacific decided upon proceed
ing at the earliest possible period with
,ae construction of standard gauge
iiiie OF railway from a point at or near
1ienora ON the Stickeen river to the
nead OF navigable waters of the Yukon.
Inc decision was arrived at recently
W the executive of that company. In
oructlons were at once wired from Mont
;eal 10 General Superintendent Marpole
~ vancouver, b. c., to select the most
.:ompetent men to proceed to the local.
Ivy ana to make survey of the coun.
..y' picking out the most feasible route
VI line of railway connecting the
% Ta,ers OF the Stickeen with those of
iesiin lake and the Yukon.
Us SHORTLY afterward there arrived in
n ra1couver from Kootenai Mr.. E. ).
,IuInesney, who is superintendent of
~o hootenai division as well as an ex-
p " engineer and railway locator,
"no Is charged with the work of max.
ms tne preliminary surveys for the pro.
t Ms iine' That gentleman, with Mr..
f aa and Mr.. Gamble chief engineer
ma. 'ne Central Pacific Railroad com.
rany' Went Immediately to Victoria to
iSisuit with Mr.. Turner, premier of
! ,o,0.s Columbia, and inspect the maps
mating to the Sticleen river and the
ll aus section of this province in the
''u %I' and works department.
loo ms done and other information col
arro uu, Mr. DuChesney and his party
hanged h. to proceed north to the line of
wor,, observations, where considerable