The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-09-01
PLAIN TALE OF A PRosPEoToR
The LUCKY MINERS.

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gold Gown the creek, while the heavier
nuggets vii. hang back and be found
near the head I saw this discovery of
Henderson 's-what be struck first. He.
/ had is IN bottle, about S12 m mug
gets, = should think. That was merely
from prospecting. twas probably three
days sitter the find that I saw it. That
was really the FIRST find which led to
The discovery Of The district.
Have / really seen gold taken out Of
this KIondike district? Well, guess I
have panned gold ON my own dump
Hast spring I took ont Of nine pans on
Claim No. %, Hurzer creek, ST. in
nugges gold. saw two pans panned
out By. fellow named MERCER and his
partner which paid $500. They took
about 90 minutes to pan out the two. I
saw Mr Lippey when he probably had
$3.50 in one pan. I did not see it
weighed
6es, 1000 In Eour Hours
I gaess Mcdonald turned out the big
nest work for day. With three men
! ahoveli1g ii for about fonr hours he
took out Sc pounds, which was worth
between S27 900 and S28, 900. I heard
of other big discoveries which know
s to be correct L know that Phisicatter
cleaned up $9a, 900 as he claimed.
"a claim ON Bonanza creek By the
hand Labor Of four men in three months
cleaned MP 500, 000 The claim belonged
to Louis Rhodes. Another one cleaned
up $100, 900 In three months A claim
IN the Ell Dorado district cleaned up
$f25, 600 in the same time. Three men
In the months Of March and April pan
ned 3ut OF "a feet of dirt $62, 600. That
mine Was owned By Leggett, Gates and
Schutes. a fourth interest IN each Of
two other claims cleaned up 80, ,0o0
apiece
I'll tell you where they get all wrong
On these things These diggings have
not been exaggerated and cannot be ex
aggezated Yun meet man, ard he
win tell you he has brought ont $780,
0e0. Another man viii tell yen he
beonght ont $125, 900. Then the steam
ers come down to Seattle and give an-
other edition Of the same thing.
II IS pretty hard matter to get at
the exact amount Of gold produced In
the Klondikeregion and brought to this
Sountry by the steamships which
mcught the first reports Of the big dis
coYerie4
Some Of the men have undoubtedly
exaggerated reports as to their own dis
covezies. bat it is impossible to go into
detail and tell wherein they have falsi-
fed
I am confident that every man who
came down on the steamer Portland
{ bruught some gold, and some Of them
large qrantities-how large only they
themselves know. don't know Mess Of
Montana, who said there were 1000
graves up there. BE was never in Daw-
son.
Iwould not like to gay that any one
OF the men has lied about the amount
OF gold that ne brought out, but have
no personal knowledge that many Of
the men brought ont what they said
they did.
Our steamers brought down about
pa, 600, 900. There was 81, 000, 900 taken
ont, as near as we could get at it, in the
district Fast winter. It was taken ont,
as you might say, in two months time,
By hand labor with pick and shovel.
I don't think there were ove- 400
mem employed in doing this. Mcdonald
got good lot Of that gold. Berry was
benefited as much as any. Phisicatter,
Mercier, Stanton and son. George Null
ligan, Warden brothers, Louis Rowe
and several others got large amounts. !
fyness 10t nv share