The herald., 1897-07-28
Concerning the Wonderful
New Ell Dorado
A WINTER IN THE FAR YUKON
AN INTERESTING TALK WITH A
CLoNDYKE PIONEER
M. s. Norcross Relates His Expert
ences to The Herald-The Cooks
Salary for the Season

M. s. Norcross Is a well preserved,
rugged man, one would say about go
years Of age, who has just returned from
the Yukon gold field, and he tells an in
teresting story of his experiences during
the past eighteen months.
Mr.. Norcross, previous to his departure
for the frigid north, resided in Los An
geles county for seven or eight years,
the greater part of which time he was
employed at the sewer pipe works south
Of this CITY, He looks like man who
had been used to hard knocks and who
can stand them without fiinching. He
admits that life in the frozen zone is
not very enticing, but still he has no
serious complaints to make of the hard
ships. In company with five other Los
Angeles men, among whom were Mr.
Berry, already known to fame, Charles
Lamb, Jim Clements and one other, Mr.
Norcross landed at Juneau in March,
1896 The party QUILTED at Juneau and
hauled their goods by hand on sleds, as
there was still snow on the ground at
that time. They made their way across
the mountains by what is known as the
Summit route, which they took in pref
erence to the Chilcoot pass, that most
of the Adventures now follow. In sur
mounting the mountains they were
obliged to make several trips in order
to bring up their stock of supplies and
the trip was necessarily laborious and
L., J,.ox Int at
Mile camp in good shape about the first
of June.
BUILT THEIR BOAT
Mr. Norcross is favorably disposed to-
ward the early spring trip, as he says the
lakes are frozen, and it is easier and
safer to make the journey by sledges
over the likes than to depend upon
boats. The party built boat, however,
at the head of the lakes and transported
it on sledges. They had provided them
selves with oakum, pitch, nails and
spikes and all the necessaries for boat
building and, as they were handy men
with tools, they found no difficulty in
constructing a serviceable boat. This
they placed on sledges, depositing their
supplies inside and then drew the outfit
over the frozen lakes until hey reached
the Yukon. The Yukon is a swift stream
running about six miles an hour and
there they found the ice broken up. Their
boat was brought into service and they
reached Forty Mile camp, as stated,
about the LIST of June. -
The party then went to American
creek and stopped at camp known as
the Mission, where they prospected all
summer. There are said to be good
mines at the head of American creek,
but they failed to find any where they
were. In the fall of 1896 the party went
back to Forty Mile camp, when they
heard reports of the rich diggings at
the Clondyke.
BONANZA CREEK
1--WE all went up as soon as we could
get there" said Mr.. Norcross, and we
found good deal or excitement over
the new place. we located on Bonanza
creek. L TOOK up a claim KNOWN as NO.
80, but l did not work 1t. In fact, l
worked in the mines very little myseif.
1 stayed with my son-ln-laW, charles
Lamb, and MS partner, jim McNamee,
and helped them work their claim. L
put in most or my time cooking. MY
claim No. 3d. 1 solo after a while to
Pat Calvin. The claim that my son-ln-
law and his partners were working
panned out first rate. We first went
through about ten feet Of muck, and
then we struck the pay dirt and worked
eight or ten feet down to bedrock. The
gravel paid all the way down, but the
richest part of course was next to the
bedrock. We worked all winter on it,
and followed the plan that has generally
been described, building a small fire
to thaw the frozen dirt out during the
day This gravel was scooped out and
placed on the dump, and then a larger
fire was built to burn all night, and III
this way we worked down to bedrock
MINING IN WINTER
.>,o - e. oox,for+oh ,a aro,ah 1orL-
49,, - 49, Lo++o,,, 30 az sh. a. q,
winter hit tho man al the windlass
above generally has a pretty hard time
of it. He has to put a fur Jacket on
his nose to keep it from freezing, and
he wears a big fur cap that comes down
and covers. his ears and neck and the
greater part of his face. The mocca-
sins which they wear are made by the
Indians, and they are made large, but
the way they do is to slip in a lot of
straw, and then, with a couple of pairs
of wooden socks on, they shove their
feet in sidra the straw and pet aInu first