The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-15
ENOUGH TO MAKE MANY RICH,
BUT THE KANSAS CITY MAN WILL
GIVE HIS FRIENDS THE FIRST -
CHANCE.
FOUND A POCKET.
He Says Dawson City Will Send Out
Tales of Woe, but Nobody Will
StarVe.

it, with its eXaggeratIonS, Will come
out during the winter, when returning
miners will bring back stories of loss
of life from exposure, hunger and prl-
walton, but the suffering won't be due
to any lack Of food supplies at Daw-
son City, or the other food centerS OF
the country, but because Of natural
conditions prevalent, and the inexperl-
ence Of many of those now on the
ground, who will undertake prospect
ing ventures sure to prove disastrous.
Winter Is the time for prospecting
there, and it can be done at no other
season. In the search for gold the
gold seekers now on the ground may
be tempted in many instances to VEN
ture too far from their base Of sup
plies, and in one of the storms so
frequent in the country lose their
lives. There is now sufficient food at
Dawson, many of the incoming miners
who went in over the trails taking
with them more than one years pro-
visions. There won't be plenty, but
enough to prevent any starvation or
even hunger to those who stay within
reach of it." That is the way David
Ward, a returned Alaskan miner, who
passed through st. Paul yesterday
from Seattle, en- route to his former
home at Kansas City, No, talked to
a reporter for the G o b e.
ut was at Dawson Oct l, and came
out over the Chilkoot pass and to Sc
attic on the steamer Alki from Dyea.
Most of the gold seekers who got
through the passes late had given up
the attempt to go on to the Klondike,
and had camped on the route, form
ing little mining communities from
which they will prospect during the
winter The upper Yukon country will
be pretty thoroughly prospected be-
tween now and spring, and stories of
rich strikes by the belated ones who
felt it a stroke Of Ill fortune that they
could not reach the promised land may
be expected from this section. They
probably know by this time that they
have just as good a chance where they
are as at Klondike, Eldorado, Bonanza
or any of the other places where strikes
have been made. There is gold and
plenty of it, along the line. All that
part of the country is full of 1t. 1t is
natures matriX for this most precious
metal, and the action of the glaciers
for ages upon ages has been the stamp
mills of nature grinding the gold from
the quartz so that the poor man of
this age might have as good an op-
portunity as the capitalist to get his
share.
mo, sir, one needs neither skill,
money nor a knowledge of mining to
be successful in Alaska. What he does
require and that to the very highest
degree, is pluck and industry. Then
he is almost certain Of success. 1t
don't even depend upon luck, for tax
ing that element out, if man but
works he will win. Take myself, for
instance" and, with some show of
pride, Mr.. Ward stated that he had
been a practical miner for over fifteen
years, was a scientific mineralogist
and geologist, and had a thorough
practical knowledge of all general es-
tablished surface indications Of gold
deposits. why, I have been in Alas
ka for three years, part Of the time
with a small party Of experienced
miners, and, until ten months ago, I
was ready for long time to give it
up. 1 was through the Klondike ter
ritory twice, once with two co1Npan-
mighty little Of it. Yet the strike there
was made by tenderfoot, a fellow
who knew little or nothing Of placer
mining. The place where I have been
for nearly a year now [ stumbled upon
gold nuggets. I was working up along
a big river that empties into the Yu-
kon, so far on the American boundary
that there can never be any interna-
tional dispute about to whom it be-
hot
thrown myself down alongside our
dogs, while my two Indian guides, or
rather companions, for they knew
precious little more about the country
than 1 did, put up cache to place
the provisions we were carrying out
of reach of the dogs. They had dug
but two of the holes when one of them
called to me, saying that they would
have to move to other ground, having
struck a rock too near the surface to
hold the stakes firmly. Rising to give
instructions, looked at the two stake
holes they had been digging and saw
that the dirt thrown up was gold-b bear
ing gravel. Well, I got nearly four
pounds of fair-sized nuggets out of
that pocket, for such it proved to be-
However, l worked along that stream
all of the succeeding winter, trading
my dogs to the Indians, whom L sent
brought me. l spent all of the winter
prospecting and finding gold or the in
dications of rich deposits all along the
river and there are large number Of
creeks and gulches running into it that
will pay richly.
Il was alone except when 1 had the
native Indians with me, and that was
for a few brief periods, and no fancy
can picture nor tongue describe what I
"a favor Of woo
me, however, and that will nerve one
to do most anything. I nearly starved
for want of food, and all but persisted
many times from the cold, but it was
as dangerous to try to get out as to
stay. and before my eyes all the time
was the lure Of the Golden Fleece. Sit
uated ais L was, with only a prospect
ors kit alone, and with limited pro-
visions, I could do but little mining
dirt ready for sluicing by the early
summer to give me all the gold dared
start to carry out, and I could easily
have brought out more, but measured
my greed by my life, and was afraid
to carry too much gold and too little
food. Food is the problem in that
country, and, when that is solved, the
getting out Of the gold will be easy.
Il had to come out" continued Mr..
Ward. in the first place, 1 couldn't
have stood another winter under the
same conditions; another reason is that
there are millions where have been
that I could not in an ordinary life
time secure for myself nor enjoy, or
spend in another lifetime if I had it
! Why, I can take twenty thousand men
to that spot and in less than one hun
dred miles of claims from rim to rim
make each and every one of them a
| millionaire in the next five years. = AT
one part of the river natusal OBJ
struction has forced the course of the
,,-o,, "a coalr 1,o11,nd bout ,1rarr Il s,,-r,