Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-09-27
BY THoMAs sAMMoNs.
Tacoma, Wash, Aug. 31st, 1897

| Captain Walters OF the Vigilant let me
/ take the shelI when we steamed out Of
Port Angeles and asked him to keep a
sharp lookout for q sail. We headed
down toward the mouth OF the Straits
OF Euca as night closed iii. The straits
vary i'll width from twenty to fifty miles
and only practiced eye could detect a
sail or q steamer at long range. Mr.
Powell was thinking hard and fast. At
that time the fastest tugs on the Sound
We're under charter to others and, realiz-
| ing the situation III all it's bearings, he
/ felt pretty blue. But Captain Walters
has an eagle eye and he was constantly
scanning the horizon as the man who
writes the novel puts it. He knew the
and the schooners Fred L. Sanders, J. NJ.
Colman, Ford and Alice Cook were all
due from Alaska and with news from the
land OF gold Presently Walters said:
'There's a schooner off there"
Nobody but the sea dog could see il
| though. Not by six or seven miles could
| the land-lubbers see it. 1t was nearly
pitch dark, but Captain Walters saw the
sail in the dark. Under his direction |
| ported the helm and logged along at
! ten knots for long time before the capt
ain said:
''I'll take the wheel now, and speak
her." He shouted orders down the pipe
to the engineer, everybody "stood by"
and presently Il FAINT, timid voice from
the schooner called:
Ship ahoy."
'What schooner il that asked Walters.
%. NJ. Coleman" was the reply.
From st Michaels?''
eyes, sir"
BY this time Powell had lost his blues
when did you leave st, Michael?'
July z6, sir"
Has anyone spoken your l was
prompting The captain.
mo SIR
Didn't any newspaper men come
aboard off Flattery?'
No sir
That slettes it. The Colman was our
least. Wecame alongside and Captains
Walters causally intimated that he had
bottle, whereupon the captain Of the
schooner, Captain Treanor, because
very anxious to interview it, We found
several MINERS aboard, all fresh from
the hlondike Mr. Charles H. Metcalf,
OF Detorit, Mich, more of trader than
miner, being the mostexperienced. We
unearthed mine of Klondike news on
the Colrnan, and even though it was
nearly midnight when we boarded her
every man aboard crowded into the
captain S room to hear the news OF the
world, but they were no more anxious
for the news of the world than the world
wasfor the news they brought from
hlondlke. The same night the schooner
Fred L. Sanders slipped into tie straits
unobserved by the army OF newspaper
men at Cape Flattery. Still it was not
thick" or foggy at Flattery, and Capt
ain Carlson of the Sanders said he saw
one of the press tugs. His passengers,
I'sixin number, brought out about 3 600
in nuggets. One OF the passengers, Jem-
| mic McNamee, is a reputed klOndike
| millionaire although he was not worth
above enough to buy KIondike outfit
! ten months ago. He made signed
statement for the Globe-Democrat in
which he estimated the output of gold
| from the Klondike for the year ending
to-day at only $2,O00,00O. This, he
said, was because the claims had not been
worked to advantage and not because
| the gold was not there. On the contrary,
he, like all the other miners from the
| klondike, say there is plenty of gold
| there, McNamee himself estimating the
output between this day and August 81,
1898, at $S,000,Q00. Even after the
cream has been worked off, he says, there
will be good pay dirt there for many
years to come.
| The significant point of the statements
Of the Klondikers, just arrived, by the
schooner Colman and Sanders and the
steamer Portland, is that the new dis
coveries outside OF the Klondike, are
panning out Well Many new strikes
have been reported and letters received
here are so encouraging that extensive
preparations are being made to double
the capacity of KIondike QUILTING
houses. Steamships will make the run
from Tacoma 10 Skagwav and Dyea in
seventy hours, and some of steam over
land transportation for the mountain
passes will be arranged. During the