The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-08-04
ALASKA A LAND OF GOLD
MANY DECLARE ITS MINES THE
RICHEST EVER KNOWN.

of the Gold OIL North america.
Those familiar with the history of
gold mining declare that the gold fields
OF Alaska are among the richest both
in quality and in extent that have ever
been known. The stories that the
Spanish explorers heard about Edo
RADIO were no more wonderful than those
which are now coming down from Alaska
with every steamer, except that the
Spaniards heard of gold already mined
and refined, whereas the Alaska gold
is not yet dug. The Spaniards never
got their gold; the Alaskans are get
ting it by the ton. Here, for instance,
is a quotation from the issue of June
30 of the Alaska Mining Record of
Juneau. 1t relates to the arrival of
one Jack Hayes, the mail carrier for
the Yukon district. Hayes left Ju-
neau on January IA and completed his
tour of duty on June 26. After an in
terview with him about his expert
ences, the Record says:
"Much excitement prevails all
through the Yukon district over the
Klondike discoveries, and all kinds of
stories of the riches there are told,
many of which Mr.. Hayes says are
true. 1t is true that two tenderfeet,
railroad men from Los Angeles, CAL
Frank Summers and Charles Clemens
have struck it rich. They went in
O year ago and located on the Klondike
last fall. Clemens sold his interestfor
$50, 900 cash, and his partner, Sum
mers, held on two weeks later and got
$50, 600. The money to pay the men
was taken out of the dump which had
been lifted from the shaft on the claim
during the winter. These two men
had each PANIED out $500 on their
claim while prospecting it. The mai
that bought Clemens interest bound
the bargain with a 1892 nugget which
had been taken from the Klondike.
Summers is a single nan Clemens
has q wife and two children in Los
Angeles. 1t is said that both will come
ont on the next boat via St. Michael,
bringing with them their little for
tunes. Neither man had ever had any
experience in mining.
"Alec Mcdonald took one pan from
his claim which tipped the scales to
the tune of $500, and offered q wager
of $1,000 that he could pick his dirt
and in twenty minutes get a pan that
would go over 100 ounces (S1600). No
one cared to cover the wager.
"Dick Lowe is panning for a living,
and is taking out the modest sum of
500 a day.
.'In a personal letter dated at Circle
City, March "a, Oscar Ashby says in
part:
",'Our town.is very quiet at present,
every one having gone to the big ex-
element at Klondike. Everybody has
gone crazy over it. This country has
an unparalleled future. There are
thousands of acres that men will not,
in fact, cannot, look at until provisions
are cheaper. I understand that wages
here will be S12 a day. There is not
enough help to supply the demand on
the creeks. Dogs are worth all kinds
of money, from SIS to $500 each.'"
There are one or two men in New
York who know Alaska mining and
Alaska mines we'll. A Sun reporter
asked one of them to talk about the
gold diggings of Alaska. He did SO,
after STIMULATING that his name should
not be printed. He opened a drawer
of his desk and out of a number of
specimens Of ore secured a chunk as
big as a mans thumb. 1t was as
heavy as a bullet.
This" he said, as he laid it away
in the drawer again, "was picked up
on the surface soil six years ago. An
other piece as big as my fist that was
picked up at the same place we have
been offered $3.50 for. Now, when
there is gold like that lying about
open to the air, there is just n in
ference to be drawn. 1t comes from
some place. The man who finds the
place is rich. The man who tells the
world in general what he is looking for
and why under such circumstances is
a fool. By the same token he usually
dies poor and complains of hard
times, signs for the return of the good
old days of 40 Why, man, 40 was
nothing to this! johannesburg is no
such centre of gold fields as is Juneau.
"But there is this difference between
California in 40 and Alaska in 81.
Alaska is all staked out. The news
has not gone abroad until the people
near at hand, the people who have
spent money, time, and their very
lives in developing the country, the
people, in short, who deserved the re-
ward had seized on everything in
sight. Down along the coast in the
quartz lodes the stamp mills have been
established n by one, twenty stamps
here, forty there. They have not any
of them begun to be worked as hard
as the available area of ore will per-
NIT. With mills running altogether
$40 stamps, more than half the stamps
working only half a year, the product
of the quartz mines of Alaska in 1897
yielded S2,355,0 600. 1 say to you
earnestly, honestly, that is only pin
scratch. Work in Alaska cannot be
said to have begun. There was never
anywhere anything like it. To sum
the whole thing up, 1 believe that
right in the Alaska gold deposits is
the mother vein of the gold of North
America.
GA few weeks ago two young men
came to me with letters. They we're
wild with enthusiasm and confidence.
They were going to Alaska they said.