The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-08
Who Headed an Expedition That In
vestigated the Treasure Fields
of Alaska Last SumEacr.
PLENTY OF ROOM FOR MINERS
o SQUARE MILES OF GOLD-PRO-
DUCING GULCHEs AND CREEKS.
Work in the Various Districts, Cen
eraI Wages Paid, and Laws of the
Diggings-A New hIondike.

WASHINGTON, Aug. THE report on
the Yukon gold region by Josiah Edward
Spur, the geological survey expert, who
headed a party that made a thorough in
vestigation in Alaska last summer, giving
new facts about the interior, was made
public to-day. 1t is a comprehensive docu-
ment and reviews in detail the work in
the various districts. 1t says as to the
Forty-mile gold district that in the latter
part of 1887 Franklin gulch was struck and
the first year the creek is estimated to
have produced $4,000. Ever since it has
been a constant payer. The character of
the gold there is nuggetty, masses of S.
worth being very common. The yield of the
first year after the discovery of
Forty-mile has been variously esti-
maed at from $4,000 to $3.50, 900,
but 6 $1,000 probably covers the production.
the discovery of Davis creek and a STAN
pede from Franklin gulcn followed in the
spring of 1888. In 1891, gold mining in the
interior as well as on the coast at Silver
Bow basin and Treadwell, received a great
impetus. The event of 1893 was the discov-
cry Of Miller creek. In the spring of 1898
many new claims were staked and it is es-
timated that eighty men took out $100, GOO.
Since then Miller creek has been the heav-
TEST producer of the Forty-mile district, and
until recently of the v hole Yukon. Its en-
tire length lies in British possessions. The
output for 1893. as given by the mint direc-
tor for the Alaskan creeks, all but Miller
creek being in American possessions, was
$685. 900, with a mining population of 1856.
The total amount produced by the Yukon
placers in 1894 was double hat of the prev
ious year. In 1895 the output had doubled
again. Forty-mile district in the summer
of 1896 is described in the report as look
ing as if it had seen it's best days and I'M
less several new creeks are discovered it
will lose it's old position. The Birch-creek
district was last summer in flourishing con-
dition. Most of the gulches were then run
ming, miners were working on double shifts,
night and day, and many large profits were
On Mastadon creek, the best pro-
Queer, over thirty miners were at work,
many expecting to winter in the gulch.
AS to hydraulicking, the report says:
Some miners have planned to work this
and other good ground supposed to exist
under the deep covering of moss and gravel
in the wide valley of the Mammoth and
Crooked creeks, by h~ydraulicking, the
water to be obtained by tapping Miller and
Mastadon creeks near the head. 1t will be
several years before the scheme can be
operated, because both of the present
gulches are paying we'll and will continue
to do so at least five years"
Following is the report on the Klondike
district: with the announcement of gold
here in the winter of 1862 there was a
genuine stampede to the new region.
Forty-mile was almost deserted. But $50
men spent the winter on the Klondike, in
the gulches and at the new town of Daw-
son. The more important parts of the dis
trict are on Bonanza and bunker creeks.
According to latest information four hun
dred claims had been located up to Jan. /,
1897; about half as many on Hunker creek.
There is plenty of room for many more
prospectors and miners, for the gulches and
creeks have shown good prospects and
spread over an area OF seven hundred
square miles,
The estimated Alaskan gold production
for 1896, made by the Spur report, is
culties in the way of speedy development
of the country. First, the climate, with
short summer season and long, cold winter.
Prospecting is done in the winter more and
more every year, because frozen ground
renders travelling over the Wamp moss
covered country more easy and the miner
is thus able to begin work with the first
spring th1W.
Whatever Alaska may be in the future,
the report says. it is not row s~elf-support-
ing agriculturally. Moose and caribou are
variable in quantity, abundant one time and
disappearing from the region for twelve
months at a time. Ten dollars a day is the
general wages paid, $2 for a day of ten
hours being paid in some of the more re-
mote gulches.
In winter the price for labor is S. to IS
per day of six hours. Many times the
miners have been at the point of starva-
ton: hardly a winter when they have not
been put on a ration basis. Universal suf-
frage is given and all have an equal vote.
Penalties include: For stealing. Danish
mont from the country, and also whipping;
threatening with weapons, the same; muir
ders, hanging, but there nave been no MUIR
ders SO far.
The mining laws differ for different
gulches. Generally the claim is for five
hundred feet for gulch d~iggings from rim
rock to rim rock; but in some gulches not
paying we'll an effort is being made to stake
claims 800 feet long. Crowded creeks are
three hundred feet to the claim, and
no man is allowed to stake more than one
claim in his own name, save the discoVerer,
who is allowed one thousand feet instead of
five hundred. The only officer in the repub-
lie of miners is the recorder. appointed by
popular vote, one in each gulch or creek.
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