The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-02
Where the Yellow Metal Was First
BODanzas that Followed.
GOLD FEVER In WALL STREET
MANY PEOPLE ANXIOUS TO INVEST In
THE FAR-AWAY DIGGINGs.
Warning from the Wife of Lieutenant
Schwatka-Aiaska Infested with
Big Mosquitoes.

NEW YORK. Aug. lin the midst OF
the output and the excitement, the man
who founded the City of Dawson. which
has sprung from a bleak valley to a set
tlement of 1000 souls in a few months, left
it for America and returned to his birth
place in Schuyler Falls, N. Y, where he
was found comfortably resting, after hav-
ing passed through the hardships of pio-
neering in Northwestern winters This
man, Joseph Ladue, has lived for fifteen
years among the glaciers and the ice foes,
where the long. sunless days for six months
in the year seem to invite darkness, and
fought it out with labor and patience for
the reward of now finding himself a man
of wealth. the first inhabitant in the city
of Dawson, and one of the pillars of what
apparently is destined to be almost another
empire He has been back from the new
Eldorado only few days, but hundreds
of letters of inquiry are flooding him. To
all of these epistles Mr.. Ladue makes an
swer in the following article written for the
Journal, and also tells the story of the
great strike, the influx of miners and the
growth of civilization in the new gold
fields:
THE true story of Klondike has never
this eventful strike was not preserved, but
because few men were present at it's birth.
L mean by that, few men who went into
the region with the real discoverers. For
fifteen years L traded throughout that en-
tire section, and coupled with my town-to-
town commerce a sawmill industry and
have no doubt that many others were
equally familiar with the territory. But
it remained for man from Nova Scotia,
Robert Henderson, to turn over the dirt
that led to the opening up of what 1 and
others consider the most marvellous min
eral discovery of the world.
II will begin with Hendersons discovery
and carry the reader right through the ex-
citement up to the very population of Daw-
son, town which now has 1000 souls,
military protection and forty families OF
men, women and children 1t was ON the
oath day of August when Henderson, who
had been prospecting for four years in In
dian creek, a tributary of the Yukon, found
himself in another little stream bed, known
3s va ffffqldI Bottom, near the Yukon, the high
creek. He was prospecting around, hoping
to hnd something as good as the ground
seemed to contain. After time he panned
out a. little gold and put in a suice box or
two. In a very short time he ran out of
supplies and went back to Fort Ogilvie,
where / was stationed, and reported the
find to me. 1 lost no time in getting my
self in readiness to proceed to the spot at
once, and by the 2Sth of August l had two
men and four horses in Gold Bottom.
ONE OF THE BIG FINDS.
'In the meantime Henderson drifted down
to the mouth of the Klondike in a small
boat, and found George Mccormack, an old
friend of his, who was fishing for salmon.
Hunting up his friends when there was
anything in sight seemed to be one of Hen
dersons best traits He got Mccormack up
to Gold Bottom, where he located claim,
prospected around while and started back
across the country for the mouth of the
Klondike river, a distance of twenty miles.
That trip was destined to play an important
part IN the events which followed, for
through il occurred one of the big finds
Mccormack took with him two Chilkat In
dans and the three men went off in the
direction of Bonanza creek, where the
white man struck gravel that went $3.50 TO
the pan. According to our mining laws In
Canadian possessions, a discoverer can lC
cate an extra claim for himself as a reward
for making the find. So Mccormack TOOK
up two locations and the Indians one each
They set TO work at once and took $l2O IN
gold in three days with little else than a
pan Then they came down TO Fort Ogilvie
and reported the find. That report Whlch
was spread by Mccormack, had the imme-
diate effect OF sending a thrill of excitement
along the Yukon from the headwaters down
TO Forty-mle and Circle City. AS though
DV magic the trails were Spillihltu WIN
pack mules and the river was dotted with
small craft coming up or going down TO the
new diggings, as the case might be- In less
than ten days about l5O miners were at
work on new claims
Strangely enough, and as II by some
great fortune, / had come down the river
about the same time that Mccormack left
Gold bottom and had picketed out town
site where Dawson City now stands, lit
tie more than a ms fb Ife re9peet tn Ras very
fortunate, as it now stands right In the
midst of what is called the Bonanza gold
mining district. and all claims are 50 re-
corded AS a matter of fact there IS no
other suitable place for town site, ana
consider myself lucky in getting nold or IT.
I hold IFS acres while the remaining tWen-
ty-two acres are the property Oh the gov
ernment; 4ho+ roirt "a 1eo wards
across and about thirty-fve fathoms deep,
with natural advantages for the protectlon
of craft Dawson is just below the mouth
OF the Klondike river named II aIteI
Dawson the man who established the poun-
dary line that is now recognized Us the
correct line dividing Alaska FROM the
from Mount St. Elias to Point Demarcatlon
TO the dred-and-forty- y-nrst merl-
dian That of course cuts al the present
Vacations. with the exception Of those at
Iorty-mfle out of United States posses
sions. There is no cause Tor osputs on tnde i
score at all. 1t is purely a Canauldh SEE
+ion and is under the Canadian laws.
SURVEYING OF CLAIMS.
"Tust as soon as the rush began at Bo-
nanza creek the miners called meeting,
and in order that the claims be relocated
and made sure of it was decided to meas
ure them all off with rope and reset the
stakes that defined them. Somehow or other
the men selected 10 make the measurement
sld in a forty instead OF a fifty-foot rope.
and thus made the claims from fifty to one
| hundred feet short in the total In other
words. they were condensed, and the inter-
veuing ground was literally grabbed. This
etate of affairs ineensed the miners so that
when they made the discovery OF now tno
roeasurements were conducted they peu-
tioned William Oglvie, the Dominion lana
surveyor TO come up TO Bonanza creek az
once and settle the complications that were
| arising He resurveyed the whole group oI
| Claims and the matter was then adjusted
| 10 tho satisfaction of all hands. BUT even
! now some of them are little snort Inc
! custom in taking up placer claims IS 10
| locate five hundred feet the way the valley
| lies and then run across from base 10 base
! of the foothills In the Bonanza creek II
! is eight hundred feet to the base lines.
| .sThe Dominion land surveyor Is magis-
| trate also and has the power TO take sworn
| teStinoonv which he did in the case of the
! false Measurements The men who had
| engaged in the work. both OF playing snort
| rope and shifting stakes, crime punish
| able nv seven years In the penitentiary,