The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-30
GEORGE M. RICE RETURNS FROM
COOKS INLET, NEAR THE
KLONDYKE.
THOUSANDS ARE GOING THERE.
THE ST. PAUL MAN HAS BEEN SET
TING UP SOME HYDRAULIC
MACHINERY.
THAT'S THE PLACE FOR MINERS.
Mr.. Rice Explains the Methods Nee
cessary for Procuring Gold In
the KIOndylSe.

"On to Klondykei That seems to be
the cry of every laboring man on the
Pacific coast" SO said George M. Rice
to reporter for the G b last even
ing. Mr.. Rice returned yesterday aft
ernoon from Cooks Inlet, Alaska, where
he has been engaged for the past five
months In his capacity Of civil engi-
neer, in setting up some hydraulic ma
chinery for Boston mining concern
operating there. Mr.. Rice was seen at
the home of his parents, 80 Beach
street, and talked entertainingly Of the
new Eldorado, as follows:
"The Klondyke mines justify all that
has been said Of them in point of rich
ness, and the half has not been told.
1 myself know of several instances
where men cleared up from $4,000 to
100000 as the result of one years work.
OF course they were lucky, but you sell
dom ever hear of the unlucky ones.
These sudden accommodations of rich
ness have set everybody on the coast
wild, and 1 should say that fully 10000
men will make the effort to get to
Klondyke this fall. Puget sound has
lost all its laborers and many inf1uen-
tial citizens, people of all classes, have
Joined in the rush, having no idea Of
the terrible hardships they will have to
endure. Just as sure as they get in to
Klondyke this winter many Of them
will starve, for not nearly enough pro-
visions can be taken in for them.
There are two big concerns which
practically control all the business in
the interior Of Alaska, the Alaska Com
mercial company and the Alaska
Transportation & Trading company.
They have trading posts in Klondyke,
but they have warned the people that
they cannot feed them if they come in
this fall; they cannot haul in enough
provisions of their own, and the freight
stacked up at Sitka now will take a
year to be transported to the mines.
People make a great mistake to I'M
dertake the trip this fall; they might
get up as far as ST. MichaePs, but there
they would stick until spring.
1.-TWO routes are open to Klondyke
One is by way of Dyea, which is from
fifty-five to siXty-five days travel from
Seattle; the other is by way Of st.
MichaePs, which makes a trip of sew
enty days. 1t isn't a question of which
is the best, but which is the worst.
In the first you take the steamer from
Juneau, thence make a carry over the
pass to Lake Lindeman, build your own
beats and float down the Yukon, dis
lance of 800 miles. The river is full of
praids, passes between high bluffs, and
many an outfit has been lost there.
The other route is equally as hard,
and the transportation facilities Of the
two. companies / mentioned are very
limited.
1.-The mining itself is difficult All
the prospecting must be done in the
summer, as the ground is too soft to
sink a shaft then; it would fill up with
water. When winter comes, they build
fires on the surface to thaw the ground,
and then dig their shaft down to bed
rock-perhaps only ten or twelve feet,
and maybe forty feet. The dirt is then
thrown to the surface to be washed out
the coming summer. 1t usually takes
from two to four years for a man to
make his pile. But talk about richness,
Why, one woman picked up $4,000
In nuggets out Of pile Of this dirt, as
her husband was throwing It out o.
the mine. In case man does not strike
1t rich the first shaft he sinks, he must
wait until the next summer and do
some more prospecting.
"a man doesn't want to go to klon-
dyke unless he has at least 1000 to
carry him through. Just to show you
live, let me quote you few prices:
Flour is selling for $108 per 100 pounds.
bacon 81 per pound, condensed milk
at $3.50 per can, and everything else il
proportion. It's the cost of transporta-
ton which makes things so high.
Il was at Cooks Inlet, about $50
miles east of Klondyke, and that is
the place for miner to go to-that
is, unless too many of them go there.
He can make from So to $50 day at
placer mining, and the wages are from
So to SIS a day and board. Here's lit
tie gold 1 washed out myself, about 50
worth, in one day. About half the crew
I had with me setting up the machin-
cry, stayed there to mine, but as for
myself, well, L didn't have the gold
fever.
THE Indians all through Alaska arc
very peaceable, and they are all hard
workers. The companies would hardly
know how to get along without them
They do most of the carrying and
that's the hardest work in that coun-
try"
S. Wintner, Granite Falls, is at the Metro
politan.
Capt. w. D. Buch and wife, Fort Leaven-
worth, Kan, are at the Metropolitan.
Edmund Twohy, of the Twohy Mercantile
company. of West Superior, is in the city
attending a meeting of the Northwestern
Wholesale Grocers association.