The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-14
$4,000 in TWO WEEKS.
Taken Out by One of the Pioneers of
the K1ondike.

New York Aug. 1.-THE Herald says:
Confirma ton of tales of the vast wealth
of the Klondike district in Alaska came
from prOSpectOr now in this city who
has made two trips to the new Ell Do
RADIO. He is Henry Henderson, 38 years
old, native of Pictou county, Nova
Scotia, who took out his naturalization
papers in this country ten years ago.
To him the credit of the discovery of
the wonderful deposits in the Klondike
is to a certain extent due.
He told his brother Robert, who was
a miner in Colorado, of the wealth of
the district and gave him 800 to pay
for his outfit to the Alaskan fields Rob-
ert Stablished a claim on Gold Bot
tom creek which yielded $4,000 in
coarse gold in two weeks.
When the list of October shall have
rolled around little steamer will leave
for Dyea inlet with hundred pros
pectors, mining engineers and experts
and assayers, with Henry Henderson in
charge. With him will be also his
niece Miss Maud Henderson Of Nova
Scotia. She is a pretty girl of IL years,
a hOuSekeeper and rugged enough to
stand the severity of the weather and
the hardships of the trip. She will
the gold region.
Mr.. Henderson is feet inches high,
with form as sturdy as that of an
OK. He has been a miner for Is years.
rors for him. for he made what he
called the dead winter outward trip
from the Klondike and crossed the
Chilcoot pass with the thermometer IS
degrees below zero. He has establish
ed claim of 500 feet near that of his
brother on Gold Bottom creek, but has
not yet worked it, as he was obliged
to return to Nova Scotia.
Mr.. Henderson's advice to inexperi-
enced men who are thinking of start
ing out now for the gold fields, is
stories of hardships have been exag-
gerated he says that the land is in
no condition to be worked until the
frost has left, and the journey over the
Chilcoot pass is fraught with danger in
the SnOwdriftS. In the late spring and
summer, he says, the trip over the
pass has no more perils than a walk on
Broadway.
Henderson made his first journey to
the Yukon river in the spring of 1898,
covering 700 miles in "a days. He says
he could now make the journey in 80
days. He left the district the day
after Christmas of the same year, with
two companions and an Indian to break
the trail and attend to the line of dogs
which drew the two sleighs. After SO
days of cold of a degree almost beyond
human endurance, snow storms, ex-
haustion and hunger, the little band
reached Dyea inlet. AT one time they
became so benumbed that they had to
abandon $4,000 in gold dust on the side
of ChilcoOt pass, pushing on with few
pounds of bacon and flour. The found
refuge at trading post and one of
the party put back for the dust. For
two days and three nights the men
were obliged to huddle between the
sleighS with canvas covering. Mr..
Henderson returned to the gold dis
trict in March, 1895, mining in the vi
cinity of the Stewart, Lewes and Sixty
Mile rivers. Pushing further into the
heart of the Klondike district he met
his brother, who was esta blished on
the Gold Bottom creek. After Mr.. Hen
dersOn had Staked out a claim he left
it in charge of his brother and went
to visit his family in Nova Scotia.