The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-12
RICHEST QUARTZ
STRIKE YET MADE
IN THE NORTH
Two Prospectors in
Great Luck.
DISCOVERY NEAR KETCHlKAN
EXTENSIVE OUTCROPPINGs OF
FREE GOLD.
With a Hammer and Small Mortars
They Take Out Over Three
Thousand Dollars in
a Week.
DISCOVERY NEAR KETCHlKAN
EXTENSIVE oUTCRoPPINGs OF
FREE GOLD.
BY HAL HOFFMAN.
Special Correspondence of The Call.

JUNEAU, Alaska, Nov. 3.-An almost
incredibly rich quartz strike was
recently made and is now being mined
near ketchikan, over two hundred
miles south Of Juneau. 1t is located on
Cleveland peninsula Of the mainland.
The claim was staked and is owned by
a man named Johnson, who lives at
Ketchikan, and Dyer, a young man of
Seattle, who has been prospecting in
the vicinity for some months. If the
rock continues to produce gold as it
has begun Johnson and Dyer have not
only the richest mine in Alaska, but a
fabulous fortune which nothing can eX-
haust unless they shovel the gold into
the sea as fast as it is pounded out
1t is located close to salt water and in
a position easy to work. The authority
for the facts is no less a person than
Hon. A. P. Swineford, who was Gov
ernor of Alask-- under Cleveland's first
administration. Ex-Governor Swine
ford has within the last few months re-
turned to Alaska from Marquette,
Mich, and made his residence here. He
IS interested in mining property in the
vicinity of KetChikan and elsewhere in
Alaska. Ex-Governor SwinefOrd has
recently returned from Ketchikan. He
said:
= never saw anything like that vein.
After one weeks work with an arastra
Johnson and Dyer cleaned up twenty
six pounds Of PURE gold, and the mule
was worked only about eight hours a
day, or during goose daylight at this
season. They told me il wasn't a very
good or a very large arastra either.
Previous to this Dyer wanted to go TO
Seattle. lie didn't have enough money
In ~fgnl-s p, q lTal1r
went over TO the claim, just recently
located, to try to pound out enough free
gold to pay his fare. Up to that time
they did not know what they had.
After they had knocked a few hundred
pounds off the outcrOpping they came
10 rock on which the free gold stood
out in spots as thick and big as perspi-
ration on a mans brow. They began
10 pound it out with hammers in small
mOrtaTS and the result in free gold was
so astonishing and promising that they
kept UP the good work for more than
a week. When they did quit they had
$4,000 in gold.
The formation is peculiar" con-
tinued the Ex-Governor. The gold is
not in the quartz vein, but in a sort
of schist alongside. SO far as l know
II is unlike anything that has ever been
found in Alaska. The boys are now
twelve feet down and sixteen feet in
on the ledge"
Johnson is a squaWman-that is he has
lived in and prospected around the
Ketchikan district for several years.
Young and unmarried white girls are
scarce IL Alaska as in other mining
towns, ard Johnson took a handsome
Indian girl for q wife. The rich strike
may be only a pocket or kidney that
will pinch out soon, but the gold is just
as likely to hold out the length of the
vein. Ketchikan is the principal camp
Of a promising mining district. 1t is
on RevillagidedO Island.
The situation at Attn is unchanged;
the outlook continuing promising.
snowfall of sufficient depth and per
manency is being awaited so that sup
plies may be sledded IN and good
start secured during the winter for be-
ginning active mining operations early
in the SprlL5- Every man who reaches
Juneau from the new diggings has a
CLEAN Of well-fOunded hope in his eye
and says he is satisfied with what he
has staked.
Navigation on the river to Dawson
has been closed for the season, though
parties viii likely be trying to get out
all winter long. This Will be the only
way Of securing news from the inside
at the mouth of the HOotalinqua, the
Columbian is in a slough above Fort
SelkiTk. the Angelian is on the banks
of the same slough being repaired. the
DOmVille is at the foot of Five Fingers
with her steam chest blown out, the
Lowe. with lot Of Government freight
on board. is piled up on a bar about
fifteen miles below White River, and at
last accounts the Light and Lightning
were trying to pull her off The other
up-river steamers are mostly at Ben
nett or Dawson.