The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-13
THE KLONDIKE'S WONDERS.
NEWS BROUGHT By AN EXPERT
. ENCED MINER FROM DAWSON CITY.
rae winter Sind-Costiy Lots and Log Cabins
{ -Da wson City's Mo~rais-DauEer or Pesti-
. lenes-s1en who Have Made Fortunes
. Tho Outloek-Advtce to Geld Hunters.

Ino NInLcT NNttu-AUaNIy hfuta " hvH ShNtN'
{ -pa rron City's Morais-DanEer or Pest'
Ienes-Saen who Have made Fortunes
Tho OutiosE-Advico to Geld Hunters.
Los ANGELES, Cal, March 6.-Charles T.. still
, man arrived in Los Angeles last night on his
way TO his ranch home in San Diego county
He.made a quick trip from the Klondike.reRion
TO southeastern Alaska. havinR.lcf Dawson City
on Jan. %. and arrived Mt Skagway on Feb. 10.
He learned in Dawson City last January that
Mrs. Stillman was i'll at tho family home. and
leaving his mining property in charge Of his
brother, he started overland as fast as possible,
with two guides and n train Of dogs for the
coast,s.and thence for California. Mr.. Stiilman
Is one OF the best known gold minors on the
Pacific coast. He has been State Treasurer OF
Nevada, was superintendent under John w.
Mackay OF the bonanza mines on the Comstock
lode. and has been mining gold and silver since
1866. He went to the Klondike last July as an
expert representing a syndicate of Oregon min
ors, who bought.three claims on Hunkar Creek
for $780, 900 cash down. He brought with him
tGftv pounds avoirdupois in gold dust, worth
about $4,000, and delivered 1t to the syndi.
cate by which he is employed.
.That is about ono.third the gold we had got
cut from our mines up to tho time I came away,
says Mr.. Stillman. 1T will probably be $780,
600 for tho year from oursthree placer claims,
when we shall have finished sluicinR the gravel
next June
Mr.. stillman has been an object of interest
among the army of gold.hungry men assem-
bling from all over the world on this coast and
making ready for going to the Klondike region.
His long experience in gold mining and his op-
portunitics to-observe the possibilities Of the
Klondike have made him the very sort Of per.
son that the thousands OF Klondikc. wild mon out
here want to intervie ". In Seattle he was kept
up all night at his hotel by crowds of men.
who importuned him for information about
the chances of fortune getting in the new gold
region. Here in Los Angeles Mr.. Stillman has
boon constantly surrounded by n crowd Of
men, who nro planning to join the stampede to
Alaska durir~ the next sixty days.
The present winter in Dawson City and that
region has been somewhat miIder than in for.
mer years." said Mr.. Stillman to n Sun report.
or. THE Indians say that:the ice will begin to
break up in tho Yukon at tho last of Juno this
year. That will be about n fortnight'earlier than
usual. There have been a few hours this season
when tho temperature at our diRginRs on Hunk
er Creek has been down to So below zero, and
Z for four days at New Years time the mercury
never rose above A. below zero. The wind,
which blows there all winter long, blew very
hard at that timo. No Californian used to a
sperennially mild climate can even imagine
what such weather means. Tho day l left
Dawson City the mercury was ut about 24' be-
low zero. and the people regarded:that as a pref
W mild sort of day. The leo is a yard thick in
the Yukon and on all the creeks in the Klondike
region. The snow is about two feet on the
level, and very deep in:drifts caused by the ever.
lasting blowing from the northeast. There
have been many ears and faces frozen among
the p~eople.in and,about Dawson City in the last
few months. I have heard of about'twcnty pco-
pie who have lost their lives by freezing. but
there may he n lot more unfortunates who have
died Of freezing in their cabins and tents away
Off on the hanks of.crccks miles from friends.
Joaquin Miller. who is.in Dawson City, thought
he was going to lose ono OF his cars by freez-
ing when I saw him n fow days before l set out
for California. l believe there have been a
score OF amputations of frozen legs and feet on
the Klondike this season.
How much of an area has been covered by
gold miners camps on the Klondikel Oh, about
100 miles square would cover it. The Cana.
dian Register Of Mines at Dawson City told me
Blk weeks ago that the mines furthcst from
Dawson We're located about sixty miles away.
When got to the Klondike last August the
furthest were not twenty miles from Dawson
City. We old-time miners have long seen in the
West what man will do and the risks no will
take to get gold at any hazard, but the way
hundreds of men have gone tramping along the
banks of creeks and across tracklcss snowy
wastes miles from another human being, and
In a way~-below-zcro weather, to prospect amid
snow and ice for gold. bearing gravel, beats any
stories We have ever told TO illustrate mans In.
dorado, Too Much Gold, and Skokum Creeks
were completely occupied, by miners claims
from source to mouth, while all the tributary
streams for miles round were well claimed.
SinceSthe last steamer went down the Yukon
from Dawson City last september the tendcrfcet
ON tho Klondike have been locating on dozens OF
tiny creeks further and further away from tho
new creeks found and located upon that the
average person there does not try TO renicmber
city like Dawson City in the Klondike is not
doubted by any one IN there. II the miners on
win 20 into the Klondike this coming season
strike any degree of richness, a city that will
far away from the newer claims to be a base of
supplies for the mining camps there. I know
,SS;r Ho Tic n real estate men who are now on
speculate In I9ts;in new town sites in the min.
mig region Mon.v If nn they Jo are iGGkythoy yin make
est miners; Just think, in September, 1896,
you could have bought acres in Dawson city
lots there with a thirty;toot frontage bring
SSSS;ooo and y, 900 each. Some lots bring $lO,-
THE population of Dawson City and the camps
that line the creeks that twist awny south, east,
Is as Intelligent as any ! have ever known in
any mining camp in the West. Indeed, it is the
have ever seen. A number of us professional
miners up there, who have seen the gilded
n the fSot.days Of iBodiio. :Tombsatoonncn Ana axsr
da. and Creede. have remarked many times
that the miners of the Klondike are another
race of men from those We used to know in the
States. To be sure, there is gambling and lib
eral drinking Of the hardest or hard whiskey in
Dawson City and Circle City, but the scenes arc
never comparable with what wo used to witness
every night when, the Bonanzas were pouring
out their golden wealth and Tombstone was
making a dozen new millionaires.
Tho Klondike miners are not the typical,
picturesque miners the world has been
hearing about for half a century. 1t is my pri.
vate opinion that the awful hardships one en-
dures to get rich up there. the dangers tina.
must BIO brayed, and the privatiOns suffered In
getting to the new gold fields by any route.
make men there sober and provident. Where
-nen have these characteristics there's no chance
taken In gambling. Then. too. the expense of
getting. to Klondike and the necessary cxpondi.
ture OF several hundred dollars for an outfit
keep out OF the Alaskan mining region a horde OF
hard,up. desperate characters similar to those
that have made all the Western mining camps
DO VIGOROUSLY bad. 1 doubt II Dawson City
ever will be a hard, reckless, wide.open town
In the sense that Virginia City and Cripple Creek
have been. IL has Ind n nomination ~ about