The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-14
1IRsT ON THE YUKON
'T'S'' Of GOLD DISCOVERY

oouut Of the TIP -
T, Lowe of Ogden, Utah,
Charles forward with the claim OF
''S 'O Of the first discoveries Oh sola
being wv aner valley of the Yukon ana
IN the sns tn turned in to the mint at San
70 nav '',o tbe first large installment OF
Francisco w. ,oIdu which has made the
KlCn tn" relating his mining expert
VIM ~. Lowe said "When IA years
'nces t ~" massage to California Oh the
DID, 'OO' When we got to San Francis
Otit tSS crew all deserted aud 1oinea the
CO. ' ~~ in rush to the goiu arg
pasSsnsI took mp claim on Granite
enSS ,hroe miles from Coloma, near
'reeA' = nov now known as Gold Hill. That
w WIZ IN 1850. In spite of the fact that l
~as only IA, Twas allowed to noia aown
was Lair. lain and began to take out lots OF
} Iue v ~"llow stuff. But one day lot OF
wv who had been making them
'U O,Tss obpoxious about the camp came
, sa 10 where / was at work ana said 10
~ Here boy, there amt any law ior
me- -, holding claim and keeping
wv men ont of making good thing.
get s. ont Of herep And they kicked me
= ~ IS the claim and located it themselves
o .ud kent my pick and shovel and rocker
aDS ~ hroatened TO kill me if / came on
the claim any more.
"Jpst as soon as began going around
tho camp complaining about the way
nod been treated the boys began to sym
= "a,b;ye with me. i hadn't a relative
and only few acquaintances IN the
Camp but everybody took my part.
Come were mad enough to fight, but
tbs more level headed says: No, We'll
hold meeting. That gang has been
getting too fresh. Well show them
thew can't run this camp And they
. aid They held a meeting and voted
: that could hold that claim, and that
tho other fellows could have IL hours
10 get out of the camp. And you bet
thew got. So got my claim back again,
and the boys, just to show their author
ity. | guess, voted that l should take
possession of another claim that had
!, been in dispute So was ahead on the
: deal after all
81 staid there and worked my claims
till took out $4,000. In 1853 fell
in with the Fraser river rush and paid
$4,000 for q one.fifth interest in claim
st Hills Bar, near Fort Yale. Then
tried Emory's Bar and made little
a money. lost money at Antler's creek,
= and then joined in with couple of fell
lows 60 on an exploring trip away to
the north and west. We started on the
10th of April, 1862, from Loda Creek,
or Fort Alexander, on the Fraser river,
about 90 miles south of the mouth Of
the QueMelles river. Charles Waldron.
the owner of the ranch, was the last
man we saw, white or Indian, until we
got back to the Fraser at the same
point two years afterward.
We took with us Is HORSES riding
animals and Is pack horses-6 horses
apiece. The pack horses carried provi.
siOns enough to last us three years, and
we were so well provided for that we
left a years provisions in our cabin
when We started home. The horses
lived on the grass, a sort Of wheat
grass, and the wild pea vine.
1--WE struck out north and little
west keeping back of the coast noun
tains for awhile, then crossed over u
range and got over into q country of
] mountains and timber and swamps,
where some of the rivers run into the
Mackenzie and some into the Yukon.
We prospected along and got colors
nearly everywhere, but did no digging.
Ihe point on the upper Yukon that we
reached, as near as | can now locate it,
must be 800 miles from the Fraser,
where we started. Coming back, we
struck over the mountains Oh to the
north branch of the Stickeen, then up
one OF the south branches, over the
mountains, until we struck our trail
back to the southeast.
The place where we made our best
s.rike was on "a branch of the Mackenzie
mat we called Peace river, but it Ger.
@iniy Is not the Peace river we find OH
'ne maps now. We camped in little
suich where we had panned out some
nuggets and decided to spend the winter
'lere prospecting. We built comfort
aUie log cabin, stored our grub, turned
Jul noises out in the swamps and lost
s,snt OF them for weeks at O time, but
cabin.
remember as if it were only yestcr.
uay cur first big strike We dug down
~ inc upper side Of big bowldcr,
uiaue a hole four feet deep and struck q
s.a'o bedrock, and then we took out q
paniui from right ON the bedrock and
washed washed out $1,000 in nuggets Of all
s szes' The largest nugget must have
ooen worth $500 at least, and there
, %e'e number of $40 and $50 ones, but
s VIC most were SIS or less. The next pan
W., w. ssVnered up ran less than 500, but
.na' DAY we took out S23, 600 in all. 1,
a mas apparently caught or lodged around
'na under that bowlder.
Nv. we mad whipsaw and sawed on,
a Super Tor sluice boxes. There wa.
an .1y OF timber-fir, spruce, balsam
m vuu wnite pine. In the summer we
,o s'Heu In the gulch and in the winter
80 n uruts into the bar, but we sluiced