The record-union., 1898-08-01
BACK FROM COPPER RIVER.
SACRAMENTO GOLD
SEEKER RETURNS.
What PONY" Walker, the Base
ball Artist, Has to Say Of
His Trip.

Pony" Walker is home again.
Everybody who knows anything about
baseball in this city knows Pony"
Walker, who during the season of '97
was the star batter and fielder of the
Gilt Edge aggregation.
Walker left for Alaska on the 11th
of February last, to dig gold and make
his pile, and he arrived home yester-
day morning, rich in experience gath
cred during the past six months
The Cooks Inlet or Copper River
country was the loadstone that lured
Walker and a number of other Sacra-
mentans, and while many evil reports
have come from that section Pony"
who visited the Record Union office
last evening, says he has no intention
of giving it a black eye.
IF anybody asks about Copper
River" said Walker lust tell him
there is no gold there; but Copper River
isn't the only watercourse there, and
there is gold on some of the other
creeks, though no fabulous finds have
ever been made. AT least / did not see
anybody who ever made a big strike.
Some of the claims along Resurrec-
ton and Sixmile Creeks pay for the
30 or 100 days they can be worked, at
the rate Of from S4 to So a day per
man, and that is as good diggings as
can be found. If a man could work
the year round he could make money
but the only way to come out ahead
under existing circumstances is to form
company and work a large number Of
men.
NO" said Walker, that country is
no place for poor man, but man
who has plenty of money can make
more
Mr. Walker, with others who have
tried their luck in the Copper River
country, contends that it is the glow
ing promises held out by the trans
portation companies that cause poor
men to go in, when there is absolutely
nothing for them but hard work and
small pay. Most of the stories told
of big strikes, he said, dwindle sadly
when the truth is known.
Sunrise" Smith, the magnate of
Sunrise City, on Six-mile Creek, Walker
said, was accredited with having taken
out $4,000 in one season. The story
was probably true, but it was equally
true that it cost him $47, 900 to get it
out, and he had only about $1,000 to
show for his labor
Walker and J. NJ. Bryant located
eleven claims on Resurrection Creek,
which he is satisfied will pay if worked
properly. He would not hesitate to go
back and work them, he said provided
he can get capital interested in them.
Claims on either side of them pay from
50 to SS per day per man, and he thinks
theirs are equally as good
There is gold, Walker said, to be
found in any of the glacial deposits,
from the surface to the bedrock, but
the bedrock is generally hard to find.
He worked one claim on shares, but
after going down twenty feet was APP
parently no nearer the elusive bedrock
than when he commenced.
Walker had hardships galore in Alas
ka not the least of which was encoun-
tered in crossing the Portage Bay gla-
cier. The glacier is seven miles across,
and it took his party just two weeks to
make the trip, carrying fifty pounds to
the man. While a half-mle a day is
not fast travelling, he found it exceed
ingly wearisome, and when the ice river
was finally passed he thought he had
gone seven hundred instead Of seven
miles
Baseball is a luxury in the Cooks In
let country and that fact galledWalker.
At Sunrise City there was one ball
club, and arrangements We're once
made for a game, but before the time
arrived a high tide overflowed the
country, and the game was called off.
When Walker left he sold his stock
of flour for $1.75 per sack, and as he
had bought it for 60 cents per sack
from persons going out, he managed to
turn a penny. Day laborers received
from So 30 to 81 per day and board
Walker will probably be back in one
Of the League baseball teams before
the season is out.