The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10
A NEW MONTE CRIsTO.
Great Discovery of Gold in an Island
i'm the Yukon.
Dawson Letter in Harper's Weekly.

Tomorrow morning the last dog-team
starts that will probably reach the outside
world, and with it goes the only sensational
news of the winter. 1t is equalled only by
the first strike of gold in the Bonanza
Moose Pasture" and later Of the big mug
gets on the steep hillside along Skookum
and Eldorado.
1t was the tenderfoot, or ''chee-chah-ko.'
as he is called, who on Bonanza had not
right on down, and found the rich pay. So
it is a chee-chah-ko who has sunk hole
thirty-eight feet deep on an island in the
Yukon itself and found rich pay. Monte
Cristo is now the name of the island, and it
lies en- the Yukon eighteen miles above
Dawson
the winter cutting logs for the mills. They
dug a hole in the ground to get dirt for the
roof for their cabin. 1t occurred to them to
pan out some dirt, and they found colors.
They went deeper and continued to find
colors. There was nothing extraordinary in
this. The banks of the Yukon and its long
tributaries have long been known to contain
gold, and they have afforded good pay both
on Stewart river and on Cassiar bar in the
Lewes. At the same time DR.. Bates of
Portland. Ore and a third Norwegian, went
to work, striking on a creek, as yet I'M
named, close by. The four are partners
The Norwegians kept on boring until they
had sunk thirty-eight feet, when they
reached bedrock. Here they made three
pans" The first contained $40; the Sec
reached Dawson the commissioner. would
not let them record. They then went to the
office of Mr.: Wade the crown prosecutor.
for advice. The Inspector Of mines Mr. Nc;
not believe the story until affidavit
was made. Thereupon the, two
Sonay to went Investigate FOR isha
The Norwegians would not let them take off
the dump, but insisted on making another
boring Then Wade and McGregor went
down, picked up the earth, and at first pan
found s.. Three hundred men started in
stampede, and the whole island is now
staked off. two hundred feet being allowed
clear across the river. Tomorrow more
will start for the scene of the find, prepared
to sink hole in the next island below, in
accordance with a new ruling of the COM
missioner that hole must actually be sunk
Yukon through its entire length is strewn
with islands, and If the other holes turn
out like the first millions will be taken out
Of the river, for the width of the pay streak
will be that of a great river not that of
trickling brook like Eldorado The width of
the Monte Cristo is five or six hundred
yards. The whole country seems underlaid
with gold. Quartz is being discovered every
where, some of which assays $50 to the ton,
and in richness and quantity may equal the
placer. Next summer it may be shown that
from Eldorado along the divide parallel with
the Bonanza the bed of an old river with
gravel ninety feet thick and a mile wide
to within four miles of Dawson. The de-
posits of quartz gold found in the bench
Bonanza at the Skookunls, and cropping out
in spots lower. down, may have been
sloughed from this. river bed There are
certainly at least three distinct deposits of
placer gold here-that on the deep bedrock
of the creek, another on the present beds
OF the creeks where there is anything to
hold it, and still another on the sides and
tops of the hills. The wearing down Of the
hills has been enormous; the rounded domeS
and ridges are indicative of this. All min
ing experiences seem to be reversed in this
land of surprises. 1t is the tenderfoot al
ways. of course. doing the wrong thing, who
plumbers on the hidden wealth. verifying
the old maxim that Gold is where it is