The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1898-01-16
FIRST ON THE YUKON
CHARLES LOWE CLAIMS TIE HoNORs
OF GOLD DISCOVERY.

NLGRA ACo IL 1LOW0 Va Ns5tANAA3 ~ ttNAi3
now comes forward with the claim of
being one of the first discoveries Of gold
in the upper valley Of the Yukon and
to have turned in to the mint at San
Francisco the first large installment of
the "coarse gold" which has made the
Klondike famous.
While relating his mining expert
ences Mr.. Lowe said "When IA years
old, took passage to California on the
Orizaba. When we got to San Francis
co, the crew all deserted and joined the
passengers i'll rush to the gold dig
gings. I took up claim on Granite
creek, three miles from Coloma, near
what is now known as Cold Hill. That
was i'll 1850. In spite Of the fact thar l
was only IA, | was allowed to hold down
the claim and began to take out lots Of
the yellow stuff. But one day a lot Of
touehs who had been making them
selves obnoxious about the camp came
up to where | was at work and said to
me; Here, boy, there ain t any law for
a boy holding claim and keeping
grown men out of making good thing
Get out Of hereP And they kicked NE
off the claim and located it themselves
and kept my pick and shovel and rocker
and threatened to kill me if l came Gu
the claim any more.
tJust as soon as began going around
the camp complaining about the way
had been treated the boys began to SYM
pathize with me. ! hadn't a relative
and only Il few acquaintance in the
camp, but everybody took my part.
Some were mad enough to fight, but
the more level headed says: No, well
hold meeting. That gang has been
getting too fresh. Well show them
they can't run this camp And they
did They held meeting and voted
that | could hold that claim, and that
the other fellows could have IL hours
to get out of the camp. And you bet
they got. So got my claim back again,
and tie boys, just to show their author
ity, guess, voted that / 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 $14, 600. In 1858 fell
i'll with the Fraser river rush and paid
81, 600 for a one-fifth interest in claim
at Hills Bar, near Fort Yale. Then
tried Emory's Bar and made a little
money. | lost money at Antler's creek,
and then joined III with a couple Of fell
lows to go ON an exploring trip away to
the north and west. We started Oh the
10Th Of April, 1862, from Loda Greek.
Or Fort Alexander, on the Fraser river,
about so miles south Of the mouth of
the Quesnelles 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 l8 horses-3 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 years provisions in our cabin
when we started home The horses
lived Oh the grass, a sort Of wheat
grass, and the wild pea vine.
"We struck out north and little
west, keeping back Of the coast noun
tains for Az lille, then crossed over a
range and got over into 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
The point Oh the upper Yukon that we
reached, as near as l can now locate it,
must be 500 miles from the Fraser,
where we started. Coming back, we
struck over the mountains on to the
north branch of the Stickeen, then up
one of the scuth branches, ever the
mountains, until we struck our trail
back to the southeast
1.-The place " here we made our best
strike was on branch Of the Mackenzie
that we called Peace river, but it GER
tainly is not the Peace river we find on
the maps now. We camped in little
gulch where we had PANIED out some
nuggets and decided to spend the winter
there prospecting. We built comfort
able log cabin, stored cur grub, turned
our horses out in the swamps and lost
sight Of them for weeks at time, but
they never left the neishhorhocd Of the
cabin.
"Iremember as if it were only yester-
day our first big strike We dug down
on the upper side Of big bowlder,
made hole four feet deep and struck a
slate. bedrock, and tIAen we took out a
painful from right On the bedrock and
washed out 81 500 in nuggets Of all
sizes. The largest nugget must have
been worth $500 at least, and there
were d number Of $40 and $40 ones, but
the most We're S. or less The next pan
we gathered up ran less than 500, but
that day we took ont $23, GOO in all. 1t
was apparently caught OF lodged around
and under that bYwlder.
1--WE had a whipsaw and sawed out
lumber for sluice boxes. There was
plenty of limb tr-fr, spruce, balsam
and white pine. In the summer we
worked in thq gulch and in the winter
ran drifts into the bar but we sluiced
nearly all winter. The ice got pretty
thick, but there was very little weather
when we could not get water into the
sluice boxes. During the summer it
1 . a. Al