Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-09-07
A Viroqua Boy in Alaska.

Mrs. John S Groves, OF this city, IL
in receipt of letter from her son, L. II
Conklin, who started for the Klondike
country about year since. The letter
ls dated July 4th, at Dawson City.
From it the CENSOR is permitted to
make extracts, as follows:
81 have been nineteen years coming
to the northwest, and now I am stuck,
for l cannot get any further. without
going to the North Pole. But I am
content now. | am where, if nothing
happens, / can clean up some money in
one or two years if ] keep my health.
am enjoying the very best OF health.
| was ust five months on the way, ar.
irving on June 18th. first W mt out
in the mountains for ftte5n days; car
ried 55 pounds on my back and came
back all right. | have been working
some at $40 per day. They pay from
$40 10 $15-ffteen out in the mines,
but wages viii be cut down TO about IS
this winter. Flour brings from 81 to
S. so a pound, thirty miles from here
They pack it on their backs. on horses
and mules and with dogs. Dogs are of
more service than horses Good claims
ire not found here evarv day and for
tunes are not easy to pick up; one hae
got to find it, but [ want to tell you
that ihis is one of the richest mining
districts in the world They have
brought horse after horse packed with
from $50 to 200 pounds of gold here
during the past two mooths, and I have
seen claims where two nen ara making
So 900 day, and god nuggets that
run from 81 to $50. There are proba-
bly, 10000 people in Dawson aud vicin-
!ty, and there are thousands going
away dscours ged. have 1000 pounds
of grub to eat for this wiAter, and |
am going to build me mansion (loa
cabin in the KIondlke, about x II
feet, with fire place ard stove, and will
then be ready 70; cod weather. | Am
going out in the bills in few days,
and will probably be gone twenty days.
THIS is hot .own.' The weather is
foe and warm, aud the gronod is now
thawed from OF to four feet in places
where the sun strikes il, and from there
down it Is froZA1 from 30 10 so feet
and probably uote [ have seen it
frozen 40 feet they bnild fire 40
thaw the ground down, then Shovel ont
the dirt preparatory to building another.
and so on. This is the wsy bed rock is
reached, when they then commence to
drift by thawing in the same manner
and then take out the gravel and pile
up the pay dirt b fore sluicing or
banning it out. All claims are taken as
far az forty miles out Of Dawson. Tbis
is not a very mountainous country bnt
very billy. and the hills are very high
There will be plenty of provisions in the
country this winter So far four boats
have assembled the Youkon, and were all
frozen in between hers and S.. Michael
No boats are yet here from outside the
country this year, but we are expecting
them. We do not receive mail daily here,
and when 1t does come it takes week
| to get it in shape, and hen from 100 to
200 men have to stand In line and await
their turn, it taking from one to three
days to reach the Office window. have
been three days in reaching the recor
der's office The laws are rotten here,
but we have got to saw wood and say
nothing
l Thick had [ been in the states ]
would have went to Cuba, so it would
! ! ave been all the eame-off for new
fields and never coptanted. We doa't
hear much of the war bid any of the
boys go?
You will hear from me again some
time this fall. Winter will set in in
two months and then there will e eight
or nine months cold wnather. This is
d city of tents with few houses, and
mary log houses are going up"