The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-03
OLD MINERS QUEER TALE.
He Found a Great Field of Big Mug
gets in Alaska.
From the CHICAGO Inter-Ocean.

gets in Alaska.
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
More than fifty wagon loads of pure
gold are lying somewhere in Alaska await
ing a discoverer, according to the story
told by an old miner, whose party per-
ished in the wids of that region about
five years ago Believing fully in the re-
ports brought back by William Rogers,
a party of Western gold seekers has al
ready started out to locate the spot. They
expect to find powders of virgin gold
without the laborious process of digging
it from the earth.
When the Klondike deposits were first
unearthed it was thought that Rogers
discovery had been found but subse-
quent events and careful calcula lions, ac-
cording TO descriptions furnished by the
return gold hunter prove that this is not
the case. OF a party of four miners who
went into the unknown and uneXplored
Northwest in search of gold in 1890 only
one was permitted 10 return. He brought
back with him incOntestible proofs of the
existence of gold in a sack full of small
nuggets
The surviving member of this party of
explorers was undoubtedly exploring on
The American side of the boundary line in
Alaska, as a computation of distances de-
seribed by him would indicate. A fairly
comprehensive map has been prepared
from descriptions furnished by Rogers,
showing the points at which he thinks
he found the gold. The map is necessa-
rily crude but, having the stout assertion
of Rogers that he prospected the Tanana
river, we have this for a basis cacula-
ton. Rogers has since died but his story
survives him and in brief is this
In 1899 a party of four miners living in
the Black hills, all of whom were more or
less experienced in placer mining, formed
a company to prospect for placer locations
in Alaska. the belief among them being
strong that somewhere in that country
rich gold discoveries would be found. The
men engaged in the enterprise were Will
liam Rogers, Louis Cavanaugh, Harry
Stokes, and John Campbell. Their first in
tention was to go north by steamer to
Juneau, but when they reached Seattle
they were unable to agree upon this point,
and the expedition postponed its trip until
the following spring, when the four men
departed from Spokane, Wash. Their out
fit consisted of light wagon and team
Of mules, tools, guns and provisions for
long journey.
They traversed the country in a leisure
~ manner for several months, prospecting
wherever there seemed to be a promising
locality After the first three months gold
in small quantities was found quite ire
quently and this led them on in their quest
for better prospects. Their mules died, and
they were obliged to abandon their wa
gon and tools. except such as they could
carry, and in this way they plodded over
mountains, through raYines, and across
marshes until they had been gone from
Spokane more than year. From this
point Rogers graphically but briefly des-
cribed his journey:
except that which we obtained through
hunting and fishing, but we soon became
accustomed TO this diet and felt little in
convenience on this account.
I'VE prospected up and down a big river
(the Tanana) and its tributaries, and found
gold in great quantities. We camped al
one place three weeks, and after we had
been unusually successful in killing moose
and caribou, and during that time we pan
ned out gold nuggets enough to fill full
size whisky barrel. We could not carry
the gold. so we dug a pit and buried it in
a hillside.
"Our food requirements kept us moving
constantly, for game is not abundant IN
the North, and il was greater concern
with us to get something to eat than to
find gold Only on one occasion did we see
white men, and this was when We were
considerably off our prospecting line. We
fen in with some Hudson Bay company
men. from whom we bought ammunition
for goId Ii was not long after this that we
found not only a gold deposit but verita-
HE quarry Of the yellow metal. Gold was
there in Jumps that We could not lift. IL
was at the edge of an old creek bed and
the monstrous nuggets, or powders, of
gold had been partly uncovered by the ele-
ments.
1T was here, too that we met with our
first misfortune. With gold enough 10
make us milionaires many times over
within our grasp it was the beginning
of a series of fatalities that wrecked the
entire party. AS If N mockery of the pos
session of such great wealth Cavanaugh
was taken sick and died here. He was Ill
with malarial fever which lasted two
weeks. We buried him. and over his grave
viii be found god nuggets larger than
any that have yet been discovered any
where in the world. A statement Of our
eituation and the name of Cavanaugh
will be found in tin can just below the
surface of the earth covering his grave.
II estimated that fifty wagons could not
carry away all of the gold that was ex-
nosed in this vicinity. The gold Jumps
were of all shapes and sizes, the largest
probably weighing 200 pounds 1t was not
onartz but pure virgin gold that could
he hammered out with a hammer.
'You saw Why didn't you bring back
some OF this gold? Well, l did. l brought
ali could carry, and IL came near cost
ing me my life / brought small nuggets
because they were easy to carry. You
must remember that 1 and my compan-
ions were in a country thousand miles
from civilization, and while il was our
original intention to dig for gold when
we reached the deposits of precious metal
we were obliged to keep moving in search
of food to prevent starvation. We might
have gone back, but were of the opinion
that we would fall in with some of the
Alaska Indians whom we could employ
to carry out our gold 1t was this delu-
sion that was largely responsible for our