The evening times., 1898-03-01
NO GOLD ALONG COPPER RIVER.
The Washington Contingent VIII Be
Grievously Disappointed.

| lue N8sulnston Con1ugent VIII BE
Grievously Disappointed.
Reports are coming in which indicate
that the Copper River district of Alaska
does not glitter with gold.
This is of strong local interest, from
the fact that two expeditions have left
Washington this winter for this particu-
lar region. 1t has been represented in
this city that placers richer than those
along the tributaries of the Yukon were
10 be found on Copper River.
David Fixes has just returned to his
home at Los Angeles, Cal. He was "A
member of a party of fifty-two gold
seekers that left Los Angeles October
10 on the Alice Blanchard.
These goid-seekers had been induced
TO believe that Copper River was
richer than the Klondike, and they
were eager TO get there and shovel up
nuggets by the bushel. Letters pur-
porting to have been written by Cop
per River miners were read to them
at meetings by the fal1irs who pro-
NOTED the expedition. but the names
OF the alleged writers We're withheld.
The refusal of the promoters to give
of the digginEs should have been suf-
ncient 10 deter any sane man from
swallowing the gilded lies, but the
fever was raging in their brains, and
they were only too ready to believe any
tale OF Alaskan gold.
Inc Alice Blanchard party was
landed at Orka, a canning station on
Prince William Sound. The mouth of
Copper River is a delta OF sloughs and
NKar m M inaAaacSih1A u rS
larger than canoes. From Orka the
miners went to Odiac, another cannery,
and from that point went overland to
the Copper River.
Before the miners reached Snag Point
they began TO realize that they had been
duped, and that the whole Copper River
boom was a scheme of the transporta-
tion companies To secure passengers The
traders and Gamers told them that no
gold had ever been found on the river,
and that no white man had ever been up
the river. About forty miles from the
mouth OF the river, and sixty miles from
Odiac. is a great glacier, which no white
man has ever ascended.
Fixes says the party succeeded in get
ting to a point twenty miles below the
glacier, and there 1t was stuck when he
left 1t was impossible TO travel up the
stream against the terrific wind that
blows almost continuously in the winter.
Only when the force of the wind abated
at infreQuent intervals could any head
way at all be made.
The party succeeded i'm hiring some
Siwash Indians to draw their sleds. but
they would not cross the glacier on ac-
count Of their fear Of the Stick Indians.
The Stick Indians. however. are very
friendly toward the whites. and they say
positively no white man ever went mp the
Copper River. They have no gold them
selves and never knew Of any having
been found in that region.
II is said that two men came down the
river a couple Of years ago bringing 500
or $500 worth OF gold but they brought it
from the Klondike. That handful Of dust
was the only basis for the yarn that Cop
per River mines had brought $4,000 in
nuggets from these claims, a yarn
that was circulated diligently by boom
erS.
Rosenberg. who keeps a store at Alag
anick: Jack Shepard, superintendent of
n salmon cannery AT Orka: Peter Dahl.
keeper of a trading post at the mouth of
the Copper River and Mr.. Carlton, sup
erintendent OF cannery at odiCe, all
say that no white man has ever been up
the Copper River; that no gold has been
found there. that the Stick Indians have
never been known to bring any gold from
that region.
In conclusion, Mr., Fixes denounceS the
whole affair as q swindie. a scheme on
the part Of the transportation company
TO make money, and all stories about the
richness of Copper River region as
fake. pure and simple.
Under date of January 10. G. p.
Sprague. a Los Angeles motorman. who
is one of the party that left on the
Alice Blanchard last October. to pros
-pect Copper River writes from Alaga-
nick an account Of the tTfbulations of the
He SAYS:
"Ali the letters We saw about Copper
River were false.
Il don't know as YOU can read this.
hut ] wanted 10 tell you just how ii is,
and hope none of the other boys
Viii start for this region, for it is all c
fake as far as anyone knows"