The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1898-03-24
LOCATD0N bunker CREEK
Nill Cameron kriteS About Warm
Springs and Frozen Ground.
NEARING THE GOLDEN STREAK
Tony Kroter Writes an Interesting Letter
About Himself and Jungst and Norby
They are all Working with
Will
NEARING THE GOLDEN STREAK
Letter from viii Cameron.

DEAR BROTHER: After getting our
stuff to Dawson from Stranded island We
started to have look at Bonanza and
Eldorado, the two creeks that startled
the world so much last year. Bonanza
flows into the klondike about a mile from
the mouth on the right hand side going
up. Out of l75 claims on the creek there
are only about so claims paying and
some of them are very rich. Unless the
dirt runs Is or 20 cents to the pan they
consider it will not pay to work them.
Eldorado flows into Bonanza about len
miles from it's mouth. 1t is much the
richer creek of the two and the clean up
in the spring will be enormous. The
creek is about six miles long, but they
only find gold up to No. 80, which is only
three and one half miles from the mouth
In the pups or small creeks that
flow into Bonanza and Eldorado they
haven't been able to find anything, except
in Skookum gulch which empties into
Bonanza about one-quarter mile below
Eldorado on the same side. On two
bench claims they find gold by the bushel,
nuggets as high as 500 being quite com
mon. How the gold got there has puz
zled many man who thought he knew
all about mining, but the common sup
position is that it is the old Eldorado
channel. Hunker creek, which flows in
to the Klondike ten miles from it's mouth
is the oldest of them and liable to turn
out the richest when the same amount of
work has been done. Shortly after we
got here the report came that they had
struck 81 to the pan on No. 49, below
Discovery. Immediately there was q
rush to get lays and owners began to
prospect their claims. We secured lay
on 81 below, but have not located the pay
streak yet. There were two holes sunk
last winter which paid soc to the pan
and $57 nugget. 1t takes about six
weeks to sink to bedrock, about % feet.
From three inches to one foot elk inches
is all We can burn in day, 80 you see it
|
turned out very good. and also the one
just below. There are five of US, the two
Milroys and Martin, who came down the
river with us, and myself. We have had
fine winter here so far. The coolest
weather since the cold snap when we
got here, has only been 40 below, and
only for a night or two. We don't feel
20 below here any worse than you do ze-
70 at home.
They say the earth is frozen down to
China. | myself saw one hole 81 feet
deep and still frozen, so expect they are
not far wrong. There are warm springs
in some of the creeks, which keep run
ming and freezing until they form glaciers
twenty feet high. | have seen places
where fellows worked two months sink
ing holes and then run into one of these
warm seams of water and were forced to
quit entirely soon after locating pay dirt.
The gold is very seldom found in the
present creek channels, and when the
creek bottom is a hundred yards or q
mile wide it takes long time to find a
pay streak from to 20 feet wide. Some
claims prove blank. 1t is great coun-
try for surprises and disappointments.
have been prospecting myself in the
ground and was run out of one hole by
water after sinking six feet, but the last
two are all right, and expect any day to
find the nuggets by the handful. The
town is very quiet just now, compared
with what 1t was when we got in. The
gold is all freezing up on the dumps as
fast as taken out. With whisky and
grub at a low ebb and gold in the dumps,
you can fancy how dull it is. The days
are frightening very fast. We now have
about eight hours of daylight, and the
sun is getting higher every day. They
talk on the outside of perpetual darkness
here in the winter time, but l have not
noticed much difference.