The evening times., 1898-09-05
HAD NO LUCK.
Indianapolis GOId-Seekers Home
From kIOndikc.

The return of August Stossmeister. who
started for Copper River. in Alaska in
February last, is recorded by the Indian
apolis News. He was the head of party
Of six sent out by the Indiana Gold Min
ing Company.
I'VE went said Mr. StoSSmeister "tc
where large fields were reported on Cop
per River. 220 miles from the Gulf of
Alaska. Thirty-five hundred men went
in there. and three thousand went into
Cooks inlet. little farther west. on the
same coast. OF these $500 men not ona
found enough to open Jackpot in
ten-cent limit ga ne.
There are Two streams at Cooks inlet
that have gold. One is Mills Greek =
tributary of Canyon Creek. and Lynt
Creek, tributary of the east fork of Six
Mile. These are considered the only two
streams at Cooks inlet that are gold
bearing One of these belongs TO a syr-
dicate and the other TO individuals All
the mining territory is taken up. One ~
the creeks Is not worked by the owners
but is leased TO tenderfeet. six months at
a time, for $50 and half the find. After
five weeks of work, building wing dams
making sluice boxes and unloading thou
sands of tons of dirt, the clean-uns in
no case amounted to more than quarter
of an ounce all told to the pan.
The syndicate shipped 100000 out of
that river, worked out by between 20O
and 500 men. The rest of the territory has
been punched full of HOES during the past
three years and no new gold has been
found. Much stress has been placed on
the amount brought out from the ONLY
creek which yields anything. The news
papers of Seattle. which are interested in
reviving that dead town, cannot be de-
pended on to tell the truth about the de-
plorable failures in the Alaskan fields
The Canadian police have a record of
ZSVVo men who went into Dawson this
season. Two thousand others came into
the district unknown to the police. The
Seattle papers mention new rush To
TaSish Lake, Pine Creek, and Forty
Mile. The facts are that there is no rec
ord of new find in THAI country this
year. Claims that paid $40 a day. among
the few good ones in the Dawson district
are almost impossible to work profitably.
The ground has to be thawed Wood is
worth from $40 to $50 cord and a cord
will thaw perhaps foot of ground 1t is
forty 10 fifty feet down to bed rock. In
some places three or four holes have to
be dug before the pay strike is found,
even if found at ALL Forty dollars day
clean up will scarcely pay for the wood
Syndicates own everything up there that
is worth owning.
"a great many lives were lost In
Cooks Inlet in the terrible tide rushing
into Turn-again Arm, where the tide
rises from forty-five to sixty feet It
rushes in between Fire Island and the
mainland. This is a narrow space, and a
wall of water fifteen feet high is thrown
Many small boats miscalculated the tide
and were caught. Many lives and great
quantities of goods were lost
81 left the others of my party on the
IIlutina River, 200 miles inland, on July
20.
I'm coming home many start over the
Valdes glacier. Many lives have been
lost i'll this passage. Let me give YOU
an idea of the exaggerations made by
the Seattle papers. In a newspaper ar
ticle, Capt. Abercrombie is made to re-
port that We were panning out S. to the
pan on the Klutina River. The truth
is, we did not pan nor sluice, nor in any
way obtain a single dram of gold.
though for two months we were digging
in the most favorable locality there
Capt. Abercrombie, when we asked him
about 1t at Valdes. denied making such
a statement Thousands of pounds of
provisions and the very best of clothing
have been thrown away by men, who
have been misled into the most grievous
privations and hardships by these lying
newspaper reports of strikes in the Cop
per River district and in the Tanana
Hills