The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-30
The kOTzEBUE COUNTRY.
PROSECUTORS NEED GOVERN
MENT AID
1t Is Claimed That Transportation
Companies Cruelty Deceived
Them

SAN FRANCISCO, June 29.-The
Associated Press has received a letter
from DIR. S. Stone, formerly a we'll
known physician of this city, telling OF
the situation in the Kotzebue country
The letter is dated Kowak River, Alas
! ka, mouth of M2une Luck River. Jan
uary /, 1899.
DR.. Stone says that /, 800 men paid
500 passage money to Kotzebue, be-
| sides buying provisions, clothing, min
ing tools ETC., ON the strength of cir
culars issued by certain transportation
companies announcing the richest gold
fields in Alaska and Offering othA,
inducements to secure travel on their
lines. The circulars. writes DR.. Stone,
We're malicious lies, made out Of whole
cloth, and no gold has been found on
Kotzebue Sound, or either the Kowak,
Notoark or Selawik Rivers, which flow
into Hotham Inlet, a part of the sound,
or any of their tributaries in anything
| like paying quantities up to date. Other
large rivers have been prospected with
no result. One thousand holes were
sunk this winter, some Of them thirty
five feet deep with no bedrock or color
being struck
|
was started for the Allashook. a tribu-
tary of the Koyoukuk on reports being
received from there that gold was be-
ing found in enormous quantities. The
hopeful prospectors after journeying for
sixteen days, cutting trails, dragging
heavily loaded sheds with the thermo,n-
eter registering 40 to 60 degrees be-
low zero, reached Beaver City, a set
tlement consisting of seven cabins. only
to find the reports absolutely false. The
report had been started by a merchant
who had supplies to sell and by the
recorder of claims. Reports from ether
| rivers are just as discouraging.
! OF the 1,50O men who came here
probably half have returned The re-
mainder are here waiting for the ice to
break up and for the possible arrival of
a vessel to take them back to civiliza-
! ton. This country is cold and produces
nothing to sustain life. Of the men
who are here not fifty have the means
| to get away and must, unless the
/! United States Government sends one Of
its transports here die of cold or starv-
alton. One-half of the terrible suffer-
ings of the people in this district has
not been told. The last news received
from the States arrived on the steamer
Grace Dollar. and the last papers re-
ceived are dated June 20. 1893 We
do not know if we belong to Spain,
Germany or the United States.
| DR.. Stone wishes the fact OF the ne
cessity of governmental aid impressed
upon the people until the necessary aid
| is sent to the distressed Americans who
were hoodwinked by the transportation
companies.
NO GOLD THERE.
| SEATTLE (Wash.). June 29-The
latest advices from Kotzebue, Alaska,
are. given in a letter from Albert c.
Thees formerly Of this city, who writes
under date of January 9th that not a
bit of gold has been found where he
wintered on the Ku-Buck River, and
the question with the miners there is
how to get away. There We're in camp
twenty-three whites and twenty eight
natives, opposite the mouth of the Hunt
| River. Not a cent of gold, says Thees,
has been taken out of the whole coun-
try, and they consider they are entirety
out of the nlinteral belt. One man was
drowned having broken through the ice
while hauling mail into the country
| from, the coast. A good deal OF salt
ing" had been done that caused more
or less excitement
Thees says the miners there expect
| to get out on the revenue cutter Bear.
There are, he thinks, 100 people in the
Kotzebue. fifty on Wick River and 125
on the Notadu.
| The health of the whites has been
good, but natives have died IN large
numbers.