The San Francisco call., 1899-05-19
WINTER WORK OF
THE KLONDIKERS

resS in this direction brings the traveller
into that region which is claimed by
Eagle City as it's own. To be understood
geographically. according TO the accepted
method of approach to 1t, therefore, one
must talk of 1T from the Eagle City
standpoint. Before leaving the Forty
Mile district, however, 1t may be said in
a general way that the work done in the
whole region has been little more than
been located the work being done is pre-
paratory to summer ground slufcing. The
ground is generally shallow, and most Of
the claim owners and laymen, aside from
getting out lumber for Sluice-boxeS or
stripping the surface, are 'mushing in
their grub for the summers work. 1t Is
estimated that there are about 700 men
at work in the district covered in the
foregoing including about a hundred at
work on Miller and Glacier creeks OF the
Sixty Mile district, who outfit from this
point, and about, $50 people IN the town OF OF
Forty Mile and at Fort Cudahy, just
across the river. The town and all these
diggings, struck a paralyzing blow by the
big finds of the Klondike, are now reviv-
ing and are destined to a new life and
far greater activity and more rapid devel-
opment through the overflow from the
Klondike than those finds have called in
from over the face of all the earth. These
people are generally poor, however. All
they have with which to enter the strug-
gle is their pick and shovel and their two
hands and the steam which may be ap-
piled to these with their own poor little
with them wherever they COUP the
creeks and over the divides So the work
rs very slow to begin with, and only those
creeks that have been previously worked
and the pay streaks located can hope to
turn out something above grubstake
this year. OF these Chicken Creek will
take first place. 1t is estimated that
500 OO0-some say twice as much-will be
cleaned up from the four or five claims
being worked there. Nearly all the work
of the district. other than by claim own
ers themselves, is done on the lay sys-
TEN. 50 per cent being allowed. The old
diggings of Miller and Glacier creeks are
paying some wages at 81 per hour Ihe
ground throughout the entire district
and better worked in summer time, and
it will be next fall rather than this spring
that they will tell what they know about
gold.
All this applies equally to the diggings
and the men Of Eagle City. Eagle City,
a town of 500 people, has. since the Ice
went out last spring, risen up at the
mouth of Mission Creek. Not exactly
under the shadow-as every man writing
about it will probably be tempted to
say-but shoulderlng up against that
great rock that marks q point in the
landscape at the mouth of Mission Creek
But Eagle City is not in or under the
shadow of a great rock or any other
shadow. Its people are very proud or II
and believe ii will grow TO be big and
permanent city. 1t has its parties and its
politics. and each man in his bonnet has
some sort of a bee or ether. a short time
ago it was violently addicted to the
for variety and yearning for office that
marks the true American it has now
elected for itself a civil government of its
own out of which it may enjoy an annual
election. These are as exciting In their
small way as was ever an election any
where AS the result of the last one.
after much hustling for votes some of
which We're even dragged in with dogs
and sleds from the distant creeks. they
have a Mayor or president of a Council
of five. w NJ; Woody; and the Council
and Thomas Aisbtt; Judge, A. Beavens;
a Recorder, Thomas McMahon; a. Treas
gTeF M j. ia Meyer S and Marsha Mar AN NJ
deputies code of civil, sanitary and
criminal regulations has been adopted.
The townsite, containing eighty-seven
acres, has been surveyed and streets laid
out. The town contains $50 cabins, while
at the same place this day of the month
last year there was just one cabin, one of
those miners cabins built by the
pioneers as a common, free-to-all stop
ping place for travellers. The people have
petitioned Sitka or Washington to have
Eagle City made the capital of a new
judicial district and to have land office
opened there, and they hope their wishes
may be fulfilled this spring. Captain
Richardson, United States military COM
mandant on the Yukon, has had ten acres
above the town on the river front set
aside for barracks A detachment of the
soldiers now stationed at Circle City will
be sent up on an early spring boat and
Exploration Company and the North
American Transportation and Trading
Company have built large warehouses,
and the Alaska Commercial Company,
now renting a storehouse. has let a con-
tract for a big building, work upon which
will commence at once. There are half
dozen smaller stores, with a complement
of saloons, restaurants and the like.
Without one public dance hall they have
a circulating library and a literary So
ciety. The town is about fifteen miles
from the boundary line on the American
side, and this fact gives its people the
hope of securing much more or the trade
OF the miners of the Forty Mile district
than would otherwise fall to them. For
by taking goods over the trails that lead
away from Eagle City into that country,
the national line need not be crossed and
the necessity of paying duty will be avoid
ed. The winter trails lead up American
and Mission creeks and by the crossing of
a low divide drop down into the tributaries
of the north fork of Forty Mile and
thence any division of that creek may be
reached. The diggings on the South, Den
nison and Mosquito forks are of course
more easily reached from and more
naturally tributary to the town of Forty
Mile, but they are nearly all In Ameri-
can territory while the international
boundary line, to cross which is to settle
with a customs collector, stretches be-
tween them and the town. Forty Mile,
to be sure, may find a means of overcom-
ing this difficulty, but If she cannot
Eagle will certainly build some more log
houses upon the trade of the South Fork.
But that is a tale of town or of two
towns and this is a tale of the mines.
MISSION CREEK, at the mouth of
which sits Eagle City, has developed very
little pay as yet.
WOLF CREEK, a tributary near the
mouth, about which a good deal has
been said this winter has been
proSpected somewhat over Its en-
tire length. Prospects have been
found on No above, Bounds
& Peterson. No 10 above, j. Brown, and
No. %, A. Charlton. A shaft sunk on
Discovery disclosed a three-foot vein of
good coal. On No. 22 pup a man named
Martin last fall struck a quartz lead at
depth Of seven feet which is said to stand
all the tests of genuineness, the seam be-
ing eighty-f1ve feet wide, with granite
walls both sides, and can be traced for
one and a half miles. Assayed it ran
$40 50 to the ton. w. NJ. Woody, A j.
Kelsey, S. B. Ballou and G. w Thurston
located claims and set four men to work
uncovering the rock.
AMERICAN CREEK, its principal trb-
utary, empties into Mission few
miles from the mouth. The creek
and Discovery is twelve miles up
The creek is shallow and all summer
diggings, but it has as yet scarcely been
tested. Jerry Heator owns Discovery and
two adjoining claims and is prospecting
them. The most energy displayed is on
No. above, owned by Lorimar &s Smith
The claim has beeu deyelopinp nav for