The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-30
SUFFER|Ncs OF MINERS /
Fifteen Hundred Men Went to
the Kotzebue Country.
DECEIVED BY CIRCULARS
There Is Not Bit of Gold There Un-
less the Government Helps Them
Out Many Must Starve
or Die of Gold.

| Seattle, Wash. June 29.-The latest
| from kotzebue sound, Alaska, is given
| in a letter from Albert c. Thees, for
merly of this city, who writes under
| date of Jan. 8, that not a bit of gold
| has been found where he wintered on
the Kowak river, and the question
with the miners there is how to get
away There were in camp % white
and 2S natives opposite the mouth of
Hunt river Not a cent of gold. says
Thees, has been taken out of the whole
country, and they consider they are
entirely out of the mineral belt. One
man was drowned having broken
through the ice while hauling mail into
the country from the coast. A good
deal of sailing 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, 700 people In the Kotzebue,
90 Wick river and 125 on the Notark.
The health of the whites has been good,
but the natives have died in large num-
bers.
San Francisco, June 29.-The asso-
ciated press has received a letter from
DR.. ]. S. Stone, formerly well-known
physician of this city, telling of the
situation in the Kotzebue country. The
letter is dated Kowak river Alaska.
month of Maune Luck river, Jan /,
1899. DR.. Stone says that 1880 men paid
5000 passage money to Kotzebue. besides
buying provisions, clothing, mining
tools, etc, on the strength of circu-
lars issued by certain transportation
companies announcing the richest gold
fields in Alaska" and offering other
inducements to secure travel on their
lines.
THE circulars" writes Dr. Stone
"were malicious lies made out of whole
cloth and no gold has been found on
Kotzebue sound or either the Kowak,
Notark or Selawik rivers, which flow
into Hothem inlet a part of the sound,
or any other 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
So feet deep with no bedrock or color
being struck.
About Nov. / rush was started
for the Allashook on reports being re
ceived of gold being found in enormous
quantities. Hopeful prospectors, after
journeying 16 days, cutting trails, drag
ging heavily-loaded sleds with the Their
| mometer registering from As to 60 de-
grees below zero, reached Beaver City,
| only to find the reports absolutely
| false. The report has been started by
a merchant who had supplies to sell
and by the recorder of claims. Reports
4 from other rivers are just as discour-
aging.
| "Of the 1900 men who came here,
probably half have returned. The re-
mainder are here waiting for the ice
to break up and for the possible arri-
val of a vessel to take them back to
| civilization. This country is cold and
| produces nothing to sustain life. Of
| the men who are here not so have
means TO get away and must unless
| the United States government send one
of it's transports here die of cold or
starve. One-half of the terrible suffer-
ing 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 dated June
| 20, 1885, We do not know If we be-
long to Spain, Germany or the United
| States"
Mr.. Stone wishes the fact of the
necessity of governmental aid i'm
pressed upon the people until the neces-
sary aid is sent to the distressed Amer
| leans who were hoodwinked by the
transportatio companies.