The San Francisco call., 1899-03-18
DAWSON'S SPRING
CLEANUP WILL
BE ENORMOUS
Output OF Gold Certain to Be Far
in Excess Of That OF a
Year AGO.
BY SAM w. WALL.

DAWSON, Feb. 14.-The sun stands
daily for four hours above the south
eastern horizon now and the spring
cleanup is entering into every mans
conversation. l have made three trips
of inspection to different divisions of
this mining district, covering all the
main creeks, and find in all Of them
great deal more work under way than
was attempted last year. The output
therefore will doubtless be nearly as
great in excess of that of last year as
was that of last year over that OF the
year before. For six miles on Dominion
Creek, in the Indian River division,
covering the region between the upper
and lower discoveries, and a short dis
tance above and below, almost every
claim is being worked and big dumps
succeed each other continuously. For
fifteen miles below dumps appear at
frequent intervals. On Sulphur Creek,
another division of the Indian River,
conditions are similar, the Improvement
over last year being in like proportion.
On Hunker Greek the increased devel-
Opment is almost as marked and great
proportion of the gross output VIII be
credited to it in the general tootings
aext summer. An immense amount OF
prospecting work is being done all over
this vast region and good strikes are re-
ported from many widely separated
points. Work is being done on creeks
that last year only figured as so many
crooked lines upon the map ana were
heard of only as places to which STAN
pedes, for no good reason that anybody
could then discover, had taken place.
This is particularly the case with Eu-
reka Creek and Quartz Creek, in the
Indian River division, and on Gold Kun
in the Klondike division.
A new strike is reported on Fiat
Creek one of the main branches of the
Klondlke, one hundred miles from DaW-
son.
The feature of the mining situation
this year is the bench or hillside claim,
which Widens the possibilities OF the
product by half and turns the whole
year into an open season. A rev
years ago what little mining was done
in this country was done in the sum-
mer Then the winter method OF
burning" or thawing the ground came
into vogue, by which bedrock could be
reached while the frost binds the water
that at other times mandates the works:
In the summer, for this reason. the soId
that is taken out must come from near
the surface. In the old period of bar
diggings and surface skimm1ng the
summer was the open season. When
the riches of the deeper bedrock were
discovered through the new method OF
reaching them no man was salsned
with the products of the sandbar and
staked for himself a creek claim and
emploved most of the summer in get
ting out wood and making other pre-
variations for the winters digging. The
winter then became the open season.
With the wider and constant prospect
ing that followed the big rush OF gold
seekers it was found that the creek bot
toms did not contain all the wealth OF
the country This discovery was made
on the famous Skookurn Hill or Shook
um Gulch, which faces Bonanza, lit
tie below the mouth of Eldorado Creek.
The benches or hillsides of all the
creeks where gold had been found in
quantity have since been searched and
many of them have developed as large
returns and some of them larger than
do the adjoining creek claims. The
benches on Eldorado and Bonanza have
DEVELOPED great pay. Several of those
on Dominion form the choicest prop
erty of that creek. Victoria, French
and Gold hills, facing Eldorado, are
now as famous producers as the TWO
Skookums and are punctured with
prospect holes and shafts all over their
surface and to their very SUBMITS. Ex-
perts easily trace the 'old river chan
nels" all over this country now, wher-
ever these finds are made. The record
ed bench and hillside claims greatly
outnumber the creek claims and yet,
as | have said, they were not known
last year except on SkoOkum Hill.
Many a man went out of this country
last summer carrying with him and
spreading the diScouraging and d1scon-
solate cry that everything is staked'
who tramped over ground on ms way TO
the boat that has since made some
more persistent proSpector rich. On the
| L, I,rE eyfn nnd on
ground on Dominion Creek that at that
time no one thought of stalking. Last
summer. a few months later, one man
with a rocker washed out $240 day
from it. l have one acquaintance who
came into the country only last June
and staked a bench away down near
the mouth of Bonanza, where the creek
bottom spreads a half mile wide and
nobody had previously thought 1T worth
while to hunt and trace its banks. AS
| he and his companions knew no better
they went to prospecting and in their
first hole and just under the moss they
| found gravel containing all kinds or
| money" They Immediately began to
quarrel among themselves and the
claim was sold readily for $4,000
That the near future holds many
radical changes in the methods of min
| ing this frozen earth there is now no
question. Improved methods will
shorten the life of the placer mine and
| two years will doubtless see Bonanza
! and Eldorado creeks eliminated from
the situation, except, perhaps, for big