The San Francisco call., 1899-07-15
NOT MUCH FAITH
IN CAPE NOME
Returned Miners Doubt
Its Richness.
EXAGGERATED TALES SENT
REAL SITUATION DECIDEDLY
LESS FLATTERING.
The Steamer Alliance Returns From
St. Michael With Dawson Par
ties, but With Little
Gold.
Special Dispatch to The Call.


Michael the season was not far enou"h
advanced to determine the future OF the
diggings. Prospectors were confident
that the country would prove very rich.
Colors were found almost everywhere
throughout the zone, which is t--irty-
five miles square, and nearly all the
available ground had been staked. In
some instances there are four or five
claimants to one property. AS soon as
warm weather sets in and material for
sluicing is at hand the true value OF the
ground will be known.
The Alliance brings news of the
death of several miners near Cape
Nome. The following are the names of
five:
JOE FOUNTAIN.
MAYNARD GROTEAU.
- CARR.
DOCTOR BRIGHAM.
JOHN BURKE.
All of these save Burke were from
Holyoke, Mass, and were members of
the party known as the Rich party. Dr.
Brigham died from natural causes.
Carr and Burke froze to death. Out
of a party of 100 miners at Cape Nome
eighteen severe cases of scurvy devel-
oped during the winter. The stricken
men were loaded on sledges and hauled
over the leo to St Michael for medical
treatment.
Jacob Made of Canton. O., who was
passenger on the Alliance, thinks the
predictions of the richness of Cape
Nome diggings will not be realized.
He said:
ION several of the claims 1 saw gold
taken out, but in very small quantities.
In no instance that l know of had bed
rock been reached. 1t never Will be
reached until they can get wood in
there. The only wood in the district IS
the drift wood, which is almost as pre-
cious as gold. For six days / inVeSti-
gated the camp and then came away
thoroughly convinced that the diggings
were by no means as rich as reported.
Hundreds. at the time was there, were
hocking in from Dawson. Many viii
come out this summer thoroughly dis
gusted."
Among the passengers of the Alliance
was a party of ten from Lowell Mass,
which went into the Koyukuk District
last year. l.. r. harrington, member
of the party, said:
MY candid advice is for people to
stay away from Koyukuk, The outlook
is not encouraging. We took up par
ty of sixteen and left six of them there
to see what this summers work would
pan out. We do not come back disgust
ed and sore with the country. but be-
lieve that there is not a sufficiency of
gold TO warrant a rush into the coun-
try.
David F. Lane. a former real estate
dealer of San Francisco, who was pas
senger on the Alliance, brings the lat
est news from Ophir and Melsing
creeks, tributaries Of the NeuUk Lux
River which is reached by going from
Cape Nome to Golovin Bay and thence
up Fish River. A stampede from Cape
Nome to these creeks took place last
November Lane says pay dirt was
asaEN f1
to SO to the pan. Nobody has struck
bedrock yet He declares the country
is no place for a poor man TO rush off
to- The wages paid the past winter
were S. dav and the only chance
poor man has is to work for wages or
take a lay. Lays were eagerly taken
on a basis of 80 per cent Lane says
miner cannot afford TO take lay for
less than 80 per cent.
Lane secured a number of claims on
Ophir and Melsing creeks. On one
claim in which he is interested fifty
men had taken lays. On another claim,
the. Dusty Diamond Company of Chi
J cago has secured lay. In two hours
working the members of this company
took out $50.
In letter written to Lane by his
partner from Council City on June 25
! last, the latter said:
Yesterday four men on Snow Gulch
! DR.. Kittleson took out $42 from one
| pan Of dirt. Many pans running from
! $40 to $25 have been washed out.
| AS good story as any is that Of the
/ finding of a rich claim on Dexter Creek
| by Leo Lounenburg. He struck good
ground on Dutch Creek, in Eel Dorado
| district He then made trip to Nome
and back and with an old rickety rock
er washed out S23 in two hours on his
| claim on Dexter Creek. With good
rocker he can take out $3.50 day, and
with sluices $1,000 a day, and every
thing seems to pay from the grass
roots
Very few claims up to the time Lane
left for the outside had been prospect
ed. Unprospected claims, or claims
showing pay dirt from the surface
down, were already commanding fab
ulous sums. On Glacier Creek, tribu-
tary Of either Ophir or Mesling, offers
have been made as high as $25, 900 for a
claim. On Ophir Creek itself good
claims were reckoned as high as $780,
e00 All the good ground has been
pretty we'll staked out.
! Some of the passengers who came
down on the Alliance do not bring en-
| couraging reports from the Cape Nome
country One of these passengers was
George Case of Ithaca, n. Y, who does
| not hesitate to brand Cape Nome as a
fake pure and simple.
| There is no gold at cape Nome, ne
said. THE entire Cape Nome excite
ment has been worked up by transpor-
| tatfon and trading companies for the
purpose of taking people UP there and
| getting money out of them. I have
been in several parts of Alaska, includ-
| ing Dawson City and Birch Creek. and
there is plenty of gold there. but there
| is none at Cape Nome"
j. " Barrie, another of the Alliance
passengers, claims to have come from
Cape Nome and brings discouraging re-
! ports of the wealth of that district. He
claims to have been in that country
about a year and says he saw no pay
ing claims.
Captain Walker, in command of the
troops at st. Michael has sent a detail
of ten men under Lieutenant Spaulding
| to Cape Nome to preserve order.
ThesAlliance had 135 passengers, most
| Of whom were from Dawson City.
Purser Shaw says he had only about
SIS, 900 worth of gold dust turned over
TO him.
The Alliance brought consignment
of whalebone from Dutch Harbor
which had been landed by one of the
| New Bedford whaling fleet.