The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-13
It Will Rival the Old Days of
1S40.
ECLIPSES THE KLONDIKE
Abernathy Says It Is the Most Rem ark
able Placer Region Ever Discov-
ered-Great Fortunes Are
Quickly Made.


| the remark of Ike Abernathy last
| night, in converse ton with a Standard
reporter.
1T is the most remarkable placer re-
sion that has ever been discovered, and
it output next season will discount
anything that the Klondike has ever
done. 1t is strictly summer camp.
There can be no mining there in the
winter, but many of the men who were
there this last summer will wait so
long that they will not be able to get
out. There are not boats enough there
to bring them all, and they are all
eager to remain until the last possible
minute The result will be that some
OF them will have to stay there all
winter. They can do it all right if they
have provisions. There was quite a
colony in there last winter. Most of
them had to live in tents, as there is
not stick of timber in the country.
and there was little or no lumber thalN
last year. This year there has been
lot shipped in from Puget sound. 1t
sells for $3.50 a thousand and there is
big demand for it. There have been a
good many cabins built and those that
remain this winter will be in better
shape than they were year ago. The
like a tree is a scrubby willow that is
about or feet tall and is as crooked
and rough as anything that ever grew.
This and the accumulation of drift
wood on the beach is all that they have
for firewood. and both are so bad for
fuel that when fire is necessary in a
tent, one man has to sit up and watch
it all the time to see that it keeps burn
ing.
Cape Nome is about 12O miles
straight across from st. MchaerS,
northwest. This is the distance by
steamer. If you travel around by dog
train, it is 400 miles. AS l have said,
it is the most remarkable mining dis
trict that has ever been discovered.
1t is the only district that has been
found in Alaska since the original dis
coveries in the Klondike country. All
the booms that have been started in
the last two years have had no foun-
dation at all. Thousands of men have
followed them and none of them have
made any money. But this one. the
Nome district, is, l believe, destinedsto
become the greatest of them all. 1t
will eclipse the Dawson region, unless
all present signs fail. 1t is so remote
that nothing was known of the rich
discoveries there till this spring, and
there was no rush to the beach dig
gings till this summer. There have
been about 1000, may be 1900, men
there since the middle of summer, and
they have averaged fully $50 a day.
Some of them have made $500 a day.
There will be $4,000 people there next
summer.
The beach diggings are the remark
able feature of this new field. To get
out gold dust, washing with sea water
in rocker, is new experience. There
have been other beach diggings, but
the gold has been the fine flour gold
that is SO hard to hold. There is none of
this in the Nome diggings On the
beach it is fine, but it is easy to hold.
In the creeks of this region the nuggets
are immense in size. And there are
plenty of them, too.
These beach diggings extend along
the tide line for As miles. The govern
ment has reserved a strip 60 feet wide
above the high tide mark, and this
strip, being public property, was this
summer the scene of some of the
strangest mining that the world ever
witnessed. The gold is in spots--that
is, the rich deposits are. One man may
be taking out SIS a day and his neigh
Dor, not 10 feet from him, mag be get
ting 5000. If he sees that this is the
case he simply moves his rocker to
within few feet of his fortunate
neighbor and goes to work. 1t is pub
lie property and nobody can stop you
from digging where you choose. If "a
man has rich spot and has worked
in it all day, when ne leaves it at the
end of his eight hours, another man
may come along and go to work in the
same hole. He sets out the other mans
rocker and puts his own in the hole.
He works in the evening and into the
night. and in the morning the first man
comes back and changes the rockers
again and goes on with his work. I
have seen that done many times.
1.-THE hest results re obt ine6 when
three men work two rockers. Two
rock and the other cleans the ground
and supplies them with dirt. One wo-
man worked with her brother there on
a rocker all summer and made about
$65 a day. There We're, as l have said
about 1000 men rocking on the beach
all summer. Most of them made good
money. Billy Lynch, Who used to live
here, has been making 500 a day.
When I left he intended to stay as long
as he could and then come to Haml-
ton, where his wife is staying. e may
remain all winter. The, fact that it
has been possible for men to work on
this 60-foot strip without owning any
claim has made 1t impossible to get
miners TO work the claims farther up
the beach or on the creeks. The beach |
is staked. above the 60-foot line. for
a distance of As miles. You see it is an
gets in next summer it will be possible |
to get miners, I think and there will |
be a lot of mining done on the claims,
Where very little has been done thus
far.
On the beach above the public strip
there have been many good claims To-
Gated. These will be the producers
next year. In the creeks that come
into the ocean there, there have been
some very rich discoveries made. The
country is a fine one for mining as
the bedrock is only tvs t*et down. 1t
is easily mined and does not require
an outlay of much money before the
returns begin to come in. These creek
claims, on Snow and Anvil creeks. are
the best that l have ever seen any
where. The pay streak is big. 1t runs
clear across the gulches End is all the
way just a little below the surface
While there is not much of the pay
gravel that will yield more to the pan
than that which is found in the klon-
dixie diggngs, there is SO much Oft and
it is so easily worked that man will
a Dlpb N a IA |