The San Francisco call., 1899-05-19

saw Dawson, heard the complaint that
everything is staked" and passed on, has
worked out the result that most people
expected it to work out. Several ambi-
tious towns have been born farther down.
an old town or two have been revived and
creeks and creeks and creeks-a hundred
of them. many hitherto unheard of-have
found queer names for themselves and
been given strange places on strange, be-
widerng maps. But the men who scaled
the glaciers or climbed the divides breast
deep with snow hauling their sleds after
them into regions to them unknown, have
in very many cases come back this spring
triumphant.
So, from all along the river as far down
as Seventy Mile al least the blithe spring
air breathes deep satisfaction. Nothing
very sensational has been developed, but
there is a wide area of good pay located
and with that the miner is disposed to be
very hopeful, with hope that scales up
ward till il becomes jubilant with some
Cwho have not been well accustomed to
good paw and back again to mere con-
tent with otherS-Who have seen much Of
the ounee-to-the-pan diggings of the
Klondike without being able to locate
any such for themselves To these, how
ever, the difference in the size of the
claim on the different sides OF the llne
brings compensation. The miners on each
creek on the American side have the right
to fix the size of the claim within the
maximum of the law, but in almost all
of them the law of the books Q32Ox66O
feeD is the law of the creeks in this re-
gard and the man is considered difficult
to please who. finding twenty acres OF 10
cent gravel which he may claim as his
own for a recording fee of 81 90, still re-
mains unhappy.
A great number of creeks, old ana new;
have during the past winter discovered
pay streakS of this quality, ranging from
TO 80 cents a pan, through extensive
areas, and a new impulse has been given
to the entire region.
or below, there are three points at which
prospectors have Centered and from which
they have radiated back into the hills:
These are Forty Mile, at the mouth Of
Forty Mile River fifty-siX miles below
Dawson. Eagle City, fifty-fOur miles be
miles below Eagle. With an immense re-
gion back of these places, vetned with
hundreds of creeks, most OF them
now known to be gold bearing, each has
its banner creek of which it boasts. At
Forty Mile Creek they conjure with Jack
Wade, at Eagle City Slate Creek is the
word and at Seventy Mile Flume. OF
these Jack Wade mas within the past
few weeks become pre-eminent. The
find there rises out of the common level Of
''3 to 10 cent pans" that has, in reputa-
n.
vast region indefinitely spoken Of as
the American side" like statue to
Croesus in Poverty Flat. Forty Mile
stands, geographically, but one remove
from Dawson, however, and in such close
companionship with Gold Hill 1t takes
much TO excite its people. a few days
ago six pans were taken out OF hole in
No. below upper discovery on Jack
Wade running in succession as follows:
SO 20, 81 20, 81, S., So 50, 81 A. While the.
men We're digging in this hole several big
chunks of gold, round and smooth as the
pebbles OF a brook, fell from the walls, to
the astonishment and delight Of the dig
gers, for they had not until that time had
any suspicion that their dirt was worth
above IS cents to the pan. One of the
nuggets weighed SIS 20. another S16 and
another SIS so. The creek is, of course.
now located from end to end with
double row OF benches or side claims. 1t
is about twenty-five miles long and is
about sixty miles from the town of Forty
Mile The town is in Canadian territory,
the creek in American. The trail to the
creek leads up Forty Mile River to Steel
Creek. forty miles from the mouth, cross
ing the international boundary at Sam
Patchs, twenty-three miles up. By way
of Steel Creek and over a low divide the
prospeCtor gets into Grace Creek a small
tributary Of Wade.
There are several hundred men now
working on the creek, about 200 having
gone in since the big find was made. The
strike was made on No. below upper dis
covery by the owners, Taylor & Able,
latter name, though they are not related.
Previous to the fall Of the big nuggets
the best pan had been 20 cents. with 2l4
to feet of gravel, in which that kind Of
pay was found. Bedrock is from to 15
feet deep and the ground is easily worked.
The gold is of light color. worn smooth,
Gulch, which, on the other side divide,
heads up in the same hills. Jack Wade
Creek empties into Walker Fork of Forty
Mile River; Work Is, or was at the time
hGfnp done 4
claim, No. l6; Colman Bros No. 13; on
No. below the upper end, and on Frank
Copley s, Gus Hunsucker's and Ed Mayer 8
claims, l. and g. where good pay was be-
ing taken out. On the lower end of No 2
a. Stewart was taking out dirt ranging
from to % cents, his high pan being
81 IS. Clark & Myers have sunk thirteen
holes crosscutting their claim and found
pay In each of the holes. In No. above
the mouth Henry Benis. with little pros
pecting, found as high as 40 cents to the
pan,
Altogether thirty claims have been pros
pected on the creek this winter and every
creek are generally 1000 feet; few that
were staked before this regulation was
made are allowed to remain at 1920 feet
The creek was staked in great part in the
names OF people who were never on the
creek, powers OF attorney being used by
general consent. 1t is reasonably certain
that, should the creek turn out as II is
now expected IT will, these claims will be
jumped and plenty of trouble result The
creek is staked from an upper and lower
discovery and also from the mouth up TO
lower discovery. Jack Wade, for whom
it is named, is an old Yukoner who is
said 10 have got lost in there some
years ago in ranging over the hills but
after some weeks of wandering came ont
with the news that this was a good creek
he having gotten % cents without irving
The Forty Mile digglngs are about the
oldest in this Yukon country. Forty Mile
was town long before Circle CITY was
thought of. 1t is called Forty Mile he
cause II was supposed to be forty miles
below Fort Reliance, Jack McOuesten's
carly establishment (some ten miles down
the river from Dawson), only a few
crossed logs of which establishment re-
main. Forty Mile River is a long h,It
shallow stream with many divisions. In
winter 1t affords an excellent trail huf
in summer II is not navigable EXCEPT for
polling boats, and the canyon, about fif
teen miles from it's mouth adds greater
difficulty to this difficult method Fifty
three miles from the mouth O'Brien
Creek, which heads in the American
Creek country, enters the river, and eieh-
teen miles farther UP the North Fork
branches away In the same direction.
with a hundred tributaries. South Fork
swings away in the opposite direction.
heading up in the Sixty Mile divide. Dem
nison's Fork on the south and Mosquito
on the north divide the waters again in