The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-05

fewer people in it. Necessarily, there
have been a great many destitute peo-
pie, and looks of misery and desola-
ton have shown in the eyes of many.
With all that, there has been but lit
tie crime probably owing to the strict
ness of the laws and the way they are
enforced. A man got seven years at
the territorial prison at Forty Mile the
other day for breaking into a cache.
During the coolest and shortest
days of the winter l was working a
lay on Bear creek, a mile and a half
below here. The sun didn't show for
"A days, and I can assure you it was
welcome sight when it again showed
on the 9th day Of January. Now the
winter is over. Days are getting long
er rapidly. Snow is settling fast and
will soon be gone. I gave the first
lay up-no good. l sank a shaft 81
feet and drifted 10. then worked for
wages few days in a drift off from
a 50-foot shaft in frozen ground; no
matter what the depth, it is all frozen
ground. Then Tom Wheeler and I put
a hole down on his hillside claim, and
about the first of March we took a
lay on gulch claim on Bear creek,
just below Toms lay. The shaft was
down to bedrock, 3S feet, and so feet
of drift done. The previous workers
had not found a color, and had given
it up. Fourteen days ago we struck
pay; no depth to it, just on bedrock
and a few inches into decomposed bed
rock. Pans runs from 25 cents to $13
per pan-$13.19 being the largest pan.
Have panned three pans per day and
have taken out SOS. OF course, the
large pans are exceptionally large and
are picked. The next largest to the
$3.50 pan was SIPS. Have taken out
in the IA days $50 buckets Of pay dirt,
about one-third Of the dirt raised will
be pay dirt.
And now the semi-hard luck story
comes in: We can't possibly work but
a few days longer; water and gas are
getting in their work with the COM
ing warm weather We are liable to
have to quit any day, and know that
at the most only a few days remain.
A miners bucket holds eight pans of
dirt. 1t is the first color for me since
| have struck the country, and as l
had to desert my outfit on the trail,
and reached Dawson financially embar
raised, it will take my part to pay
up and place me on my feet this
spring.
Pat Calvin got into Dawson from
the outside about March Is. Harry
Taylor, an old Great Falls boy, reach
ed Dawson about Feb. Is. He left Ed
monitor a year ago in February, and
last November found himself still 500
creek. So he travelled with the anchor
ice down the Stickeen river in a boat
with four companions. He went to
Seattle and QUILTED again: left there
the day after Christmas and reached
Dawson over the ice, coming the only
practicable route into this country
by Skaguay. Stampedes have been of
almost daily occurrence this winter
and have all been wildcat haven't
been out on one.
lone of the strange things l have
noticed in this country is that during
the long days of summer the sun rises
in the west. Can you figure that out?
The country. l think. is all right, but
not all are successful, only a few, as
is the history Of all mining camps 1t
is no place except for the hardest of
men, nor a place for men with fami-
lies, unless they bring their families
with them. There is lots more I could
write but the neighbor who takes this |
letter in the morning has called time
He is ready to start, so I must close.
Have they started the smelter at the
Falls? How did the election come out,
city, county and state? Tom sends his |
regards to you and friends. Give my
regards TO all my friends. Yours,
GEORGE H. TREAT" !