The Portland daily press., 1900-04-13
GOLD AT CAPE NOME
Unguardsd I'm Miners Tents--Many
Curious Recepsaeles for Great
Wealth.

er Tor seven years and ons Of the first
two dozen Insn who located claims at
oaps Nome, is Visiting relatives In town.
He Is investing rome Of his suddenly
made money in real estats ana prsparine
TO return 70 his placer mines on Anvil
Creek At Caps Nome by the first steamer
to Alaska from san Francisco. "Ons Of
this most notable things about the new
placer gold flslds at Cape Nome," said
he the other day. twas the careless way
that the gold was stored and cared for
last summer. It was common 70 find
five-gallon kerosene oil cans half or
wholly filled with gold, standing on the
fio,r OF an unguardai tent or In the cor.
nsr Of a cabin. I believe that jnst before
tine steamer bertha SEIZED from Nome last
October with q big shipment Of gold dust
and nuggets to ths San Francisco mint
there was about half tsn Of gold stored
in all manner Of primitive recsptaciss
and odd wsys In the tants on the beach.
BESIDES. there was fully 1880 pounds OF
geld similarly saved ip the tents and
oapins OF the m inera along the creeks and
In the sravelly aulohas back OF Nome
Any hollow thing was used-seup tur-
Gems. tin cans, glass bottles. gas rips.
paint buckets. fur garments and even
stock iags and goloshea. Very few Of the
miners failed to get some gold the first
day they psnnsd and rocked for It. Their
heard grew fast and they had no strong
box, no pouch, In which to store it. In
some Instances the maksshifts were
amusing. One man made . great pouch
Ter his gold out OF An enormous chest and
back protsotor-a sort Of waistooat made
II sea!skin. which be had cured. dressed
and made himself. Another miner
utilized joint OF stovepips. He didn't
have even a tent when he went to Nome.
some one threw away a rusty stovepipe
Joint and the miner got 10. He cut q
round piece OF board and lifted it In one
end of the pipe. Then he stood the pipe
Up on the end Of his olsim. and dumped
into 1t each day the gold dust a. fast ~
he washed and dried 1t. believe he got
about 30 pounds OF gold for his SEASONS
work last year.
"a lot OF the gold washers on the beach
used wcrnout rubber boots as receptacles
for gold dust. A Swede ON Snow oreek
had three rubber boots nearly full Of gold
last September. He kept the boots stand
Ing bshiud his bunk OF blankets. A
loaded rifle hung ON nails over the boots
as . sort of warning that any thief OF the
treasure would be shot with that particu-
lar weapon. Bear bottles full Of golodust
were common abo ut the Nomers' habi-
tations, and some used old coffee-pots.
A man on Anvil creek, near my claim.
mnde his wAlrus.skin cap q goiddust
rag. lin tomato -oans and fruit-jars
standing under miners hunks and full OF
gold were common all over Cape Nome
last year.
"Ths abundance of gold at Cape Nome
q without prscedept. We thought Klon-
c ike rich. but Cape Nome Is FAR richer.
My brother wrote me from Dawson City
last January that 1000 people were
making ready to leave the klondike and
get to Cape Nome as fast as possible.
| There are eleven claims being developed
az Nome that are all richer than any sin.
| gle claim ever known In the klondike,
and the Cape Nome field has only been
oursorily prospsetsd 50 far. The gold
output from Nome last summer was
| 81. eco. 900 greater than that from the
Klondike during Its first SEASON OF opera
tions. have seen greater individual
boards Of gold ON Cape Nome than j ever
| saw In the klondiks. / know q camp
| of dozen miners, all natives Of Connec-
ticut. who had lot of 1ns claims on
snow creek. / saw at their camp one
Sunday last summer q pile OF gold that
was sold to the Alaskan commercial
company a few days later for u, $50.
That represented about II weeks work.
| Besides, the men had spent some 10000
t. lNa~Na AAA NA0e eNuNNA
from gold washing by doingIcarpenter
work about their sIuices. When hap
paned to 20 strolliug Into the company
camp tent the men had aln ost nntsned
a careful Weighing Of the golden heap.
The gold lay heaped mp In the middle OF
a canvas sheet. 'Ooms here. Quinn, and
look at this, said one of the miners to
me as l entered. 'There's the tiggsst
gold sight you everBaw. How's that for
few lonely ousses out OF luck, who have
teen chasing over Alaska for a bare liv-
ing these five years?
81 have seen in a walk about the camps
at Cape Nome ON Sunday afternoon
many a five gallon kerosens oil can full
of dust and worth abont $4,000. Out
on Nome creek four miners had a wash
tub haif-full Of gold dust. By the way,
there was a tragedy over that gold. Two
weeks after was there one Of the part
ners was shot dead by an unknown man,
but 1t has always Desn believed that one
of his partners killed him because he had
stolen soms of the firms gold. One
Norwegian miner who can't read or
write, and has q claim ON william creek,
showed me a pair OF heavy canvas over
aIls that were his treasury. He had sewed
and ovsrlapped the legs Of the garment
so as to make two great, heavy bags.
think he must have had 100 pounds
ayoirdupois of the yellow metal on hand
whSn / was at his cabin, / have seen
several times in one day In the tents
along suoh creeks as Anvil, Sake and
zar, 500. GOO worth of gold, and / was
not trying to see the stun either. Col.
j. h. Mason told me that In one day Last
summer he saw George Miller, one OF the
first haif-dozen white men in the Caps
Nome diggings, and five helpers siuice
NEARLY 200 ounces Of gold from Aillsrs
claim (No. 81 on Anvil creek. That
makes the yield worth about 5000. Bah
Emory, who came down the coast from
Nome on the Portland last August, and
fold his gold at the San Francisco mint,
had about $40, COZ more in gold saved up
when 1 last saw him and he expected TO
turn the amount MP 20 $50, 600 by his an
nual cleanup or sluicing this season.