Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1900-01-06
ALASKA'S GOLDEN BEACH
Like a Chapter From the Ara
bian Nights.
WEALTH OF CAPE NOME
New Facts About the Golden Sands
Dawson Will Be About Deserted
The Country All staked for Miles
Cost of Food and Fuel.

Cost of Food and Fuel.
Who solves the riddle of the Cape
Nome beach sands, gold laden beyond
the dreams of the most avaricious, says
a correspondent of the st. Louis Globe
Democrat, will earn enduring fame and
the gratitude OF the hundreds of pros
Dectors who will search during the
coming year the low mountains border
ing the Arctic Ocean and Behring Sea
for the mother lode" The offspring
OF this mother lode" are the placers of
Snake River Nome River. Anvil Creek
and score of other streams bordering
Behring Sea and the Arctic Ocean, 135
miles north OF st. Michael. 200 mics
northwest Of the Yukon's mouth.
II is easy TO tell the truth about Cape
Nome. but a very hard thing to make
people believe you are not INDUCING In
the widest flights of fancy, OF the
Arabian Nights order. However, IT
happened that such very well-known
army officers as Major Philip Ray and
Captain Walker. who were stationed in
Alaska last summer. made a thorough
investigation of the diggings, and their
reports at Washington substantiate
everything that is said in this article.
But probably the best proof of all of
the wonderful Cape Nome sands, where
gold was as free as the air TO over 1000
stranded miners last summer, lies in
the sacks of the yellow stun which
have been brought down during the
past three months and sold to Uncle
Sam through the government assay Of
flee at Seattle.
Assayer Wing estimates that at least
{i00, 900 in Cape Nome gold has been de-
posted with him this fall, while the
records of the transportation COM
panies show that as much more has
been disposed of through other sources.
or sent to San Francisco.
The discoveries of the Cape Nome
district were Peter Linderberg. John
Lindbloom and Johan Grandson. The
first two were sailors on the whaler
Alaska Becoming dissatisfied with
their lot, In August 1898, they deserted.
landing on the beach near Cape Nome.
on Norton Sound. They hid for few
days and then were taken into camp,
hungry and worn, by the tribe of Es-
kimos. A few days later they canoed
up the Snake River on a little pros
pecting trip. The result was that
Linderberg and Lindbloom found gold
bearing gravel on shallow bedrock
on the bed of q creek entering Snake
River. They rocked out over $4,000 on
the second day, when they had laid out
their claims. They kept their secret
for a few days. brought in some of
their countrymen from Port Clarence.
and then organized the district. Since
that day they have located claims all
over the district, which is thirty miles
square. Ii is estimated that each one
of the three discoveries of Cape Nome
has taken out upwards of 100000 since
their lucky find was made.
The romance about Cape Nome,
however. lies in the discovery of gold
in the beach sands. In June. this year.
the camp numbered not over 300 peo-
ple. Late in the month steamers from
Dawson brought hundreds of miners
down the Yukon bound outside" hav-
ing found mining in the interior I'M
profitable. They camped in tents on
the beach at Nome, waiting for the
steamers to take them to Seattle. Half
of them had barely enough money to
pay their passage. The rest were pre-
pairing to work their way to Seattle
One day. one of the miners in tent
accidentally found gold colors in sand
beneath his tent. He seized pan, and
with the sea water PANIED a dozen
pans full of the dirt. The deeper he
went into the moist beach the higher
grew the number of colors. In an
hours work he found a pay streak,
with pans averaging Toe to 15c. That
settled IL. The next day sluice boxes.
men with pans and shovels were thick
on the beach as flies around a molas-
ses barrel in a country store
For weeks the beach fairly swarmed
with men. All made wages of SIS up to
$50 per day. All who were working at
wages in the little City of Anvil. now
called Nome, threw up their positions
and went to paning gold on the beach.
The deposits lay in a 60-foot strip be-
tween low and high tide, reserved by
the government. 1t was free to all who
came. There was no stalking of claims,
as no title could pass from the govern
ment.
At one time there We're over 5000
men at work, on the beach. The steam
ers that came from Seattle with miners
bound for Dawson. for the Koyukuk,
Tanana and Forty-Mile districts. land
ed their passengers at Nome. Soon the
country was staked for miles. The
steamers two months later began
bringing the beach miners to Seattle.
Instead of coming down from the north
with empty pockets. all had money.
The individual amounts ran from few
hundred to $4,000. Great excitement
reigned~ among north-bound miners.
and returning steamers went away
with every foot of space occupied by
passengers and men.
Out OF a space OF ground 20 feet
square on Anvil Greek two miners took
$4,000 in a day. Back to the hills went
the prospectors, over the tundra, in
which they found colors. In the spring
an effort viii be made TO find the moth
er lode, from which, ii is supposed by
the miners. glaciers ground down the
gold-bearing rocks into the sea ages
ago. dcpositing their precious contents
on the sands for American miners to
find at the dawn of the twentieth GEN.
tury. Nome is a typical mining camp in
Alaska. Half of the people will live this
winter in tents. Every article of food
is dear. Wages are $40 per day and up.
Hundreds have already gone to Daw-
son to winter. expecting to take the
first boats for the new mining fields in
the spring, beating the all-water route
several weeks.
Appropriate.