Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-09
SHOULD STAY AWAY.
William Reece Says Gold Fields in
Vicinity of Nome Are a Fake.
ADVISES PEOPLE TO STAY At HOME.
Tells Story Of a PerIous Trip over
the "Tundra"-Has Two Claims But
Will Let Some Other Person Work
Them.
From Fridays Daily.

From Fridays Daily.
William Reese, secretary of the COM
mittee on public lands in the house Of
representatives, and his son Harlan,
have returned from Alaska where they
went last July on prospecting tour.
In an interview Mr.. Reese gives his
experience in that frozen country and
concludes it by saying, that if man
has funds enough to pay his way to
Alaska and return, he had better put
them to some other use.
Mr.. Reese thinks the steamship com.
panies are responsible for the many
tales of fabulous wealth of our north
ernmost possession, and he also thinks
they will shortly begin to circulate
stories about the desirability of locat-
ing in new section. Mr.. Reese tells
the story of his trip in the following:
i first became infatuated with the
stories of Nome's great richness last
winter in Washington City, where the
question was pretty we'll discussed be.
fore the committee on public lands in
the house of representatives It was
claimed then that no miner had the
right to work the tide land. Legtsla-
ton was sought to relieve that difficult
ty. 1t was also claimed that road
way sixty feet wide extended along the
beach by reason of the homestead act
of Alaska that was passed in 1898. Ma
jor Lacey claimed the necessity for
maintaining road way along the
beach. Other gentlemen, especially in
the senate, contended that there was
no necessity for maintaining road
way and that the act Of 1898 did not
apply, and when the civil code of
Alaska was passed, so persistent were
some of the senators that they actual
ly declared that the road should not
apply in front of mineral lands and in
front of town sites, but it was demon
strated that it was an absolute neces-
sity to maintain that roadway and if
Major Lacey had had his way, main.
tanning roadway sixty feet wide par.
allel to the mean high tide, thousands
and dare say millions of dollars oil
property might have been saved dur.
ing the heavy storm from the eighth
to the fifteenth of September.
ut opened the roadway and as a re-
suit, men lost their property and
many were rendered homeless. Judge
Moves, have understood, now con
tends that the roadway shall be main.
tanned.
Nome, in the very nature of things
cannot become substantial and dura
BILE city. AS to the health of the PEG
pie, am inclined to think they arc
quite as healthy there as they would
be in any other part of the country
were they to submit themselves tc
the same exposure. The natives, how
ever, are in a dying condition. Al
Dutch harbor, at st. Michaels, at the
mouth of the Yukon and at Nome, also
wherever I had occasion to observe
the natives / found that they all had
consumption and were dying at all
these places in large numbers.
Day Is Past.
1--WE left the city of Seattle on the
steamship Roanoke, July IA. and ar
rived in Nome on the second day OF
August. There was heavy storm or
at that time, or at least it was out oil
the question to land any one. Of
course Nome has no harbor and large
vessels are compelled to anchor some
four or five miles out from the city
They hold themselves in readiness tt
pull out to sea when storm approach
es, which is not very uncommon
thing in that locality. On landing III
Nome, of course, we. like almost every
other party that entered the place, be
gan our prospecting work on the
leach. We had heard many stories