The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-06
GOING TO CAPE NOME
Ex-Sherif Hays and Son Will
Seek a Fortune
IN THE NEW GOLD FIELDS
Something About the Country
and Its Wealth.


the city yesterday making some prelim-
mary arrangements and Mr.. Hays, Sr.,
said they would start one week from to-
day. They win outfit at Seattle, and in
eighty or ninety days VIII arrive in Nome,
the new and magic city Of the north,
where they win begin TO pay fabulous
prices for everything they &c, to eat and
dig into the frozen earth for gold. Ham
berger steak will cost them $50, three
fried eggs s., fried ham s150, mush and
milk 30 cents, and everything else in pro-
portion. The only free thing on the bin
of fare will doubtless be a sigh for their
good old Kansas home
Mr.. Hays and his son are two very
hardy men and may stand the trip ad-
mirably. BY the time they get there the
city Of Nome will be a city of probably
60 200, though it is said to have contained
only 5000 last summer. The big steam
ship lines are exerting every energy 10 ac-
commodate the travel to the new gold
field, and they estimate that they can
carry only about 10000 while there are
100000 who want to go. The excitement
following the discovery at Dawson City
and the Klondike is far outdone by the
Cape Nome excitement but Mr.. Hays
says that he and his son will endeavor
TO get in on tie ground floor, as they
will leave Seattle with the first ship ply
ing for Nome City. Mr.. Hays leaves
good Sedgwick county farm and the fam
lily viii carry on the business of the farm
until he returns. All his numerous old
mill in, no
new field and hope that he may return
well laden with the treasures Of the north
beach The mention OF MS going yester-
day put quite a number Of others in the
notion and it is likely that Sedgwick
county Will have quite a colony at Nome
before the year is over.
Gold is dug right out of the sand at
Cape Nome and fabulous fortunes have
been made in a few weeks. The location
of the place is its worst feature. The
gold fields of Cape Nome lie about one
hundred miles northwest from St. Mich
ael and on the southern coast Of Cape
Prince Of Wales peninsula, that western
most bit Of the western hemisphere ex-
tending like a glad hand to the most
eastern shore of the Old World. The cape
is a bit OF land that some archaeOlogists
tell US IS the most historic on earth,
barring Egypt and the Holy Land. They
say that point witnessed the migration
of a race Of people in ages nearly con-
temporaneous with the beginning OF time,
a race that crossed from Siberia TO that
biz of land, possibly dryshod, and was the
creator of all native races on the western
hemisphere.
A cursory exploration from just west Of
Golovin bay to Cape York, and even Cape
Prince Of Wales, a distance Of nearly 800
miles, has developed the fact that the
coast is fat for a distance Of from four
10 seven miles inland, where the foothills
begin gradually ascending to high, round
ed hills, with here and there peaks rising
TO a height Of from 800 TO 1900 feet.
The beach sand extends along the line
OF high tide back several hundred feet to
the tundra, some eight feet higher than
the tide line. This tundra is a morass
covered with a heavy growth of reindeer
moss. For eight or nine months in the
year this tundra is frozen solidly. but
from the middle of June to the middle of
September it Is muck, miry swamp from
the beach sand back to the line Of the
foothills
Along the entire coast line of Norton
sound and Boring sea, as far north as
Cape York and Cape Prince of Wales,
gold has been discovered. and in many
places in fabulous quantities. It is not
confined to the creeks; IT Is distributed
everywhere-in the sands OF the beach
covered by the tide, in the sands above
food tide, in the muck of the tundra and
in the creeks and guIches of the foothills.
The more sanguine say that the locality
Is one vast placer diggings, 1900 square
miles in extent. 500 miles along the coast,
and forty miles inlaud-or so far as IL has
been prOspecteG. No wonder there Is q
rush However, the country has not
been thoroughly exploited. and IL is not
probable shat gold can be found IN paying
quantities everywhere. In the foothills it |
has been found / nthe creeks and some
dry gulches 1t has been found in places
in the tundra. The beach has been pros
pected for over fifty miles. and there the
precious metal seems uniformly distrib-
uted.
The climate is very severe in that local
fly and work can be carried on only three
or four months in the year. from the
middle Of May 10 the middle or latter
t..
the rainfall approximating that Of west
ern Oregon and Washington, bat at times
during those months the sun beats down
with torrid ferceneSs. Working In ice
water under a burning sun Is one OF the
peculiar conditions Of that country. The
waters Of Norton sound are frozen almost /
solid in winter. and it Is only in the sum
mer months that ships or steamers can
approach within landing distance of the
beach. Navigation generally opens early
In June and ut times IN the latter part
OF May High winds prevail in the winter
months. and as the lowest recorded tenn
perature was IS degrees below zero. one
must necessarily be Well housed ID winter
there. Alaska's plague, the mosquito, IS
as prevalent as in the interior, and mos
quito nets are an absolute necessity.
The climate Of Nome Is said 70 be much
worse than that Of the Klondille. At
Nome. during the summer months, the
rainfall is quite heavy, 8 regular Oregon (
mist" falling for days at a time. and The J
best waterproof clothing = an absolute I
necessity in every mans outfit At times I
the temperature IN summer goes IS hish I
as Ia0 or les degrees and working in a 1
prospecting hole, the bottom OF which Is I
See or fr2zen ground. with torrid hsat /
beating tcwn on ones head. is not con- /
duciye 10 health. In addition 10 this the /
evaporation from the swamp tundra 5
dangerous to the human system.
Last fail there were over on hundred 4
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