Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-11-15

pipe joint and the miner got it. He
! cut round piece of board and fitted it
in one end of the pipe. Then he stood
! the pipe up on end or his claim, and
dumped into it each day the gold dust
, as fast as he washed and dried it. |
believe he got about 90 pounds of gold
for his seasons work last year.
: a lot Of the gold washers on The
! beach used WORKOUT rubber boots as
! receptacles for gold dust. A Swede Oh
i! Snow creek had three rubber boots
nearly full OF sold last September
/ He kept the boots standing behind lis
/ bunk OF blankets. A loaded rife hung
on nails over the boots as a sort al
warning that any thief of the treasure
would be shot with that particular
weapon. Beer bottles full of gold dusT
We're common about the Nomers'
| habitations, and some used coffee
pots. man on Anvil creek, near my
claim, made his walrus-sl1in cap a gold
dust bag. Tin tomato-cans and fruit
jars standing under miners hunks and
full Of gold were common ali over Cape
Nome last year.
The abundance of gold at Cape
Nome is without precedent. We
thought Klondike rich, but Cape Nome
is far richer. Ny brother wrote me
from Dawson City last January that
1000 people were then making ready
to leave Klondike and get to Cape
Nome as fast as possible There are
II claims being developed at Nome
that are all richer than any single
claim ever gnown in the Klondike, and
the Cape Nome field has only been
cursorily prospected so far. The gold
output from Nome last summer was
S4,200,000 greater than that from she
klondike during the first season of
operations. / have seen greater IN
dividual boards of gold on Cape Nome
than | ever saw ia the Klondike.
know a camp of dozen miners, all
natives Of Connecticut, who had a lot
of fine claims on Snow creek. I saw
at their camp one Sunday last Septem-
Der pile Of gold that was sold to the
Alaskan commercial company few
days later for s79,350. That repre-
scented about IA weeks work. Be
sides, the men had spent some $4,000 in
fumes for sluices and had lost time
from gold washing by doing carpenter
work about their sluices When |
happened to go strolling into the com
pany camp tent the men had almost
finished careful weighing of the gold
en- heap. The gold lay heaped UP in
the middle of canvas sheet Come
here, Quinn, and look at this said one
of the miners to me as I entered
There's the biggest gold sight you
ever saw. How's that for q few lonely
cusses out of luck, who have been
chasing over Alaska for a bare living
five years?'
II have seen in a walk about the
camps at Cape Nome on a Sunday af
ternoon many a fiYe-gallon kerosene oil
can full of dust and worth about $14,.
900. Out on Nome creek four miners
had washtub half-full of gold dust
BY the way, there was a tragedy over
that gold. Two weeks after | was
there one of the partners was shot
always been believed that one of his
partners killed him because he had
stolen some of the firms gold. C1e
Norwegian miner, who can't read or
write, and has q claim On William
creek, showed me pair of heavy can
vas overalls that were his treasury
He had sewed and oyerlapped the legs
of the garment SO as to make two
great, heavy bags. | think he must
have had 100 pounds avoirdupois of The
yellow metal on hand when was at
his cabin. I have seen several times
in one day in the tents along such
creeks as Anvil, Snake and Gar, $780,
600 worth of gold, and was not trying
to see the stuff. either. Col. ]. E.
Mason told me that in one day last
summer he saw George Miller, one cf
the first half-dozen white men in the
Cape Nonse diggings, and five helpers
sluice nearly 200 ounces of gold from
Miller's claim (No 81 on Anvil creek
That makes the yield worth about
$4,000. Bill Emory, who came down
the coast from Nome on the Portland
last August, and sold his gold at the
San Francisco mint, had about $4,000
more in gold saved up when I last saw
was the only penalty for theft Or de-
Hibernate dishonesty. Several men
have been put to death up in the Klon-
dixie for attempted robbery among the
mining cabins, and last year three men
were 1ynched at Circle City for rob-
berry. These acts have had saiutary
effect at Cape Nome-California Let
ten in New York Sun.