The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1900-04-11
CANS or GOLD.
Stra nge Sights In the Cape Nome
Gold Fields.

Gold Fields.
Los ANGELES, Cal, March 20.
William J. Quinn, a Yukon
River miner for seven years
and one of the first two dozen
men who located claims at
Cape Nome, is visiting rela-
tives in town. He is investing
some of his suddenly made
money in real estate and pre-
pairing to return to his placer
mines on Anvil Creek at Cape
Nome by the first steamer to
Alaska from San Francisco.
Zone of the most notable
things about the new placer
gold fields at Cape Nome" said
he the other day, Twas the
careless way that the gold was
stored and cared for last sum-
mer. It was common to find
five-gallon kerosene oil cans
half or wholly filled with gold,
standing on the floor of an un-
guarded tent or in the corner
of cabin. l believe that just
before the steamer Bertha
sailed from Nome last October
with a big shipment Of gold
dust and nuggets to the San
Francisco mint, there was
about half a ton of gold stored
in. all manner OF primitive re-
ceptacles and odd ways in the
tents on the beach. Besides,
there was fully 1000 pounds of
gold similarly saved in the
tents and the cabins of the mi
ners along the creeks and in
the gravelly gulches back of
Nome. Any hollow thing was
used-soup tureens; tin cans,
glass BOTTLES, boots, gas pipe,
paint buckets, fur garments
and even stockings and golosh-
es. Very few miners failed to
get some gold the first day
they PANIED the rock for it
Their hoard grew fast and they
had no strong box, no pouch
in which to store it. In some
instances the makeshifts were
amusing. One man made a
great pouch for his gold out OF
an enormous back protector-a
; sort of waistcoat made of seal
skin, which he had cured
dressed and made for himself
Another miner utilized a joint
of a stovepipe. He didn't even
have tent when he came to
Nome. Some one threw away
a rusty stovepipe joint and the
miner got it. He cut a round
. piece of board and fitted it in
one end of the pipe. Then he
stood the pipe up on end on
his claim, and dumped into il
each day the gold dust as fast
as he washed and dried it. ]
believe he got about ninety
pounds of gold for his seasons
work last year.
A lot of gold washers on the
beach used wornout rubber
boots as receptacles for colo
dust. A Swede on Snow Greek
had three rubber boots nearly
full of gold last September
He kept the boots standing be
hind 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 par
ticular weapon. Beer bottles
full of gold dust were common
+ about the Nomer's habitations
!, and some used old coffee pots
A man on Anvil Creek, nea,
MY claim, made his walrus
skin cap into a gold bag. Tir
tomato cans and fruit jar:
standing under miners bunk.
and full of gold were common
. all over Cape Nome last year
"The abundance of gold a
Cape Nome is without preced
ent. We thought Klondik.
rich, but Cape Nome is ia,
richer. My brother wrote m.
from Dawson City last Ja.-uar,
that four thousand peopl,
were then making ready t.
leave the Klondike and get t
Cape Nome as fast as possible
There are eleven claims bein1
developed at Nome that are al
richer than any single CLAIM
ever known in the Klondike
and the Cape Nome field hal
only been cursorily prospectee
so far. The gold output from
Nome last summer was 81 Zoo
600 greater than that from tn,
Klondike during its first season
of operations. l have seer
more individual boards o
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