The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-29

about Skaguay and st. Michaels, but
cape Nome seemed hideously desolate.
No one who has never been outside the
United States can form any idea of what
oesoiation and silence in landscape really
are until they have been up the north-
western coast Of Alaska.
We'll, 1 pitched my little tent amid a
terrific gale Of cold wind that pierced
my very bones, and then I patiently
toiled from the sailing boat across the
beach to the tent with armfuls of pro-
visions ard my camp outfit The mer-
curry was at about % above zero that Sep
tember day, and the wind blew 80 hard
that l had to pile frozen clods Of earth
on the tent sides to keep It from blowing
over. Then we began our search for gold
placer mines We separated and went
wandering through the gulches and along
the frozen creeks that empty into the
Snake and Nome rivers four to seven
miles back from the seacoasts."
Belding said he could not adequately
describe the painful and battling difficult
ties the pioneers in that virgin gold fed
had to combat while they sought loca-
tions along the creek benches, where the
richest gravel might be washed for -
golden particles.
Imagine" he said, 1.-The hardships Of
one who pans for gold in the side of a
creek of half frozen water, amid howl
below freezing point. Fancy how much
one endures who tramps day after day
through snow, breaks away ice to pan
the frozen gravel beneath for gold and
then goes to a tent home at night to cook
a meal Of stale bacon or salt pork over a
smoky bonfire. 1t is a wonder that we
pioneers at Cape Nome lived through all
our privations and hardships. Every
one Of us did more during those first few
weeks at Cape Nome to coax our deaths
by rheumatism, scurvy, pneumonia and
stomach disease than most men do in
the course of a long war
"On Oct. Z, 1898, after I had panned
hundreds of times for gold in several
dozen localities I found beneath a thin
crust Of Ice on Anvil Creek gravel that
yielded about five pennyweights of gold
worth about $4.75-to each pan. That
was the richest 1 had found. 1 was half
mile from any other human being and
l had clear right to make my mining
claim right there. I was wildly excited,
and forgetting all about the pain and
hard work, 1 made several dozen trial
paintings for gold in that locality.
1T was wonderfully rich everywhere
ed the gravel over bonfire that I had
hndled at the side of the creek I got
half an ounce of gold-worth $8-in two
pans Of gravel. I located one claim there
for myself and another for James B.
Porter of the Bertha-the man who had
grubstaked me for Cape Nome Two
days later I had driven the boundary
stakes on my mining claims, according
to the United States mining laws. The
temperature went down to zero and
snow to the depth Of four feet fell In
one week.
1--WE all abandoned gold washing for
the winter, and settled down to exist five
months, or until warmer weather would
return, that In the annual thaW we might
prosecute placer mining. Oh, the dreari-
ness, melancholy and privations of that
first winter on the Arctic Cape Nome
We simply existed more like animals than
human beings. For days none of us
stirred out of our tents. We ate half
cooked food for weeks at time, and we
became so Drowned by smoke from the
fires on the floors of our tent habitations
that we looked like the EsquimauX about
us and were smoked tanned like hams.
1--WE kept track of the days by mark
ing them off a calendar. We exercised
our every faculty and invention to de-
wise schemes to keep our minds
awake For days the temperature
ranged from forty to even sixty
five degrees below zero. l never took
off a fur suit during December, and 1 lay
in bed to keep warm during much of that
nOnCn. FROSTED ears ana Cn06kS were
common in our party, and I used to
dream that my feet had frozen and my
companions were about to hack them off
to save my life. The sun for ten weeks
in midWinter was to be seen only about
three hours out Of each twenty-four. Even
then it was a hazy, bleary round ball
hung in the deep blue sky. 1t seemed as
If we never could endure life until warm
er weather came and we might be re-
|
snow and ice. believe that we would
have given up but for the knowledge that
we had located claims upon the richest
! placer dirt ever known and that at last
smiling fortune had opened the door to
| each of us poor cusses.
I'VE began mining on April 26, and by
May 2, 1899, we were getting out gold
dust and nuggets in quantities every day.
The news Of the gold finds at Cape Nome
had been carried all over Alaska during
| the winter months. When spring came
! there was a rush of gold hungry men to
! Cape Nome. Over 1000 arrived there in
June alone, and some 5000 men arrived
at Nome last summer.
Every one profited by going to Nome
! The first men In the f1eld-just as hap
pened in the Klondike gold region two
| years before-had choice of the richest
! diggings, and every one of the Cape
| Nome pioneers had made a fortune al
ready. From some 5000 cubic yards of