Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-14
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RULE At NOME
GOLD REGION OVERRUN BY MEN
WHO HAVE sTAKED OUT
WHOLE COUNTRY.
REGARDLESS OF DISCOVERY
OF CLAIMS OF AM VALUE,
Railroad May Grab Beach Diggings-
Overlapping Claims Will Make
Work For Lawyers.

~v~AANPIAA6 ~AAAAAAo ~
Work For Lawyers.
So many of Butte's citizens have start
ed for Cape Nome, and SO n more are
preparing to join in the rush for the fab
ulous gold fields that the following from
the special correspondent Of the New
York Herald will be read with more than
ordinary interest:
Nome, Alaska, Jan. 5, 190O.-As to
whether or not Nome and the surround
ing region for almost two hundred miles
up and down the coast and back across
the coast range has any good digging
| nothing more is known now than last
fall. OF legitimate mining or prospect
ing there has been almost none since last
fall-only a mad rush and a laying of
schemes to capture n control all the
ground that does or may contain gold,
and this largely for speculative purposes.
In this respect Nome is different from
Dawson, where the law prevented men
stalking large numbers of claims for spec
ulation and where the shortness of the
time until they would AVE to be worked
and the amount of work required effect
ually checked the claim grabber.
This Whole region has been run over by
stampeders, with dog teams, who them
selves n by power of attorney literally
lldtC SldhCu liz III COulllIy WlLuOul
knowing whether there is gold or not,
and returning bring reports of good pros
poets where they W. probably never
done anything more than put a stake
down in the snow, without disturbing
a spoonful of dirt.
i! The companies, too, have sent out men
who nave staked large tracts-in some
instances whole creeks-at a nominal ex-
pense, many of them 160-acre tracts, and
even three hundred acres in contiguous
claims. Should the ground prove rich
this will. of course, be very valuable. But
it is a gross abuse of the United States
mining laws, which should be changed,
in justice to the real miners, who, in con-
tradistinction to the stampeders and
grabbing spectators, are opposed to this
monopolizing of the whole country by a
few men n corporations.
HARVEST FOR THE LAWYERS.
The beach and tundra near Nome are
also being taken up in 160-acre tracts,
regardless of the previous stakers. 1t is
then surveyed by a surveyor, who gets
an interest for the work. AS there are
no natural landmarks on the tundra, it
will be almost impossible for the original
locator to find his ground should his
stakes be accidentally" destroyed, and
the schemers expect thus to acquire large
tracts by what is 40 better than legalizing
theft.
Outside parties buying claims cannot
be too careful of titles here, which are in
many cases most uncertain. Much ground
has been relocated for various reasons,
and a harvest for lawyers is expected
next summer, when many locators now
out will return to inc they have lost their
claims
On New Years eve there was a grand
to the creeks to relocate
ground on which the assessment work
had not been done. Men with dog teams
men on foot, with women scattered here
and there started out, those for the near
est creeks waiting and going out with
lanterns, all ready to stake at twelve
o'clock. Up the mountain sides near
town, in lonely gulches miles away up
the creeks, on the rivers, lanterns could
be seen flashing like f~ireflies or standing
as a beacon light where some STAN
peder was at one post waiting for the
first second of the new year to drive his
stakes in the snow. Some claims had half
a dozen men on them, while some of the
most valuable had only one lucky Jump
err when midnight came.
There were but one hundred and fifty
claims open to relocation, while fully six
hundred men were out, so of course many
We're the disappointed ones.
There We're no rows, however. as was
expected. and while many disputes arose
they will only serve to fee the hungry
lot of lawyers here. As soon as they
staked they started IA to town. and
all night the lanterns came flashing in.
and he next dav the trails were full of
them coming from far remoter creeks.
Tired. blue. disguised many of them
looked, while those lucky enough to Sc
cure a probable fortune were lively and
happy.
RAILROAD MAY GRAB TIE BEACH
A reform of the mining laws is urgent
w onn1nJ w xy-~rlx l~~
the creeks, but now that the lays are
getting longer and men feel that they are
on the turn toward spring, a good many
will go out and endeavor to find out
something of their claims. though sadly
handicapped by lack of wood for fuel.
This will prevent extensive prospecting,
but enough will be lone before summer
to show some good creeks, if the gold belt
is half as extensive as claimed.
A BART of the Alaska and Siberian rail-
way, with a tunnel under Boring Straits,
which its promoters nave projected as
ultimately to extend to KotInai, on the
southeastern Alaskan coast, has been
surveyed from Port Clarence to Port
Safety. This is along the coast where
the rich beach ~diggings are. on which
the line is surveyed and for which a
grant of right of way will be asked. If
granted it will give the kimball COM
pany, a trading concern which already Is
the holder of large amounts of mining
property, the virtual control of the inn
mensely rich beach diggings. and it will
be a mining concession the value OF
Which will run into millions.