The evening times., 1900-01-24
Cape nome GOLD Fields
Facts About the District 10 Which a
Rush Will Seen BE Made.
The Beach, Tundra, and Mountains
From which the yellow Dust and
Extracting the Hctal-The First
Discovers Made by swedes i'm 1898.


About 3,G0O miners are spending the
winter along the beach and in the valleys
near Nome City, the great gold region of
Alaska which came into prominence last
year. IL is expected that this small dis
trict will have a population Of 10000 to
100000 miners next summer. Gold dust
TO the value of s.. 600 00O was taken out of
the sands in few months last summer
and fall, and the rush for Cape Nome in
the spring is expected to rival the Klon-
dixie immigration of the past two years.
A small Government map including the
Cape Nome region has just been publish
ed. Ii is based upon the work, in Septem-
Der last, of four members of the United
States Geological Survey. The Cape Nome
district is on the northwest coast OF
Alaska on Behring Sea, about loo miles
northeast OF St Michaels. BY ocean
steamer il is nearly Zoo miles from Sc
attle. II extends from the promontory
called Cape Nome about thirty miles
along the coast TO the northwest and
about twenty miles inland to the north.
The natural features OF this little dis
trict are divided into the three regions OF
the beach. tundra. and mountains. Gold
is found in all OF these formations. The
beach stretches away comparatively
straight and smooth and over half of last
years output of gold or more than ST.
GOO 000 was produced along the shore. The
gold came originally from the mountains.
Il was washed out OF the disinJegrating
rocks and found lodgment in the sands OF
the beach as the waters carried the metal
seaward.
Along the beach the gold is quite fine.
having been reduced by wave action, TO-
gether with the gravel and sand, 10 the
size Of bird shot or even finer. As ii is
heavier than the sand it has worked down
into it. d most Of it is found under TWO
or three feet OF sand on a bottom layer Of
CLAY which the miners call bedrock.
on the beach the gold is extracted al
most exclusively by the familiar methods
OF sluicing and rocking. The water is tax
en- from the ocean. and, in some cases. IS
raised from the sea by steam power and
poured into the sluices that have been
built along the beach. In the rocker, the
gold is caught on blankets. and 10 some
extent on copper plates coated with mer-
curry.
The supply OF copper plate last summer
did not equal the demand. and so the bot
tom of the rocker was often covered by
United States silver coin, principally one
dollar pieces and these were coated with
mercury which caught the gold. In the
fall an average Of 1000 men were working
along the beach, and took out about $40 per
day man. In many cases the amount
taken out was much greater
Back of the beach is a coastal shelf which
near the beach is about thirty feet above
sea level. 1t slopes gently upward until at
the base of the mountains some four or
five miles from the beach, il has an eleva-
lion of I5O to 200 feet. This is the tundra
zone. which is trayersed by the rivers and
small streams carrying the drainage from
the mountains. During the summer ii is
usually wet and boggy. The tundra is
comrosed of gravel derived from the rocks
OF the mountains and ii has been pros
pected TO some extent and is found TO yield
from 10 10 30 cents a pan. Ii is be
lieved. however that capital viii be re-
quired to handle the tundra with profit.
From the mountain region came all The
gold that is found in the tundra and on the
beach The diggings have been extended
into many of the gulches through which the
mountain streams flow and the map shows
Anvil and Glacier creeks and the other
rivers among the hills where miners are az
work The quartz veins that traverse the
limestone Of the mountains are supposed
TO be the source of the gold.
In these gulches the diggings are coarse
gold and the largest nuggets are worth
about $3.50 apiece To get the gold miners
have TO dig down TO the clay under the
creek gravels which are six TO eight feet
in thickness. Discovery claim and another
below it. both on Anvil creek. produced
s225 600. while Snow Gulch, a very small
tributary Of Glacier Greek. yielded over
5000 coo These then are the three sources
of gold most of ii being taken from the
beach and the mountains.
The first discovery OF gold was made in
September. 1898 when a party OF Swedes
found il on the creeks and the gulches.
ii was not until July last year that the
beach gold was discovered. In the middle
of October last Nome City had 5000 in
habitants all living in tents on the hither-
20 barren shore. The rapidity Of the growth
of this town has probably never been
eQualed. Miners came from all the other
gold districts of Alaska. Among them were
about one thousand unsuccessful pros
pectors from the northwest part of the
territory who had reached St Michael
financially stranded.
Hearing Of the diggings at Cape Nome
the majority soon found their way thitheT
and in a few weeks rocked out sufficient
gold TO place themselves in moderately
comfortable circumstances and pay their
way back 10 the United States. Four news
papers were printed there last fall. and
three large trading companies have fairly
well stocked warehouses and will carry TO
the settlement abundant supplies next
spring Many Of the miners left for the
States when cold weather set in and will
return 10 their claims as soon as possible
this year. The population, though consid-
erably mixed is chiefly American and con-
tains a large element OF good business men
and law-abiding citizens.