The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-24
GOLOVlN BAY GOLD REGION.
Authentic Description by an Ex-
plorer From This State.
EIGHTY MILES OF pLAcERs.
J. J. Dixon, of Yakima, Prospected
That Distance and Found the
Country All Gold Bearing-He
VIII Try the siberian side I'm the
summer-A Very Large Clean
Up Last SEASON at Council City.

Persons seeking information about the
Golovin bay and Siberian placers will be
interested in the following statement by
Z J. Dixon, of Yakima, who went over
considerable virgin gold territory last sea-
son;
II shall 60 over to Alaska to prospect
next summer" he said, ''as the mines
are but an extension Of the Cape Nome
gold fields, which are twenty miles wide,
extending over into Siberia. You can
see the hills from Nome that contain these
mines. The Eskimos go over on the ice
In the winter to trade. 1t is thirty miles
from land to land The Siberian mines
extend ten miles inshore. The Eskimos
on this side trade fox skins for reindeer
skins with their Siberian brothers
"A yacht left Golovin bay last Septem-
Der with q crew Of five men for the 81
berian side. They will winter over there
and meet me next July at Golovin bay.
Freights with DOGS and Reindeer.
''The freighting is done in the Alaskan
gold fields with dogs and reindeer There
Is herd of 500 OF the latter at Golovin
bay belonging to the United States gov
eminent and the Eskimo freighters. At
Port Clarence, above Nome, there are 300
more. One Eskimo owns $50 or 200 head.
They are worth $35 unbroken and $50
"A
sledge ahead at the rate of sixty miles
a day. He will keep this up for three
days, when he wants to rest for q full
day and night. He lives when the snow
IL two or three feet deep. The dog teams
will outtravel the reindeer for long trips.
There are 1000 or 1900 Eskinnos on the
peninsula, and about 500 who trade at
Golovin bay.
.Tt is eighty miles by land from Colo
win bay to Nome. There IL a deep-water
landing at Rockyport; thence to Golovin
or Dexter's store Is fifteen miles, which
has to be covered by lighters. the Eski-
mos taking freight in skin boats to Dex-
ter's store and the mission. the only habi-
tations there. Fish river Is navigable for
four-foot draft boats to Dixons creek,
which Is about twenty miles. There Is
good timber to my cabin, but not a stick
west from there to Nome Fish river is
navigable for sixty miles from its mouth
The mines are reached by boat in sum-
mer and by dog teams in winter. The
claims am interested In are held by my
self son Roy and Thomas Humphrey. Of
New York. We have eight claims in Bo-
nanza, 1,s20x64o feet, or twenty acres;
there are two in Discovery, eight in Big
Four district. twenty-seven miles back
Of Nome. and six claims on Dixon creek.
Exploration Of the Country.
1.-THE Golovin bay country was explored
Q
deleven and Libby, twenty years ago. A
man by the name OF Dexter has been in
there ten years and does the principal
trading with the natives. There are two
tribes Of Eskimos, one known as Salt
Water and the other as Timber The
latter trade squirrel. dried salmon, black,
buckle and salmon berries for seal skin,
walrus teeth and sea crabs, the latter
the finest in the world. There 10 no night
there. the sun merely goes out of sight
and rises again. 1t Is never dark in win
ter. An hour and twenty minutes is the
shortest twilight You never see the stars
from February to November.
IT went in the 10th of July, 1893. and
left the 10th of September, 1899 did no
mining, only prospecting, and just panned
out a little gold here and there. This
gold we had assayed in San Francisco
and It ran 1870 to the ounce. At Coun-
Gil City the Alaska Exploration Company,
twelve men. cleared up about $4,000 in
about six weeks. The next largest was
that of the Mermaid. clearing up 100000
on Sweet Cake. On Elknorn company
Of five men told me their cleanup was
satisfactory Pete, German, cleaned
up 5000 or $1,000 in about ten days on
Goose creek, three miles from Dixon
creek He got into a pocket, but having
no water he had to wait for rain. His
gold weighed $3.50 to the ounce. He has
come out for machinery. pumps, etc. The
assayed 1890 to the ounce at the assay
Office in San Francisco. When the Nome
excitement broke out We couldn't hire
men, who were getting $40 a day and they
all quit There have been S000.000 of
gold taken out Of Snake river alone--as
much money as Secretary Seward paid
for all Of Alaska. Lindrom took out s41O,-
900 of this vast sum. From the formation
of the country there Is no telling how
long the gold will pan out The gold belt
Is from $50 to 200 miles square, starting in
at d'Pago. or wide mouth
Eighty Miles of Placer Ground.
''All the creeks I explored for eighty
miles back of Golovin and Nome are In
my Judgment, rich in placer gold. The
same kind Of soil, mica shale, is to be
found everywhere on the streams. The
Neakluk is navigable for fifteen miles and
this stream and tributaries are rich in
gold. pay dirt yielding 81 to the pan has
been discovered along this river. I had
a letter from my son on the 18th of Octo-
Der and he was then hauling in ten tons
of grub and during. the winter the min
ers will continue their explorations by
sled Journeys. locating small gold bear
ing streams.
''fiorses are a great moneymaking ma
chine up there. man had seven horses
that averaged him $50 a day, though he
may have had to kill them this winter for
want of feed. A man to go in there wants
years grub. costing SIS; tent and stove,
$40; he can get native boots there for IS,
which are the only thing that will keep
his feet from freezing, as the thermometer
drops down to sixty degrees below and 1t
is that cold there now. He wants canvas
overalis, heavy underclothes and wooden
socks. He should get from the natives a
water boot, at 81 and pair made of deer
skim, costing S.. He should take along an
oilsldn suit and long-legged gum boots
ten to fifteen men from Seattle In May,
paying their way there; the wages will be
regulated by the Miners Association"