The daily sentinel., 1900-10-10
IN THE KLONDIKE.
Personal ExPQriepeQ Of WiIliam Suva7 Of MQsa
County es Gold 90 GENERAL Frank HALL.

In the spring OF loSo twenty-five or
thirty residents of Grand junction trekk-
cd up to Seattle and took passage for the
frozen Klondiks with Dawson as the OBJ
jective point. One of these, a sturdy
broad shouldered young Irishman, Viii
liam Sullivan by name, returned q short
time ago to spend the winter among his
friends in Mesa county. ] met him yes
terday and in the course of somewhat
protracted interview obtained a good
many new and more favorable Impress
ions Of Dawson and vicinity, it's popula-
ton, prospects, resources and aspirations
than have been secured from any other
authentic source. II don't want to en-
courage people to 60 there" said Mr..
Sullivan, "upon any assumption that
they can do better there than here in
Colorado, because regard this as one OF
the greatest mining countries in the
world, besides being delightful place To
live in. But desire to give just and
fair account OF my own personal exper-
fences, of the improved methods now
prevailing among the mines whereby the
owners of paying claims are enabled to
work them the year round, and general
ly 10 clear away many misrepresenta-
tions that have appeared in the press.
"Our party reached Dawson 10 the
spring Of '98 accompanied an expedi-
ton to the Pelly river region. 1t is a
wild barren country. difficult Of access,
,.t we found some places bearing good
surface indications Of placer mines, and
paou-d out some gold. 1t WAS then, and
is no entirely uninhabited did all
srn. The winters are very cold, the
temperature sinking to 60 degrees below
zero at times, but the air being quite
dry, those Injured to it suffered but little
more there than you do hero in the aver
age winter The general average is
about As degrees below The summer
season, from May to October. is usually
warm and pleasant. The miners dig out
the pay dirt during the cold season and
sluice it in the warmer months when
water is abundant and f 'ws freely.
Personally hav. done we'll. l have
seen six or eight men take $4,000 a day
from the sluiees; some Of the larger OPP
orators working 40 to so men, frequently
get from the richer pay strsaks a. high
~ $50, 900 day. You understand. Of
course, that these are the larger yields,
exceptional rather than general. Some
Of tho ground is barren or comparative
ly %. The miners won't work gravel
that yields less than $40 to $40 a day to
the man. Wages run from Is to ~ per
day, but this winter the scale will be re-
duced to shout 81 average. The coun-
try is prosperous but the booming days
are over. Many people have gone up
proportion will fiud employment. In
some Of tho sheltered valleys, people
raise fine vegetables, and I have seen
some very pretty looking fields OF oats
there, but the agricultural season is
limited to about three months.
ION Bonanza creek, four miles from
Dawson, not less than 100 claims are be-
ing worked, and up ON the mesas there
are as many more in operation. You
ask why they and gold on these higher
elevations. 1t 10 because old creek beds
have been found there and some of the
ground is as rich as that along the ber-
ders of the present living streams.
They are finding new digginKs all the
time. And one Of the singular features
Of all the mining done there is that they
have never yet reached the bottom Of
the frozen ground, although some shafts
have bsen sunk from 200 to 300 feet on
the mesas. They go through beds OF
clay or muck 80 to 100 feet deep. and
get the principal values at bod rock or
near it. In the early days the miners
thawed tho gravel by building wood hres
This was . slow, tedious process, hence
few of them went far below the surface.
Now with plenty Of steam engines at work
they put down steam pipes and thaw
the ground very rapidly. Then the dig
gers 20 in. take out the liberated stuff.
raise it to the surface, and then set the
steam going again. This process is car
ried on all winter. In the spring when
tho water begins to run, it is taken 10