Amador ledger., 1900-07-20
FROM THE ARCTIC REGION
Spent Only Twelve Days At
Nome.
DESCRIPTION OF Affairs At CAPE N0AE
Beautiful Effects of the Alaskan Mid.
night sun.-Prospsrity Of
skagway.

State Boom g. s. S. ST. Paul, near
the mouth of the Yukon river, Behring
Sea, Saturday evening, June 20, 1900.
Mr.. and Mrs. Edinger,
Jackson, Cal.
Dear Friends:
I am homeward bound for Cali.
fornia having been in Nome just 12
days
Over forty steamships and about so
sailing vessels have unloaded their car
goes OF freight, baggage and passengers
on the Nome beach this season, and
merchandise of all description is piled
at the edge of Behring Sea 10 to l5 feet
high. There arc fully 10000 people
living in-tents, which are to be- seen
from the anchorage, extending from
Cape Nome, four miles N. w. of the
Post Office.
We sailed from San Francisco on the
Senator" May 18th, calling at Seattle
Tacoma and Port Towsend.
On the first of juno we entered the
ice foes of Behring Sea and for more
than week the SENATOR forced it's
way through vast fields of broken ice,
from 10 to Is feet thick and extending
as far as the horizon in every direction.
The ice began to close in on us so tight
that it was difficult matter to get out
again, and as the supply of coal was
getting low the "Senator" put back to
Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
After six days we again made the at
tempt to plough through the icebergs
and succeeded in reaching Nome on the
evening of the 14th of June, just one
month out from San Francisco.
A more mixed up state of human af-
fairs would be hard to imagine than
the present condition of the multitude
of people now camped on the Nome
beach. The marshy Tundra" not
being suitable for human habitation.
the beach is now so thickly covered
with tents as to preclude any mining
operations unless one mines his own
domicile ground. Then, too, the pay
ing portions OF the beach we're
thoroughly worked over last season so
that what remains is but the tailings,
which, worked by large plants might
pay when the multitude have left the
beach, but is not possible at present.
Men with rockers are only making ex-
penses at best when they find room to
work and many don t make their grub.
Two ships have landed smallpox at
Nome, and the morning we sailed, two
new cases of that disease were reported
by the surgeon of the army post, max
ing l3 cases altogether.
The company ! signed with brought
So, 600 worth of mining machinery and
supplies to Nome, their freight amount.
ing to over $500. They, like many
other similar companies, expected to
get territory on the Nome beach to
operate on, ! believe, There is at
least half million dollars worth of
pumps, engines, boilers, pipe, hose and
various gold mining devices, lying on
the Nomo beach with little, if any,
possibility of finding working location
for it this season. Very many of the
mining creeks have been jumped by
desperate Yukoners, and in the town
OF Nome, lots, supposed to be owned
by those occupying them last season,
were found to be jumped and claimed
and held by some lawless person when
the former owners returned from the
outside world this summer. Were it
not so serious condition, it could be
indeed laughable-the true picture of
Nome as it is in 1900. There are
plenty of lawyers in Nome and plenty
of would be litigations, but no courts
of equity have as yet been tablished.
Gun arguments are of daily occurrence
and men had been killed during our
stay in Nome. There are only a few
soldiers at the Military Post, but there
are 1900 on the Transport ship,
Rosencranz, which is stuck fast n
the mud flats near the mouth of the
Yukon river. Very little gold dust is
being brought into Nome, nearly all
the money is ''Chee-C Checker" money,
as the Eskimos call the new comers.
Consequently the gamblers, hurdy-
gurdys and other parasites, are not
rolling in wealth as they anticipated,
Nome is probably the widest
open" town in North America, for at
this time of the year, daylight lasts all
night. You see the sun sets at Nome,
in June, about II p. m. in the north
west, and ABOUT ! O'CLOCK see the sun
rise in the northeast,
One business sign reads, IA. P.
Lopez, Office hours from 2 to 3a. M"
The sanitary conditions at Nome are
very bad. The hospital is crowded
with typhoid fever patien is.
Pneumonia is very common too, owing
to the Ice which underlies the ground
only few inches down and the raw,
damp atmosphere of the coast.
On the way up we called at Dutch
In the Aleutain Islands. 10
steamships we're there taking on coal,
water and provisions. l saw Mr..
Lowry OF Stockton, among the others
from California.
When the history of Nome for 1900