The Nome nugget., 1902-02-15
Strike Made Last August or
 the kougarok.
$l0 A DAY 10 ELAN
Now Being Rocked Out On That
 Stream--A Remarkable Showing When the Season is Considered -- Reliable Report Fram the kougarok.

discoveries of gold have recently come to light on the kougarok river. The NUGGET has. in its Kougarok corro- spondence. made reference to reported strikes. which seem to have been made last summer, bu; which were kept quiet, because of the fact that the en- tire length ot the river was >takCd in 1900, but the locatorS have gone no one knows where, so the ground was not open for relocation until January l of this year. The NUGGET was shown q letter the other day, written by q miner, who ha, spent considerable time prospecting in the kougarok' to { his family in the states, and the follow ing extract i> taken therefrom:
 ''At New Year time, found out that | last August some prospectors had found rich pay on the headwaters of kou- garok river and on several of the trib utaries. have been fortunate enough to secure claim above discovery cn Windy creek The pay-streak was located on No. II on this creek last year or during 1901. Windy is so far as known not q rich creek, but thel could sluice out S7 to the man per day with their primitive methods. and il is only reasonable to assume that much better results could be obtained hv syS- tematic work. However, very little prospecting has been done on thi. creek, and for that matter this could be said of all the creeks. Fortunately l got a claim above Johnson's ; discovery on kougarok river. Some prospcctol'> found kOugarok river to be very rich last summer. This was not generally known until this winter, and it is not generally known yet except right here.
 There is no longer any doubt, but : that the Kougarok will show up as good as any Of the comm i5sioner dis E'icts in the second division. From Boulder creek to Frost creek. about four miles above Goose creek is well defined old channel, and it is On the line of this channel that the pay-streaf has been located 50 far. At or near . Goose creek Is the contact, and ii is supposed that this contact was at the end of the mother lode that has fur nished the placer gold on Goose and Boulder creeks.
 From present indications Kougarok river will perhaps be the best pro ducer between Boring Sea and Kotze- 2 hue Sound. The pay streak on Kou- garok river was located last August. but the ground was all staked in 190o, and was not open for relocation until January l, 1902. The prospectors who located this placer gold were prudent enough tO keep the matter to them selves until such time as the ground would be open. The fact that the country on the Kusatriem had gotten such bad reputation made it easy to keep it quiet. because nearly all would discredit good report from the Kusa- treim or Kougarok.
 "A large number of steam thawers are now at work on the different creeks. The worst obstacle to mining in this part of Alaska Is the short season. Last summer the ice went out of the rivers in the middle of June, but the snow was yet in evidence until the middle of July. Most of the creeks have thick beds of ice, and it takes half of the short season to thaw this out. October lst the winter starts in again. From this you see we have hardly three months Of open season. The next great obstacle is to get supplies to the mines. FEom KougaOk City, which is the center for this region, to Nome is about 100 miles, and to Teller about 70 miles: to Spooner, the center of the Kusa- treim district, is 9 miles from Kouga- rok City.
 1.-TWO things are necessary to open up this country and make it pay. Either the employment of capital, or the opening of a mine that would em- ploy say 400 men during the open season. The first alternative is hardly. to be thought of, but the latter is just about in sight I am quite snre that during the coming summer we shall witness great activity here, but noth- ing like it will be in couple of years from low.
 At the present time some men arc rocking on the Kougarok river, abou, $ miles above here, and I understand they are making as much as $l0 day, a most remarkable showing at this time of the year. If fair wages can be made rocking now, it ought to pay several hundred dollars to each man shoveling