The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-03
BRINGS BACK RELICS
T. F. K. Beaudet Who Has Been a
Year in the Klondike Country.
SILVER NAILS OF ANCIENT DATE
And Teeth and Bones OF MastOd0ns
and Other Animals In His
Collections.

T. F. x. Beaudet, for many years a
resident of Minneapolis, and editor Of a
french newspaper that was afterward
consolidated with the LIE Canadien, of st.
Paul, OF which Mr.. Beaudet was also ed
ltor and proprietor, has returned to this
city after more than a year in the Klon-
dixie. Mr.. Beaudet had many thrilling
adventures In the north, staked half a
dozen promising claims, and returned to
the states with as fine a collection of GU
rios as was ever brought out Of Alaska.
He has tusks and teeth of animals that
lived on the cold side Of North America
before the advent of man in these parts,
many interesting specimens Of the garni-
lures of the present day inhabitant of
the Kondike region, and other carefully
selected relics, which indicate the nature
OF our new territory. In Mr.. Beau
diets pocket book, carefully enclosed in a
small paper box, are to be found the most
interesting things which the former Min
neapolitan brought back with him. They
are shoenails, exactly similar to the mod
ern product, except that they are of solid
silver. Mr.. Beaudet inclines to the belief
that the prehistoric Inhabitants Of the
northern part of the continent wore shoes
OF some sort. in the construction Of
which these nails were used. Further
more, he thinks they must have been
made by machinery, for ON the sides of
each of the little silver pegs are indenta-
lions, like those made by vice. These
were taken out OF claim No. IS, on
bunker creek, where they were found on
bedrock at a depth of ITO feet under the
surface. This claim was taken up by Mr..
Beaudet, and cousin of the same name,
and two other men, named Wilkins, and
Dejourned. Mr.. Beaudet's cousin first
discovered the nails while washing out
gold, and several handfuls of them were
taken by the men. At an aSsayer's office
at Dawson it was learned that they were
of solid silver. One end of each of the
silver pegs Mr.. Beaudet has, is worn
rough, while the other, evidently the part
rough, while the shoe, is pointed as all
shoe pegs are. A piece of cast iron,
that might have served as hinge, was
found on the same claim. The appearance
of the metal Indicates tht it was used
for long time. These things, as we'll
as bones of mastodons, and other animals
now extinct, were found more than 100
feet below the surface. The other speci-
mems brought to Minneapolis by Mr.
Beaudet are equally interesting. There is
a broken tooth of some animal, presum-
ably mastOdOn, that weighs fourteen
pounds, and another fragment OF the same
sort Weighing eleven pounds. A beau
tiful curved tusk, nearly eight feet long,
forms valued part Of the collection At
Kalispell, Mont, Mr.. Beaudet, while en-
route home, left a large pair of tusks
weighing 800 pounds. He has also a per-
feet skull of one of those mammoth ami
mails. Mr. Beaudet expects to return to
Alaska and work his claims He SAYS
however, that there is an untold amount
of suffering in the Klondike, and that it
is no place for poor man. He ventures
the estimate that for every 81 taken from
the country, at least So is expended.