The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-24

quit claim or to divide the output,
or possibly to vacate altogether. The
senatorial committee took steno-
graphic re ports here and at all the
places visited of the recommends
tons Of miners and business men and
lawyers, and will undoubtedly en-
deavor to SO change the mining laws
as to compel those who do not de-
velop their claims to abandon them
so that others may mako them pro-
ductive.
This dog-in-the-mang practice has
had one partially compromising result
1T has compelled the late Corners to
go on further into unprospected parts
Of the peninsula and develop the fact
that there is pay dirt scattered
pretty nearly all over the peninsula.
Some of it is of too low grade to ad-
NIT of profitable mining by the crude
methods of the pan and the rocker
put may be made exceedingly profit
able when handled by machinery on an
ton to say that there are thousands
and thousands Of acres Of ground
on the Seward peninsula alone
which will pay rich returns when
they come to be handled by
improved. methods. That means
that large numbers of individual
claims must pass into the hands Of a
few having capital; that the business
of taking gold out of Alaska has
scarcely commenced; that it will yet
become permanent industry-as
permanent as coal mining in Pennsyl-
vanla, and that it will take many
years to exhaust the mineral wealth
Of those marvelously rich and mar
velously extensive gold fields.
OTHER sections Of the peninsula
where Mt S,oi,o
operations are going on are the
Council City district, seventy-five
miles northeast of Nome and forty
or fifty miles from the sea; the Solo
mon river country in the same direc-
ton, but not so far away, and along
several of the streams flowing into
Kotzebue, sound on the north side Of
Seward peninsula. The Council City
district is becoming the scene of very
important operations. Considerable
quantities of machinery have been
t<lxen into that section thru Golofnin
railroad will soon be in operation
there, too, cheapening transportation
and thus adding greatly to the profits
Of mining. A railroad Is also under
way for the Solomon river district.
This railroad construction suggests
the builders in the future of these
districts.
While gold mining is the chief bust
ness of this section of Alaska, it is
claimed that extensive deposits of coal
and tin have been found in the north
ern part of the peninsula. How valu-
able they may be has not yet been
fully demonstrated.
NONE is an incorporated city. The
~ board of aldermen elect one of
their number to the office of
mayor, who happens, by the way, to
be a former resident of Minneapolis.
Mayor Rustgard was a student at the
University of Minnesota nine or ten
years ago. OF course there is no lack
of that element which is the curse Of
every mining camp, but good order
seems to be maintained, and perhaps
is not so difficult to secure as in the
frontier towns in the states from the
fact that in winter, which means eight
months of the year there, escape from
the officers of the law is extremely
difficult. The fugitive from justice
who leaves Nome in winter is likely to
be found in some snow bank when
summer comes. There is no other
place to which he can go. The fed
eral authorities have taken a hand re-
Gently in the suppression Of vice and
public gambling has been completely
suppressed, for a time at least. Nome
is up-to-date in another important
particular, too; it has an aldermanic
Doodle prosecution in progress.
Nome has a good school building,
several churches and two semiweekly
| newspapers that are creditable to the
city-the Nugget and the Gold Digger.