The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-20

Douglas Island, Alaska, Sept s.
THE LARGEST gold mine in the
world is one Of the things which
has made the fame Of Alaska.
For many years the great Treadwell
has paid it's owners a profit OF nearly
$4,000 a day, and there is enough ore
left 10 keep their monster plant work
ing day and night for probably twenty
years to come. The man who discov-
cred this extraordinary mineral deposit
did not realize its value and sold ii for
$43J. Almost every school boy has
heard about the glory hole of the
Treadwen. but few of them know how
s. come 10 have that name. French
Pete was the discoverer of the mine,
which has already produced enough
bullion to make 1900 coo gold dollars
He was a small merchant in Juneau
and had a hard time to make both ends
meet In the fall OF 1881 he received
shipment of goods to replenish his stock
Tor the winter The freight charges
amounted 20 Si35. Pete didn't have the
money. A prospectcr by the name of
Treadwel was panning along the
beach. and Pete offered him the Claim
on Douglas island If he would redeem
the goods Treadwell paid the freight
and the mine has been called by his
name ever since.
The property which changed hands
by this deal contained the largest body
cf gold bearing rock i'm the world-at
least. the largest that anyone knows
anything about There may be larger
deposits, but they have not been dis
covered The location of the ore Is
very favorable. being right at the wa
ters edge, where steamers can tie up
alongside the mills. a city block could
be stood on end i'm the glory hole" Il
IS a monster pit where the ore has
been lifted out in chunks. like building
rock is taken from quarry. Men
working i'm the bottom of it look like
flies crawling along. The thunder OF
the blasts. the clouds of smoke rising,
the hollow voices of the men, all COM
bine TO make an effect so uncanny that
Il would not seem mt all surprising II
his Satanic majesty, hOOfs. horns and
all. should bound out of the rock at
your side. or come soaring up through
the smoke from the depth.
Douglas island is twenty miles long
and eight miles wide. Although the
Treadwell is best known on account Of
the glory hole"-many people suppOs-
ing that to quarry is the only method
of taking out the ore-the fact is that
there are over sixty miles of tunnels
under the ground One Of these eX-
tends out under the sea Tor nearly
quarter Of a mile. No mules are used
in the underground passages, the mo-
tive power being steam. On the sur
face there are six miles Of track, which
run to and from the buildings. as well
ms inside Of them. also along the piers.
Numerous dummy engines push and
pull long strings of little cars, making
more fuss about Il than as many mo-
Euls. IL is the prerogative Of a rooster
t. crow whenever il feels so disposed.
and the engineer Of a small locomotive
thinks as much OF blowing It's whistle
as he does of drawing his salary.
The Treadweu runs twenty-fOuT
hours every day in the year except the
Fourth of JuIy and Christmas. The
roar OF It's machinery can be heard "A
mile away It takes geo tons of coal
every day TO keep the many wheels
moving. There are $50 massive crush
ers called stamps. each consisting OF
five heavy. upright bars of steel. thai
are lifted up TO fall with terrific force
on fiat. hard plates. The rock passes
under these pounding bars and is
smashed into dust. These noisy pow
crful machines consume about 4.5O0
tons of rock daily. In order to keep
the ore rolling into their Unsuitable
mouths. Sl.4OO worth OF powder is ex-
ploded i'm blasting every day The
amount OF gold realized from every
twenty-fOur-hour run is about $4,000