The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1905-09-07
BIGGEST GOLD BRICK.
Exhibit From Nome, Alaska, at
Lewis and Clark Fair.
WEIGHS ABOUT NINETY POUNDS.

Il IL . F0os Long, Four Inches Deep
and Five Wide-NuGKets That At
tract ttestfon-DisDiays of other
told Wealth.
The biggest gold brick ever cast,
nearly as large as two building bricks
placed end to end, which contains S2o.
00o worth of gold that is purer than
the gold in twenty dollar coin, re-
Gently arrived at the Lewis and Clark
exposition in Portland. Ore. and is be
ing exhibited by the Nome district of
Alaska as evidence that Nome is still a
great gold producing region, says W.
E. Brindley. The gold brick Is foot
long. four inches deep and five inches
wide. and it weighs approximately
ninety pounds.
The city Of Nome, on the Seward
peninsula, in the extreme north OF
Alaska, beyond the string of islands
that stand out like the bill of snipe.
contains a population Of from $500 to
1900 people in the winter time and ten
times as many people in the summer
The town has an enterprising chamber
of commerce. which in fifteen days got
together the most wonderful mineral
exhibit ever displayed by one region.
While the gold brick which Nome is
showing has attracted more attention
than any other single article in the
United States government building at
the fair, three nuggets. worth in the
aggregate $4,000, stand second in pop
ularity These are exhibited in small
wire cage, and man who wears In his
belt a revolver Of the size common to
melodrama and wild west shows
stands guard over them. The biggest
nugget of the three, which weighs 1S2
ounces. is worth 1926. There Is hole
in one side Of the cage big enough for
one to put his hand through 1t. but not
large enough to enable him to take out
the nugget. Over the chunk of gold
there is a legend which reads. You
can lift the nugget. but don't take 1t
away" and all day long people crowd
one another for chance to hold S3.216
worth of gold for just a fraction Of
minute
The nuggets and the gold bricks con-
stitute Nome's most interesting gold
display They are owned by the Pio-
neer Mining company and were found
in Anvil creek, near Nome. Near the
nugget cage is a table on which, under
glass. are small boxes of pay dirt. This
display is not so spectacular as that
in the nugget cage-which by the way,
includes a host of smaller nuggets In
addition to the three big ones-but 1t
+ L
dirt shows no gold and looks like ordi-
nary gravelly soil. One box of it Is
labeled: PAY dirt from Anvil creek.
Average value S1.20 per bucket" One
at once begins to figure how many
buckets an ordinary man could fill in
a day, and the figures are startling.
Another box contains broken rock and
is labeled, Portion of bedrock from
Portland bench claim-S421 .000 result
of work of seven men for sixty days"
But gold is not the only mineral re-
source of the country round about
Nome. Some 100 miles from Nome, at
q place called Cape York, on Buck
creek, there is mountain of tin, where
S25,5GO,000 worth of the metal is in
sight. The tin is found in a substance
called cassirerite crystals, which con-
tains ID per cent of metallic tin, and
from 40 cents to a dollars worth of
gold to the ton There is whole noun
tain top, ten miles long by two miles
wide, of this cassiterite which is worth
S441 a ton at the present price of tin,
80 cents a pound. Last winter 500
tons of the ore We're taken out, and the
M, gnitude of the industry is hardly
TO be conceived. Then, again, at Ears
mountain. on Shismarof inlet 1S0
miles northwest Of Nome, there is a
ledge of cassiterite. The ledge is ex
posed to a width of 15 feet and runs
1000 feet up the mountain, reaching
an elevation of 400 feet. From this it
is presumed that the ore vein is 400
feet deep.
And then there is quicksilver, anoth-
er new proposition and very protita-
bic one from all appearances. Quick
silver ore is found on the Kuskokwin 4
river, distant 500 miles southeast of
Nome Some of it runs S4OO worth to
the ton, but 500 is probably the aver
age. The ore is found on the surface
1t is burned in an immense caldron.
SO that the quicksilver vapors rise and
are afterward precipitated or con-
0ensed into liquid quicksilver by be-
ing immersed in cold water At the
exposition the richness of the ore is
demonstrated by a piece from which I
the quicksilver has been smelted. The |
rock is honeycombed like a pumice |
stone.
1t costs 20 cents a pound ON the aver
age to transport coal from the mines in /
British Columbia to Nome; hence the /
importance of the discovery of a coal /
mine which produces fairly good /
grade in the far north. The coal mine /
is located on Chicago creek, which
irafx, fHa0 L