The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-15
MADE NOME FAMOUS.
An Argentine Man Relates His Experi-
ence in the Far North.

Argentine, Kan, Nov. 15.-"Up in
Alaska they say I. am the man that
made Nome famous, because 1 discov-
cred the tundra grounds that have pro-
duced millions of dollars worth of yell
low ore the last few months.
Joseph c. Brown, formerly OF ArxenL
tine butn ow of Nome, Alaska, rnade
this statement last night. Mr.. BroWnf
accompanied by his wife, arrived in Ar
gentine the early part of this week to
spend the winter and to wait for the
thaW In Alaska next spring Mr.. Brown
went to Alaska in 1898. Unlike other
gold hunters who rushed away to the
foothills in search of gold he stayed
down on the narrow strip of level land
between the foothills and the ocean, He
sunk a shaft on Little creek three
miles from Nome, and a few months la
ter his Railroad claim developed rich
ore That was in 1904. That spring he
says more than million dollars worth
OF gold was taken from the vicinity Of
MS mine He acquired other properties
ana last summer he broke the record
OF the north, he says, by washing a
million dollars worth of gold dust from
the QrlItlngS of his Cyrus Noble mine.
These tundra lands do. not bearya
promising look. 1t is just a level strip
- ground lying between the ocean and
the foothills of the mountains. When
i nfSt went to work there / was laugh
ed at but / reasoned that If there was
any gold in the foothills the water
pouring down the sides of them for
hundreds Of years and building up this
level strip had therefore carried the
gold down with it. This strip Of tundra
land has now been traced for miles
and miles along the coast.
Some of this dirt is fabulously rich
and will pan much as seventy-f1ve
ounces to the pan At $40 per ounce
that is pretty good, isn't it? / built
nice little home up there and furnished
1t comfortably out of just one painful of
dirt and then had some change left.
But you don't find many panfuls like
that
Nome? O. that is an interesting
place" he said. There are about
1000 people there in winter and about
10000 or more in summer. 1t was a
rough place when I first went there.
Numbering. fighting and drinking were
the three great passions But the
Nome of those days has been supplafft-
ed by new Nome. The new city has
electric lights, city water. sewerage
system, telephones and the conven-
fences of a modern city. Nome will
compare favorably with any city its
size in the United States.
Thirty-five miles Of aqueducts are
now being built there to convey the
snow water from the mountains to the
mines, so the process of concentrating
the gold can be carried on more ex-
tensively and rapidly. Still better, we
are now beginning to use steam. BY
the use of steam we can mine the year
round, separating the gold dust from
the dirt as we go instead of piling UP
the dirt during the winter and waiting
for the warm weather to thaw out the
frost before we could pan out the
gold.''
Mr.. Brown owns the largest interest
in one of the telephone companies IN
Nome. He says he will go to New
York in a few days to consolidate his
company with the other operating
there He says there are 235 miles OF
long distance" telephone system oper-
ating out of Nome at present IFS
company built 12O miles. which cost
100000.