The Nome daily nugget., 1911-04-15
By Q. H C"Bob") Robinson.

"If them folks what wants to dis cover the North Pole would just spreld a quiet tip around Dawson, that good pay had been struck up there. some of these sourdoughs would be there in side of six months" Thus spoke in the winter of 1900.
 am inclined to believe that shorty was right, but. fortunately for Com mander Peary. the tip was never given and he enjoys his distinguished honors without a single sourdough rival. The reports of pay farther north however, have caused many pioneer prospectors to pass the Arctic circle and the bound ary of the unknown regions of northern Alaska is being rapidly forced back toward the Arctic sea. The latest and perhaps the most important, strike in the extreme north was made last sum mer in the Squirrel river district
 About seven years ago two old time prospectors. William Divine and Frank Gardiner. became separated in blind ing snow storm in the month of Decem- Der while at the head of the upper Koyukuk river. At this point the Koyukuk. Chandlar and Kobuk rivers head into the same dome. Gardiner, after failing to locate his partner, de cided that Divine was lost and started to make his way down the Koyukuk In a few days he reached an Indian camp where he spent the remainder of the winter The following spring he built raft and alone descended the Koyukuk river and was later picked ,Ip on the Yukon more dead than alive.
 Divine. meanwhile, with a dog team, dropped over the divide and discovered d large river flowing in a northwesterly direction that as yet has not appeared on any of the maps. He then pushed on to the westward and reached an Indian camp on the Kobuk river where he remained with the natives until the following spring.
 He then descended that river Co its mouth on Kotzebue sound where he was picked up by a passing whaling vessel homeward bound. As he was floating down the Kobuk he made camp one night on a gravel bar in the mouth of q good sized river which he now believes to have been Squirrel river. Before he left next morning he pros nected the bar and washed out coarse gold and two nuggets, one worth four dollars and the other ten dollars
 Divine. believed of course. that his old partner was dead. His feelings ward. he entered a saloon in Rawhide, New, and met his old pal face to face, alive and we'll Billie looked at Frank and Frank looked at Billie; their hands met in a miners firm grip. their heads dropped in silence and things grew a aittle misty; both tried to speak but failed; a crowd gathered around and explanations followed. The boys in Rawhidc say that in the wake that followed. the two 'eorpses" were the only ones in the whole crowd who could toe a chalk line at a. m But that Is another story.
 The question as to who first. discov- cred gold in the Kobuk country is hard to determine as various prospectors have been reporting good finds in that district for the last four years. George Hammer who arrived in Seattle on De cember g from the new camp is a well known mining man, who has been mining and prospecting in Alaska for the last fifteen years. MT. Hammer was in the Kobuk country two years ago and fund good prospects. He returned to that district last spring arriving at the diggings on Squirrel river May l and coming out late. This account of recent operations there was supplied me chiefly by him but the facts are confirmed by several others.
 The new camp (one hundred miles inside of the Arctic eircle) is situated about thirty miles up the Squirrel river which empties into the Kobuk I60 miles above its mouth. Many of the pros pectors went to the new strike leaving Nome with dog teams. going overland to Candle city C2O4 miles), thence one hundred miles in a northwesterly direc- tion. to the new camp. others went by steamer from Nome to the mouth of the Kobuk where they transferred their outfits to polling boats, ascending the Kobuk and Squirrel rivers to the scene of action. owing to the lateness of the season there was great delay in getting nrovisions and tools on the ground and