The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-05-04

ranges Of the Copper river
district in Alaska is to be
transported to a smelter at
Tacoma, Wash. The first shipment of
1000 tons Of broken ore was shipped
recently by a railroad just completed
from Cordova on the southern coast
of Alaska to Kennicutt, about two
hundred miles inland, where the mine
is located.
The mine cost its owners about one
million dollars, the railroad with
equipment calls for an expenditure of
some twenty-three million dollars.
To the prospectors who originally
located the copper lode now called the
Bonanza, the property was practically
worthless without a railroad. They
could not get the copper TO market.
In fact, without capital they could not
mine the ore, and It was with the
greatest diff Guilty that the hardy pi-
oneers who discovered the deposit
could meet the legal requirements of
the United States government and pay
for the assessment work from year to
year.
The law demands that 800 worth of
! work shall be done on each claim
every year by any one taking up min
ing rights In Alaska. This demand
meant not only the cos of labor, for
which the liberal estimate of ten dol
lars a day is allowed for each man
employed, but it necessitated carrying
supplies of food from Valdez along a
hazardous and narrow horse trail for
a distance roughly calculated at two
hundred miles.
The discouragements, sufferings and
tragedies which followed this trail trip
through the wilderness, in the winter
months when the fierce billiards. of
Alaska swept for days at a time down
the Copper river valley, piling the
snow ten to twenty feet deep in
gulches, are heard of at the camp
hreside today, and have caused many
a chechak newcomer in Alaska) to
turn back before he has crossed the
summit.
1t was conditions like these with
which Jack Smith and Clarence War
ner, who discovered the Bonanza, had
to contend from 1900 until they sold
their interest in the property, sew
eral years later.
When they made the location the
two men were prospecting with four
or five others, and it had been agreed
al the start that all were to share in
any discovery made by any member
Of the party. Out of gratitude to Col
onel kbercrombie, a government
army officer, who gave them great as
~sistance, the prospectors gave him an
y interest. Then a further division oc-
Cured when 1t was necessary to raise
money to do the annual assessment
work. They had to buy a dozen
horses every year and canned food
sufficient to last a dozen men for six
TO eight months.
One Of the party took the role of
hunter and supplied the camp with
fresh mountain sheep and bear meat.
The trip inside was made in win
ter, because by using sleds drawn by
horses a ton of grub" could be taken
in over the snow by each sled. In
summer 1t was necessary to pack the
supplies on the back of a horse, and
$50 pounds was the limit for each
horse, owing to the steep hills to
climb. The wind blew so f~ierceIy on
the summit at times that horse and
sled were blown of the trail and down
declivities into soft snow so or 100
.eet below. .
II vas then a labor of hours to get
the horse on his feet and back to the
trail. The "Sourdough" prospector. or
old timer, had learned by experience
To spread blankets on the snow for
the horse to stand on. and in this way
the animal was saved. But the trail
Is marked by many skeletons Of
horses and OF men.
In their efforts to sell the property,
Jack Smith and Warner went to Butte
, to see Senator William A. Clark Of
I Montana. whose fame as a copper
magnate had spread to Alaska. When
Smith told Clark that the mountain