The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-23
x 4. i i s: i: :: i: i: i: .: i: i: X
s. MEN SAFE AT s
$ 70 BELOW ZERO e
n \ X X x X & X y y * 4
(Chicaro News

(ChicaEo NeWs.)
1t is hard for the people of this Sec
ton of the United States. after IL local
cold spell of three weeks, during
which the mercury ranged from Il lit
tie above to many degrees below zero.
to believe the stories from the arctics
coming in lately about men stamped
ing in temperatures of from 90 to 20
degrees below zero to the new Yukon
territory gold diggings on Sixty Mile
Creek, cast of Dawson City," said
frank F%rantius of Chicago, who was
Ill the rush to the Klondike in 1896
and 1897, the other day.
Il am sure the gold hunters of the
north arc doing just what it is assert
ed they are doing. They have reached
a degree of re~sourcefulness and har-
diness that is little short of marvel
miles in such frigid weather as that
country always has at this time of
the year. through sections where
there is not a single human habita-
ton, reach their destinations without
frosting so much Is a little finger, and
set about the work of going to bed
rock for gold with as little evidence
of suffering as if walking along Michi-
gan avenue in May sunshine.
lucy dceoitlpllSh tHe seemingly
impossible by going prepared for the
excessive frigidity they know they are
going to encounter. Their oats are
fur inside and out, their underwear is
heavy and close knit. and their trous-
ers are of sheepskin, upon which there
is a growth of wool from two to three
inches in length. They carry with
fur-lined sleeping bags. which
they place as much out Of the wind
as possible at night and creep into
them. carefully drawing head and
hands inside. Up there men do not
travel alone. Two, three or five
'mush' over the tundra together. hav-
ing a sled and four to six Of the wolf
dogs m in the Yukon country.
Upon the sled they carry their pro-
visions, and. contrary to the general
belief in the states. there is always
some sort Of wood for fuel to be found
Willow. cottonwood, fir or pine.
The slogan of everybody is hustle
and they go about getting their
meals. water and fuel with such vim
or on the march. When, in
rare instances. n of IL party be-
comes ill or exhausted he is usually
in a sleeping bag on the sled
with the supplies and carried along
with The expedition. 1t sometimes be-
necessary to place n hot iron
at h feet of the ailing. and once in
great while a party is forced to stop
for a time. build a snow house and
special care to the disabled.
Those klondikers, however, are about |
the grittiest mel on the North Ameri-
can continent. and where one falls by
wayside 1000 will go through to
finish and be ready to assail moth !
er earth with torch, pick and shovel
IN hour after they reach the promised
'"These gold hunters. as Mark !
said of another band of pion-
GERS on the occasion of their sealing
Rocky Mountains to reach Cali /
dainty. kidglove weak
lings. but stalwart. dauntless braves,
brimful of push and energy, and roy
ally endowed with every attribute that
goes to make up a peerless and mag
niicent manhood-the very pick Of
worlds glorious ones
"A considerable number of men !
who are racing this winter for the
of the Yukon. Sixty-NIi!e !
OF Alaska and Yukon territory,
and they realize as no 'tenderfoot' can
u of a bonanza there may be
at the end Of their northland rainbow.
Some of them remember that in the
little creek just out of Dawson City |
in 1896 George Carmack, d~iscovcrer. |
and his party of half breeds took ou.
placer claims $1,000 in eight days;
once two men In two days gath
Fred $4,000 in nuggets varying in size
from a pinhead to a pea; that three
put gold to their credit at the
rate Of SIT a minute. all the winter of
1897 and 1898: that William Ogilvie,
government surveyor, found
$500 in gold in a single pan. and that
the 800 claims staked on Bonanza
Creek not one proved a failure.
1T will no he known until May or
Tune next whether the men who are
now rushing to Sixty Mile Creek land
in rich pay dirt They vii! he oblig-l
ed to pursue the Klondike method Of
thawing the frozen ground
with big fires and throwing the loose
dirt on dumps ready for washing in
the spring. In the meantime provi-
sions up there. I learn from a former
pal at Skagway. have jumped to prices
that make those Of Chicago, consider
outrageously high. seem decidedly |
So-called butter IL selling at
n pound. eggs $3.50 a dozen. sugar
cents a pound. oranges and lemons
cents apiece. potatoes and onions
cents a pound. ham and bacon 81
pound. kerosene $1.25 a gallon, hay
$40 a tom.
In the British possessions, in which
This new gold country is located. the