The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-07-02

the Klondike An eager procession
coast range to the headwaters of the
Yukon, down which they voyaged in
boats and RATS to Dawson. The hor-
rors of that scramble are almost for
gotten. Men. and women also. de-
void Of experience, physically unfit.
laden with packs, toiled up the long
ascent in frenzy to lay hands on the
gold. Before this mob reached the
dggings the richest ground had been
located by the miners and traders
previously in the country Yet some
of the newcomers also Jared we'll The
romance of the rush was not with the
luckless wastrels. the greedy courte
Fans. or the drunken desperadoes, but
with the quiet strong men who greatly
endured and nobly overcame the trials
of an unaccustomed life, and returned
home to become leaders in peaceful
community.
In 1900, the Klondilie yielded $10,-
900 900 and in 1901, $22 100000. The
total output so far has been $780,
100000
The story of the discovery remains
to be told. In the summer of 1896
Robert Henderson, Nova Scotian,
who had mined In Colorado. found
gold across the divide from the Klon-
dixie At this time George Carmack,
a squaw man, being short Of fresh
meat, went up the valley of the Klon-
dixie in search Of moose. Two Indians
went with him. Turning up one of the
tributary creeks, they worked their
passage through the thick underbrush
i and the thicker mosquitoes until ia
tigue necessitated halt. While rest
| ing the two Indians panned the gravel
and found gold Crossing the divide,
Carmack and his Indian friends visit
ed Henderson's camp, but they said
nothing to him about their discovery
for he showed dislike of Indians
Returning, they found more gold on
the same creek, now famous as Bonan-
"a Thereupon. Carmack and each o
the Indians located a claim, That was
on August II, 1896 Putting the gold
they had panned into cartridge shell,
they fastened down the Yukon to
Forty-mile, which was the nearest re-
cording office.
This event opened new province 10
human industry. Within couple of
wears big steamers were ploughlng the
waters of the Yukon, a railway had
been constructed over the coast range.
the telegraph had linked the northern
frontier with the nerve centers OF the
world, and new communities had
arisen in the very heart of vast soli-
tude. It was not long before asricn'-
ture was started close to the Arctic
circle and children played where late-
lly moose and caribou had roamed al
will. Once more, the miner had start
ed the springs Of life and called a new
world into being.
The Lure Of Gold.
| Other examples of pioneer work
might be instanced did time permit.
You will have noted that the lure OF
gold was the incentive to most OF
these explorations. The reason is OBJ
vious. Gold is metal occurring in
nature in nearly pure state; IN us
alluvial form it is readily scparable
| from the river gravel; and even from
its matrjx in the rock it is extracted
| by easy methods. Moreover, 1t COM
mands a high price, and a free mar
ket so that it can be transported IN
small bulk and sold in unlimited
quantity. Gold mining, therefore, has
been the prelude to the exploitation
Of the base metals existing in COM
pick ores. The simple operations OF
the gold miner have preceded the es-
Establishment Of economic conditions
favorable to the more complicated
business Of winning the other metals,
The British empire and the Ameri-
can commonwealth alike have ad-
vanced in the track of the minor. He
made the great west a part of your
neTlIdS6y uc CUHNuSIcu tiC oN~iSS"'
dominions more truly than the sol
ders of the king The curtains that
hid Central Africa were parted mo-
mentarily by the slave trader, the ele-
plant hunter and the missionary, but
when these emerged those curtains
closed again. 1t was left to the min
err to place his candle so that like "a
good deed in naughty world 1t
might illumine part for human in
dustry. The primeval forests the
sunlit valleys and the grassy plains
of Australia remained as they were
in the morning of time until the pros
pector called for his own people to
come thither across the sea. The fur
trader traversed the snow clad plains
and penetrated the pine clad noun
tains Of the Canadian northwest; the
salmon fisher sailed into the long es-
tuaries; but neither of them touched