River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-07-01
MINING ROMANCES
Seekers After Gold Who Had
Riches Thrust Upon Them.
"SWEDE LUCK" IN ALASKA.
Isories That Are Told of the Way Some
Prospectors Stumbled Into Claims
That Put Them on Easy Street.
Good Fortune Plus Hard Work.

j
That Put Them on Easy Street.
Good Fortune Plus Hard Work.
1t is literally true that some men
who went to the north had fortunes
thrust upon them. There is Charley
Anderson, who was prospecting on
| the Yukon. Shortly after the Klon-
dixie strike was made by George Mar
mack and Sho0kum Jim, Anderson,
! trail weary, ambled into the frontier
! Camp of Dawson-then known as
| transformation Circle City. He had
| developed a taste for a primitive bev-
erage of local manufacture known as
| ''hooch,' and promptly proceeded to
crafty it. When he came to he dis
! covered that his alcoholic companions
! had gone through his clothes, extract
ed $500 and left in lieu thereof a deed
| to a claim on Eldorado creek, which
was thought to have no other value
except which pertains to a grazing for
moose.
Anderson almost wept. 1t was true
he was the owner of a location, but a
claim isn't necessarily a mine. and
also there is a lot of difference be-
! tween q deed to piece of frozen
ground and $500 in real money, which
| was all he had possessed. But he
| was not bereft of credit. Taking the
deed to q trader. he pledged it for a
grubstake, which he hauled to the
creek on q hand sled. He burned wood
to thaW the frozen muck and discover
ed that the gravel underneath was
thickly permeated with gold. The
moose pasture proved to be worth
more than $2OOO,OOO. There are some
wonderful real estate records in
Alaska!
Depressed and discouraged because
he had been unable to find values in
a quartz mine which he had been sent
to examine, John Treadwell sat in a
log cabin hotel in Harrisburg, now
Juneau, waiting for a steamship to
take him back to San Francisco.
French Pete Erussard drifted in and
told Treadwell a hard luck story.
Treadwell was sympathetic. The tale
was we'll told; SO well that he was
induced to put up $500, taking there
for q deed to q half interest in a
claim. Treadwell returned the fol-
lowing year and examined the prop
erty. Then he bought the other half
and it became known as the Tread
we'll mine. 1t has produced more than
$50,O00,000, and there is sufficient ore
blocked out to keep the big stamp
mills working for many years.
Erik Lindblom went to Alaska on
a whaling yessel-shanghaied from
San Francisco, some people say. With
Jafet Lindeburg and John Brynteson
he discovered the Nome goldfelds and
laid the foundation for a big fortune.
Two of the richest placer claims in
Western Alaska were traded for COM
parative trifes-one for gasoline en-
CINE that wouldn't chug, and another
for $50 and bottle of brandy distilled
from prune juice. There are thou
sands of similar instances, common in
the history of every mining camp.
But there is another side to the
story. Thousands of men in Alaska,
with privation and hardship for their
teammates, have tOiled bravely and
assiduously for many years and have
failed to find the golden fleece. Per-
haps they lacked what the north terms
"Swede luck"
"Swede luck" is SO called because
many of the rich strikes have been
made by Scandinavians. In Alaska
every Scandinavian is Swede. Per
sonal observation, however, has shown
me that "Swede luck" means hard
work and enduring fortitude under adj
verse circumstances.
Several years ago at the mouth of a
creek where a strike had been re-
ported and an incipient stampede was
in progress 1 met prospectOr.
"Who made the striker l asked.
"Who do you think made the striker"
he countered disgustedly, as though |
had propounded foolish question No.
1862. did you ever hear of anybody
having luck in this darned country un-
less he was a Swede!
[ walked fourteen miles up that creek
and found six holes to bedrock. Pay
! had been encountered in the sixth.
Every shaft had been dug by the
| Swede who made the strike, and who,
by the way, happened to be Norwe-
/ gian.-Sunset Magazine.