The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-31

cussing Hobson yesterday.
 Look up the facts in the Congress sional Record one of them said, and you will find the most humorous incident that ever happened in the House"
 
 post at St. Michael in 1885, just two years after Chicago became an incorporated town. They built a bockhouse there and continued their settlement until Alas ka was sold to the United States.
 After we got possession of the terri tory we learned that there was some gold in the peninsula; but it was not until the stampede to the k1ondike oc- cured that much attention was paid to it's possibilities. After that prospectors began working along the south coast They found some gold near Golofnin bay, and then drifted north and prospected
 along the Snake river, which flows intc the ocean at Nome. Here good indica- tions were found, and here, in 1S9S the i three lucky Swedes, Jafet Lndeberg, Erik l Lindbloom and John Brynteson, made the 1 discovery on Anvil creek which showed 1 that Nome was to be one of the riches | placer gold camps of the world,
 1 The news of the discovery of the three | lucky Swedes caused the great stampede | to LnlS part or the WOIlu III tie ldll U 1 1898 Nome, then called Anvil City, had z | population of 25O. By the end of tn. next year it had 5000; and the first ani
 second sailings of 1900 alone brought il 1 10000 more A row of tents and shacks l five miles long, was built along the sea | shore. The country about was honey
 combed with pits. During one year 45O
 mining claims were recorded. and iron 1 50 of these claims was taken out nor, 1 than $1,5Oo00o worth of gold.
 Then the first gold was found in tn, 1 sands of the seashore. It was discovered l by United States soldier, who was ac l customed to pan out enough every day ol 1 so for an extra meal Then 'Missour Bill'' made his big strike washing ou 1 $12, GOO worth of gold in one day; and { | little later 2000 men were engaged il beach mining. They average from S3 1 to s1O0 a day each. and within less thai l two months they had taken out nor 1 than $1000,000 by means of hand rocker 1 from the sand in front of Nome.
 l This gold was found in kind of rub! ] sand which lay on the shore in beds O 1 from six inches to two feet in thick ness. Some of the sand was rich il 1 gold, and the beach mining created grea 1 excitement. All sorts of theories wer i advanced as to gold in the ocean. ant
 every one expected to make a fortune
 Many got as much as from s5 to S1
 a pan; and not a few took out $30,000 0 Si0000 each from their little seasho- i claims, Today anyone can wash s or $ | q day out of the Nome sands, and ther | are some miners still at work there.
 l When the beach mining was at it
 height, the people went crazy. Minin
 cradles were in great demand and tn price of lumber rose to S40O a 1000 feet | Coal brought from $50 to S1OO a ton ant ! cabins and shacks of one room sold fo
 $500 each. Wages at once jumped to s1
 a day, and during part of the time l. l $2 an hour. Then the sands began t 1 play out. In 1900 those in front of Nom | yielded $350,000 but the next year the, 1 had dropped to $50,000, and now thei
 output can be counted by hundreds.
 is the same with the other beach mine | along the coast. Some of them yielde,
 hundreds of thousands of dollars, bu l they were soon washed out.
 Tn the meantime the output of tn mines discovered along the creeks flow 1 ing into Snake river and on the plaii i, back of Nome steadily increased, an, it is this region that is being mined today. If you will imagine a grass, plain running back from the seashor' | for a distance of five or six miles to | low range of mountains you will hav' some idea of the present gold mining i district of Nome. The plain consists O three old sea beaches. each of whicl contains gold. The first begins at tn. shore and runs for a mile or so back. I | consists of tundra. which means that i | is hidden by moss, grass, niggerhead | and other vegetation. and that the lant | below is of ice-frozen gravel. The sec 1 ond beach. which is little higher ant 1 farther back, is also tundra: but it con tsists of material deposited at a differ | ent period, as does also the third beach which runs into the foothills O. l the mountains. For all practical pur | poses the beaches are one Just nov l they. are covered with green, excep 1 where the gold mines have caused tn, | excavation of the ground beneath | They looked much like meadows whel ! the gold miners first came.
 Beyond these beaches and in thu mountains, and especially in thu
 creeks that flow from them. grea 1, quantities of gold have been found The whole region, in fact. seems t have been more or less peppered witt grains of gold flakes of gold. flou gold and small nuggets. As it is now | the country is covered with piles O gravel. the tailings from which tn gold has been washed. and there ar
 also great gravel beds that mark tn l workings of the larger properties, sucl as those of the Pioneer Mining com pany
 | The Pioneer properties are in an'
 about Anvil creek, and they includ \ the site of the original discovery II There are hundreds of men workin; there. but they are scattered about s' ] that they do not seem to be many. Tn \ most of the work is now done by ma I chinery, and a single man and ma
 chine will accomplish what 1t tool
 hundreds of men to do in the past. l The chief agent in getting out tn gold is water. which bursts forth iron pipes in streams as big around as telegraph pole and often several hun dred feet long. The force of thes streams is such that they would cut man in two if he tried to cross one They are so strong you cannot pierc | oa