El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-07-22

HAWSON. YUKON TERRITORY.
July 22.-You have all heard of
the Klondike. the treasure of cave
of Jack Frost in this PARKWAY land Of
Nthe north. where gold dust and gravel
and powders are cemented together
by perpetual ice. You know OF the
thousands who rushed here a few years
back loaded with gold. You may have
heard how the district has produced
gold by the ton. and how within ten
years after its discovery the output
footed up more than s1OO,OOO.O0o. That
was the KlonGike or the past. I write
Of the klondike of today
Big Companies Handle Millions
The first gold came from large peck
cts The icy earth was thawed down
TO bed rock with wood fires and the
yellow grains dragged forth with pick
and shovel and the sweat of mans
: brow II took rich dirt TO pay for the
labor. and when the cream had been
skinned the individual miners left al
most in q body Then the new klondike
began. which continues in the Klondike
of today Companies with millions OF
capital brought in the latest Of mining
machinery. They thawed the ice with
steam points. and forced electricity TO
dredge the gold bearing gravel from
the depths of the earth and wash 1t to
get out the gold They turned the
course OF rivers ana EdIElEu lltlIl 1T
pipes over the mountains to wash down
the hills. They handled millions of tons
of material. but each ton has yielded
8 few grains Of pure gold. and alto
Eether they have produced almost as
much wealth as came forth in the first
80 years by the work OF the indlFld-
ual miners.
Dredgers Turn Valley Upside Down.
The mining of the present is more
destructive than that OF the past The
fires of Sodom and GOmorrah left paths
: no more marked than the tracks OF the
dredges and the hydraulic giants They
have walked over some Of the most
beautiful parts Of the world. and left
them the abomination of desolation-
Twenty years ago there was no more
beautiful valley on earth than that OF
the Klondike. It was bOrdered by
grass covered hills that rolled over one
another rising here and there 10 far
above the height Of the Blue Ridge
Both hills and valleys were covered
1Tith woods In the open spaces the
grass reached to your knees or your
waist and there were wild flowers
everywhere AS soon as gold was dis
covered men began TO chop down the
trees. Lumber was worth 500 and up
ward a thousand. and little pine logs
brought SO each. The miners thawed
their way down into the gravel. and
defaced the landscape with piles OF
half frozen muck a little later the
dredgers came in. and turned the land
upside down They stripped off the sur
face of grass and stumps, and plowed
the beds OF the creeks in great fur
rows thirty feet deep, until they are
now as hare and as dreary as any part
of the Sahara The two corporations
which have done most of this work are
, the Yukon Gold Company, commonly
known as the Guggenheims. and
Joseph W Boyle, Ltd. or the Mining
Company OF these is a great gold manu-
featuring proposition. which is differ
ent from any other in the mining
camps Of the world In this letter L
shall treat Of the Yukon Gold only.
HydrauIiekers Change Scenery.
But let ne give you some pictures OF
the Klondike Of today I took ride
up the valley with Chester A Thomas.
the resident manager of the Yukon
: Gold company. We had a high powered
automobile. and flew up the klondilEe
valley winding our way IN and out
through great piles Of debris We rode
along Bonanza and Eldorado creeks
which have been dredged from one end
TO the other and along the sides of
mountains where they are now sluicing
down the bed Of the famous White river
channel The whole way was through
4 mass OF gravel rock and earth wash
ing The beds Of the river and creeks
have been ploWed in great burrows
many feet high. There are places where
miles of powders pebbles and broken
rock seems to flow in a mighty stream
like that of a glacier down the noun
tains that arise from the valley
Streams Of water as big around as the
thigh OF 2 man are shooting out of pipes
with such a force that they hit the
icy gravel at 100 pounds 10 the inch.
and that notwithstanding II is several
hundreds feet from the pipe mouth TO
the hill. In other places the water