Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-03-19

derneath. This ore was discovered by
Canadian whose nickname was
French Pete and whose real name was
Pierre Erussard French Pete came
here with some Indians when Juneau
and Harris were making their gold
finds on the opposite side OF the cas-
tineau channel, and began to prospect
Douglas Island. He washed the sands
of the beach and found color. A
little later he climbed up the hills to
where the Glory Hole is and there dis
covered an outcrop of gold-bearing
quartz. upon which he located two
claims. He named one claim Paris.
after the capital of France. where he
expected to spend the great treasures
he had discovered, and the other
Bears Nest because it was in little
cave that was occupied by bear and
two cubs. French Pete then started
mining, but had nothing more than
rockers and sluice pots and could crush
lode. He took out some gold, but not
enough to pay well, and little later
on sold the mine to John Treadwell
for the sum of So. That was in 1851
John Treadwell had come to Alaska
at the instance of some California cap
italtsts. He had been prospecting in
the Silver Bow basin, back or juneau,
and had found quartz gold in the beit
where the Elmer mine now is. But
the gold was poor, and he was about to
give up in despair and go back to san
Francisco when he met Pete and learn
ed of his discovery on Douglas lsland;
He went to see the claims, but ola
not think much of them. as the ore
seemed to be of too low grade TO pay
for the mining. He suggested, however.
that Pete should give him qu1tcia1m
deed for the two properties Tor %, ana
he would try to sell them to the CAPT
talists of San Francisco. Pete had
store, and the understanding was that
if the mines were opened the miners
would trade at his store. This was an
additional consideration. and so for
So was sold this property, from which.
as 7 have said, have already come ABOUT
sixty millions of dollars.
The property was floated in San
Francisco and Treadwell got one-third
of the stock. The other owners were
large capitalists and among them D. Q.
Mills. much of whose fortune came
from this source. Later on the Rotns-
childs of London bought into the prop
erty and today the mine is owned by
the Mills estate, the fothSchlidS anu
other rich men.
The mines were operated Win large
capital from the start. The first exca.
vations were in the Glory Hole. out of
which five million tons of gold-bear-
ing rock have been taken. About ten
years ago the first underground stop
ing was done, and then they began to
tunnel the earth and work altogether
underground. I cannot tell YOU just
how many miles of underground works
there now are, but the mining goes ON
for a long distance up and down the
Gastineau channel and far out under
the ocean.
Other w-grade properties of SINH
lar nature have been discovered, and
the Treadwell mines are now operated
under four different names. One is the
Alaska Treadwell mine. which is the
Oldest another is the Alaska Mexican;
third. the Alaska United Gold, and Il
fourth the Ready Bullion. The Ready
Bullion mine is separate and distinct
from the Treadwell properties in that
It has gold vein of its own about two
thousand feet southeast of them. In
all the mines the ore bikes or veins
are sandwiched between green stone
aud black slate. They run through the
mountains of Douglas Island and in
places extend far down under the Gas
tineau channel which flows between
the island and the mainland.
In many of these TreadwelI mines
they are now taking out ore which is
almost a half mile below the surface
of the earth. The ore Is lifted into
great shafthouses. from where it de-
scends by gravity to the mills. The
ore bodies dip toward the channel, and
some of the tunnels have hundreds of