The Alaska daily empire., 1917-02-14
JUNEAU MINE FACTOR IS
 OLD KLONDIKER
John H. Makenzie, Who Is Associated With F. w. Bradley, Was
 in Gold Rush.

ley and as a former manager of the Stratton properties at Cripple Creek
 of the Le Roi mine at Rossland and
 the Goldfield Consolidated, that 1t is
 not remembered by all that he was
 one of those who joined the Klondike
 rush and that he made over $lOO,OOC
 in two years connection with mining
 there. The story of Mir. Mackenzie $ connection with the Klondike rush lis briefly told in an interview with IT. A. Rickard, editor of the San Francisco Mining and Scientific
 Press, already quoted in The Elm pire
 | MT Mackenzie was manager of Stratton properties at Cripple Creek and a director in the corporation which controlled the Portland mine
 when the Dawson rush came. There had been Q good deal of trouble among the owners of those proper ties, and Mir. Mackenzie says the di- rectors attended directors meetings loaded with guns, and he was con- stantly expecting a shooting scrape at one of these meetings. He was detailing this situation in his inter view when Mir. Rickard asked him why he left the Portland mine In his answers to that and other Ques- tions, he told his Klondike story. He answered:
 "On account of these rows and bickerings. My engagement was on- ly for a year. so that when the year elapsed. went to the Yukon. That was in 1898, the year of the biz stampede. Strattou was interested with me in the venture. took six assistants with me, and sent them ahead over the ice to Dawson, fol. lowing them myself in the spring Of '99 on the old steamer Leelanaw. She was torpedoed recently by the Germans"
 That must have been an exciting episode?"
 "It was; a mob of people were go- ing to the diggings. Most Of them did not know what they were going to do. went by water to St Mich. ael, and up The Yukon to Dawson. so that I missed the horrors Of the White Pass. Arriving at Dawson l saw a great crowd of people camped on the river. a town was being built rapidly. warehouses were going up the usual excitement Of a mining camp-but I did not stay long in Dawson. I went out on the creeks. and stayed there for nearly a month. tramping around and investigating Finally I bought some claims on Bon anza Creek, between Fox and Monte Christo Clutches, and extending down Co Bonanza also started a survey up the creeks. with the idea of build ing a railroad. I had sent men up among the diggers to check off the amount of freight that was coming in. to find out what is was costing. The profit to be made on 50 days freight would have paid the cost of a narrow guage railroad. I took the plan tO Ottawa, but l could not get a charter without giving the greater part of it away Co political grafters. It was two years before we got the charter. and by that time the inter. est that was left to Stratton and my self was only 35 per cent, 64 per cent having gone to the Ottawa lobbyists. I regret to have to say that at that time Canadian politics was throughly rotten"
 Did you return to DawsOn?"
 From Ottawa. yes. l went in over the ice from Skagway with a dog team. That was in March 1899. At. that time Dawson had become more settled; they had built better trails up the creeks; the claims were being worked systematically and with iu- tense energy. worked my claims two years, and then sold them at a profit of S65.OOO. of which Stratton was entitled to half, but he refused to take any of it. thanks to his gem erosity. I sold because l had decid- ed that I did not want to live there. The winters were too cold and the work required too much superYis- ion Incidentally, I may say that I was one of the first to recognize the usefulness of steam thawing and to use it. After selling my claims, came out to Seattle and bought all the small boilers could find in Seattle. Tacoma, Portland, and Van cOuyer. Altogether I got about 35 small boilers, some small hoists, thawing tools, pipe, and so forth, and shipped them to Dawson"
 You made money over that?"
 "Yes. I cleared about $5O,OOO out Of that deal"
 Speaking of thawing, do you refer to the use Of steam points,"
 Yes. At first the people on the creeks used to take empty gas tanks, the kinds used for charging soda water. They were about inches in diameter inside, and about five feet long. standing a pressure Of probab- ly 1000 pounds per square inch. Then they drilled dozens of little holes about A-inch all around them, cut off short pieces of pipe, about