The Wrangell sentinel., 1917-08-30
ISKUT RIVER MANAGEABLE
Demonstration by Captain Sidney c. Harrington of i the Hazel B III

| On Saturday morning about 3 clock Captain Burlington left fWrangell with a party of men for the mining properties of the Is- kut Mining Company, lying about l35 miles up the Iskut river in British Columbia.
 | Ever since the whites came to Alaska this river has borne an |evil name, due in large measure Ito the disinclination of the na- Hives to traverse its waters, their ancestors having imbued them with the belief that a Kustika-a, or bad spirit, had his abode in the headwaters, and devoured 1 all invaders of his illahee. Only five or six years ago a German count, knowing of the big grizzly | bears to be found there, did his best to get the late Chief Shakes to take him up in his canoe, offer ing him extravagant rewards, but in vain.
 The occasional white prospec. tor or trapper only has had prac- tical experience with the river, and its rapid flow has made lining and polling difficult enough with the consequence that the Iskut has long been classed as an inn possible stream. Information from prospectors, repeated from time to time however, induced a company of our townsmen to To- cate and develop certain mining properties showing attractive values, and the reports brought out by these parties have been so uniformly tlattering as to the extent and richness of the min eral deposits, that they have per severed in their efforts until they have secured Crown grants to their holdings.
 The Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company, in search of a big property to take the place of the Treadwell mine, were inter- ested in these showings to the ex- tent of sending in Supt. w. G. Wayland to examine the proper aes, and it was his party whom Captain Harrington, without put ting out a line, landed at the mining camp 35 miles up the Is- kut on last Saturday. Upon con- pleting the trip Captain Barring ton assured MT. Wayland that, if business offered, he would sign a contract to land one thousand tons of machinery at the same place, and to transport to tidewater any amount of ore offered. His time from the mouth to the camp was eight hours, and his time for the return trip to the Stickeen river, which re- ceives the flow of the Iskut six miles above the International boundary, was two hours.
 The fame of the Iskut country as a mineral district is as old as 1874, the time of the Cassiar rush, but for all these years the gold seeker has passed by on the other side owing to the generally accepted belief that the difficult ties of navigation were so great that exploration of the district was out of the question. Captain Harrington, whose reputation was made in the Yukon country in the Side-Streams Navigation company, of which he was presi- dent and manager, has indeed earned the gratitude of the resi- dents of Wrangell, by demon strating that the hinterland is not the inaccessible district which it had so long been considered.
 Capt. Burlington has an ap- pointment with George A. Cloth fer, Provincial Mining Engineer of the Atlin district, who is due to arrive here about the first of September to make a report to the Canadian government as to the mineral formation of the Is- kut country. Those familiar with the resources of the district, which has never been visited by a government mineralogist, pre- dict that MT. Clothier's report will bring to public notice a region of astonishing mineral richness and extent.
 The gasoline screw boat Hazel B HI is a vessel 62 feet long with 95 horsepower. built for Captain Harrington at Wrangell this year by Charles M. Binkley, whose fame as a builder of river craft is widespread in Alaska, and was intended for spring and fall navigation of the Stickeen, when the river is at a low stage, and with the navigation of the Iskut especially in mind. Her