The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-03-15
QUIT LO0nNG FOR GOLD
FORTUNE IN POTATOES
ALASKA MAN MAKES MORE
MONEY RAISING SPUDS
THAN BY MINING.

Back in 1897 hundreds of Mime
apolitans ad Alaska gold fever.
Among them was John G. Johnson
He packed his belongings in gunny
sack and joined the endless streams
OF tenderfoot "mushers" headed for
the land of promise.
He returned last week after 20
years of "necking" it through the will
dernesses of the far north, prospecting
in the mountains and valleys. and en-
during all hardships the life entails.
He was young man when he left.
Today his face is scanned with the
lines that spell exposure and hard
work. His hair Is gray.
He has put at his back 20 years of
experience that SAVIOR of a Jack Lon
don story. He has found gold He
has tramped out of the hinterlands
with a fortune in gold dust In his
pack. He has lost those fortunes in
vain attempts to repeat his success.
He has run the gamut of good fortune
and bad, always with face set on the
golden rainbow just ahead.
He found fortune at last. But it
was not wrested from the yellow
streaked rock. 1t was from the land
of the Matanuska valley in Alaska.
Gold? oh, No-Potatoes.
He made his money raising pota-
toes.
1t makes him laugh when he thinks
about it.
For nearly two decades he prospect
ed from Dawso to Fairbanks, from
Copper river to Valdez and Cook in
let, finding gold and losing it. And
then he took up a 320-acre homestead
road and discovered that 3 cents a
round profit on potatoes, on land that
will raise IL tons of them an acre,
was the way to a permanent bank
account
Il mushed into the gold country
with my pack on my back said john
son. Il worked in the Dawson mines
learning to know gold when l saw 1t
and to know where to find it, With
my partner | worked a claim on Hun
ker creek
THAT one claim paid us $4,000 in
few months. We took that money
and went into the Dominion creek re-
gion in the Yukon. Bed rock was deep
there. We sunk expensive machinery
and went into it big. The next spring
found us broke, down and out.
Il went to Fairbanks and got
stake furnishing wood for the mines.
And then back on the trail, way up
to the Slate creek district and into
the head of the Copper river, to VAL
dez and Seward / worked every creek
and range on the way. always mush-
ing il on foot
demonstrating Is "For Fun"
FINALLY, | found myself in Cook
inlet and took up a government land
claim for the fun of it. ] discovered
that few acres of potatoes paid more
in the end than any claim ever con-
pected up with. Emmy, isn't it,"
1t was suggested that while raising
the succulent tuber might afford a
more substantial honorarium than
chasing the golden will-o' -the-wisp, 1t
was decided "comedown" as far as
and romance were con-
cerned.
The prospector- farmer shifted.
Il can get along right we'll with
mighty little of this romance stuff"
he exclaimed. III you call working a
drift with the thermometer around 40
degrees below zero, all the while hop
ing that the spring run will show you
hit something during the winter--if
YOU call that romance somebody else
is welcome to it. If living on sour
cough and frozen beans Is adventure,
you can have my share"
"Why did you stick 1t out so long,
then" he was asked.
Mr.. Johnson looked rather sheepish
as he answered:
You never found gold, guess,
There isn't any sensation like 1t In the
world. You've got to work like seven
niggers to get to 1t, and then maybe
1t isn't there. And maybe it Is. AL
ways that. Maybe it Is. And when
you see it there in your pan and you
figure all you got to do to make 800
is to shovel little, WELL there isn't
any feeling know about like II.
There it is, yellow and pretty. And
it will buy YOU anything in town
anything you want. That Is what
keeps you there"
Rosy Future Up North Seen.
The suggestion was natural that
perhaps he would some day desert
the farm and again hit the trail
Not IL know myself" he said. II
like the land. And they are building
the government railroad right through
1t. From Seward to Anchorage It is
wonderful land You can raise any,
thing there that you can here. And
to the north about so miles are the
coal fields Some day there are going
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