The Nenana daily news., 1918-09-28
VAN ORSDEL HAS RETURNED FROM
 GOLD DISTRICT

J. C. VanOrsdel, Wno went up the Kantishna river recently with a load of about ten tons of provisions for the miners and prospectors of the district, returned to Nenana this week after hard trip.
 MT. VanOrsdel started on Septem- Der 20th from the old deserted camp at Diamond, on the power barge Elmer G and acted as pilot to the launch Blue Jay and her barge, which followed in tine wake of 4he Elmer G. all the way down the sinuous Bearpaw river. Owing to the very low stage of the water and the abundance of dangerous snags in this river, navigation was rendered difficult and tedious and it took the party two days to make the distance of approximately fifty miles down the Bearpaw to it's out
 
 { The water in the Kantishna river was also very low, but the party managed to make the Panama river in three days, a distance of approxi- mately 120 miles, from the con- fluence of the Bearpaw and Kan tishna rivers.
 There are about thirty or forty men in the district who will remain through the winter to continue pros pecting, and many of those who have gone out who have not been inducted into the service of the country will, it is thought return to the camp.
 t Diamond, which was the main camp in the Kantishna country in the early days, is now only large collection of deserted cabins, some of which are used as caches for the supplies freighted in on the river for the use of the men in the dis trlct. It is the head of navigation for the district, and some fifty miles up the Bearpaw river from it's confluence with the Kantishna. f All supplies for the district are freighted up the river to Diamond and cached there until the coming of the snows and they are then freighted to the neighborhood of the placer mining country; to Caribou and Glacier creeks, near Glacier City, and from there on to the quartz country adjacent to Eureka, Friday and Eldorado creeks.
 ! As the Bearpaw river can only be navigated at fairly high stage of water, the necessary supplies have to be rushed into the country early in the season.
 In spite of the shortage of men to work the mines this season, the output for the district will amount to about $30,00O, which is about the same as last year. Several good prospects have been found, and if the miners get a fair show, the probabilities are that the output for the district for next simmer will greatly exceed the amount taken out this season. ~.:. . ...-.....
 Joe Quigley, who is located on the slope, between Eureka and Fri day, has very good quartz prospects and is developing his holdings. He IS working alone. Several other prospectors who have sufficient grub to last them through the win ter expect to develop their finds and expect to take out some money next season. The transport diff culty is the one thing that is hind ering the development of the Kan tishna country, and if this difficulty can be overcome, a large gold pro- duction can be looked forward to from this district.
 Game is very plentiful in the dis |. trict; large herds of caribou and bands of moose and sheep are ire quently seen in the vicinity of the mining claims. Ptarmigan were , plentiful this season and there were , ample indications that the willow grouse were coming back.
 The wide flats of the' McKinIev