The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-10-08
Beets, Politics and Progress
By Byrd Trego
A Lesson in Cooperation
Chapter xxx

river valley, nave mad nard time
getting together in their work. They
have had hard time to organize and
stick together. We are all kinds Of
fellows from all kinds Of places and
we do not very readily harmonic
into working body. 1t has some
times been predicted that we shall
not succeed at any time in banding
ourselves together in a solid work
ing force or unit. Whether you be-
lieve that we can or not, l want to
tell you about some Incorporation
under conditions that were vastly
more difficult than this.
Seeking the Golden Fleece
There is a certain part of Alaska
that is called the Seward peninsula.
There is a certain part of the Seward
peninsula lying between Snake river
and the Solman river in latitude SO
to 65 and longitude 1853 to 1855, a
large patch of tundra and hills lying
to the nertheastward from Nome
that was prospected about twenty
years ago at the time of the rush to
Nome and was Stunned by the min
ers as the dry-farmers are now shun-
ming the Snake river desert.
Men made fortunes along the sea-
shore; they made fortunes along the
creeks and a very few of them took
out fortunes in the desert country
am speaking Of.
The Claim Jumpers
All mining claims that did not
have a certain amount of work done
on them during the year were for
feited by the claimant on the last day
Of the calendar year. On the morn
ing of the first of January a man
might start out and stake the whole
length of creek for himself, but if
there were forty claims along the
creek, he would use his own name
and thirty-nine other names, fictiti-
Gus all of them. Then he would
camp around the rest of the year and
il somebody came along and discov-
cred gold on one of his claims land
discovered it in paying quantities, he
would come along and claim the
claim. He would call upon the mill
tary government to put off the man
who had done the work and dis
covered the gold, and he would then
step in and take the profits.
Even under these horrible condi-
tions, men were developing claims
right along and turning them over
to the other fellow, or dividing with
them in any way they could. Under
these conditions, men crazy for gold
would go into this desert country
am speaking Of, altho the proper
name for it is tundra, where there
was no water to wash the gold, even
if they found it, and they would
prospect. When a man thought he
had found pay dirt, he would carry
1t any distance few hundred feet
or several miles to creek to wash
it, to see what was in 1t. 1t was
thousand times more expensive than
operating by the side Of a. running
stream. Sometimes a miner would
work all winter to sink a hole down
fifty or 100 feet into that desert in
the hope of striking pay streak He
might take pan of pay dirt in the
morning and start for a creek and
arrive there at noon, wash the pam
full and walk the rest of the day to
get back to the hole in the ground.
This was probably the slowest min
ing on the face of the earth, yet men
PERSISTED in mining under such con-
ditoins.
Glacial deposits scattered here and
there proved to be very, very rich in
gold, but no man working alone
could conduct water on to it by
means of ditch or canal. When
men considered cooperating with
neighbors, they often found that
these neighbors were strangers to
them from some other part of the
world and often times they did not
even speak the same language. They
could not understand each other
when they talked. There was man
here and there who thought that If
these forces could be combined to-
gether into a working force and held
together for a sufficient number of
years with some working capital,
they could construct system of
canals, by which they could get water
on the ground to wash these rich
gold deposits. @ 8&
But before a man could do any
good there he had to stay at least
one year to get acclimated, he had to
get accustomed to the climate and
the food. Then he had to stay there
and stay acclimated. In that climate
they have three months of spring,
summer and fall, July, August and
September, or more property speak
ing from the twenty-first Of June to
the twenty-first of September. Part
Of the bitches which they c0nstluc
in the summer season will be ruined
In the winter season and spriug. Bot
these men banded themselves to-
gether and went to work on their
canal system. It looked like an en-