New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03
Early Klondike
And California
Scenes Revived
Ssupies Brought to The Pas
Show Higheet Content on
Record There, Running
Tn TO 100000 a Ton
s,sc;a, Correspondence of The Tribuns
TIE PAS, Maastobn, Julu @

iSte the N0rtala4ia. AHSy are TuSnlng
- the scene of the newest Eldorado--
Elbow Lake, $50 miles north of The Pas
and $50 miles north of Winnipeg-with
the same show of determination and
the same disregard for hardship and
danger that marked the rilgrimages of
the 'Forty-niners" in prairie schooners
ard the dashes of the mushers by dog
team and snowshoe over the frozen
Alaskan wastes.
Another gold strike" has been made,
which, according to reports of pros
psctors who have staked their claims
and returned to civilization for grub
and supplies, bids fair to give the
North American continent one of the
greatest sources of the precious metal
within its confines.
Two young Irishmen, Gordon and
Kenneth Murray, comparatively new ar
rivals in the northern Manitoba min
eral belt, are responsible for the spec
tscular free gold discovery that has
attracted worldwide interest and is
ealing prospectors from all parts Of
the United States and Canada into the
wiids north of Fifty-three." The Muir
rays entered the Elbow Lake district
by trail before the spring thaw and
started work as soon as the winter
SHOWS began to disappear from the
muskeg.
In the latter part of May they made
their fnd-an outcropping Of gold
laden quartz right at the waters edge,
where Grassy River flows into Elbow
Lake. Then they started stripping the
gold-bearing vein and tracing the
trend of the ore. Finally they were
satisfied that they had not found just
pocket, but had discovered tremen-
dous body of quartz, carrying high
content of gold fairly evenly distrib-
uted throughout the rock
Samples Show Highest Gold
Content in Assayer's Record
Without word of intimation to the
few other prospectors in the district
they staked their limit of claims and
carrying samples OF the ore. After
they had recorded their stakings they
sought an assayer for a test of the
quartz they had brought in. No word
emanated from the Dominion Land
Office of the recording of the claims
and the Murrays were tight Tipped.
But the assayer's report was too much
even for the tactiturn prospectors.
Boys" he told them, you've struck
it. You've found the richest stuff I've
ever seen here. Your samples show
ore that bears from $4,000 to $780, 900
ton in gold content. If the ore body
is any size at all you're both rich"
The Murray brothers couldn't keep
the secret longer. They told few
friends in The Pas where to stake
claims to be gin" on the big strike.
Then the news spread like wildfire and
within few hours this little frontier
town was in furry of excitement.
Before night had fallen a score of
prospectors were on their way to Ell
bow Lake. On foot, by canoe and by
gasoline digger" up the Hudson's Bay
Railway the gold seekers started for
the scene of the strike. There in no
direct trail, either land or water, to the
field. The prospectors must travel fully
two hundred miles by roundabout
routes to reach their goal, which
means trip of from four to six days.
Then on June IL the story of the
new gold find went over the wires to
the outside world. Within two days
this little town of 1900 began to ac-
quire transient population that has
swelled daily since. Now every ar
rival Of the "Tamarack," the every
ether-day train over the Canadian Ma
tional Railway from Winnipeg and
other points in Manitoba, means an
other hundred or two of gold seekers.
They are not all men, either. Several
women already have passed through
Inc Pas on their way into the muskeg
Wastes of the Northland in quest of
gold and ready for revival Of the min
ing camp dance halls.
The earlier prospectors are starting
70 return to The Pas to record their
claims in the Dominion Land Office.
hundreds Of acres are being ataked ~
sne region extending as far as Copper
Lake, ten miles from Elbow Lake,
where another stampede took place in
lhe spring of 1919 as the result of
strike made by ]. P. Gordon, a veteran
prospector.
But the Murrays are not idle. They
nave gone back to their "bonanza" and
are working like the beaver colony in
she adjoining lake to ascertain just
Saat lies beneath the huge overburden
mat covers the ore dyke.
They have stripped the overburden
sway from the ore for $50 feet from
'ae point of discovery and TO a width
- hIty feet, but no walls have been
snsountered yet. Gold is deposited
eeis throughout in 8 naturalization
- pvrphyry with quartz stringers. The
.'ay OF the dixie is in greensboro
NSetaation, with continuous evidence
" ifee gold. Many of the samples dug
ss so Ear are reported to be possessed |
"a 90 per cent gold volume