Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-09-02
Stikine River People Accus.
toned to Gold Rushes.

Washington.-Gold again in Cassiar
IS news in the Northwest that has the
sOur-doughs tumbling out of the hills
into Wrangell, Alaska, bound up the
Stlkine river on the old Yukon trail.
"Gold or no gold" the Stikine river
people, Indians and whites, nave
learned to receive a boom with open
arms" says a bulletin of the National
Geographic society from Its mead
quarters in Washington. Between
gold rushes the Stkine country is bur-
fed in the magnihcence of it's own
scenery and under the blanket or
quiet that nature lays. on It's peaks
and valleys. When a rush is on any
Indian can sell back labor at peak
price, food at a premium, dog that
can pull a sled is worth q good-sized
nugget and a canoe will sell at /
margin that would turn a profiteer's
eyes emerald green.
Rumor Draws Miners.
LAST fall rumor sifted out of the
northern wilds of British Columbia
that a rich placer deposit had been
discovered on a 25-mile gravel bank
on Cassiar creek, which is rootlet
of the Zig Mackenzie river system.
The rumor hasn't been confirmed yet,
but It had the power to draw nun
dreds of old miners up the Stikine
river early this spring before the ice
went out and thousand more waited
for river steamers to start for Glen
ora, the head Of navigation. From
there they are pulling packs with dogs,
horses, oxen and caterpillar tractors
over the passes and across DOGGY val
Ieys to Dease lake, gem in a perfect
setting. Down the 27-mile lake they
are going to Cassiar creek, site of one
Rf the first important gold finds of
Che golden north Cassiar was history
before the Klondike was bywOrd.
Fortunes were made on it in 1879.
Even if they get no gold the men
who so up the river are privileged to
view sights that ought to arouse even
the faded scenery sense of a sour
dough. John Muir, chronicler par ex-
cellence of the Pacific coast, wrote
that the Stikine river was 100 miles
Of Yosemite. He counted more than
400 glaciers within view from the river
and 300 more within close range. The
great peaks that afford dark portals
sat Wrangel for this swift river are
terminal monitors of the vast canyon
whose walls rise 1900 to 5000 feet on
both sides. Here and there are small
glaciers, small at least from the river,
blue In the sun and tackled like
patches of sky on dull mountain
Slopes.
'SThen there are greater glaciers
the Dirt glacier and the Big Stikine
glacier, which pushes through rock
walls two miles apart to spread out
In a great fan six miles across This
fan is q fountain OF rushing rivers.
"There is a glacier on the bank OPP
posite the Big Stilzine glacier and two
traditions support the belief that these
two rivers of ice once met and that
the real river flowed through a tunnel
under the graphing arms of the two
giants. One tradition holds that the
indians decided that there must be
sanother land beyond this glacier wall
because salmon came up the river.
They chose two of their oldest men,
since they must die anyway, to run
the tunnel. AS the tribe watched they
disappeared into the ice cavern only
so reappear a few days later to report
of another world beyond. The second
tradition is that an Indian became
tired Of his wife so he put her In
boat and started her down the mys-
ferrous passage Imagine his surprise
"a few days later when the banished
wife padded out of the tunnel safe
and sound, fat and healthy.
A Yearly Deluge.
Usually the people of the Stikine
Elver are treated to a big brief flood
once a year. Flood glacier has bro
ken loose again. they say when high
water bursts upon them, generally
along in August. Muir found out what
happened. Tributary glaciers pour i'll