Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-23

THE story of gold in Alaska Is one
of the most intriguing in the long
list of stories built around mans
eternal search for it, long regarded as
the most precious the most desired Of
all metals. Gold will not tarnish, 1t is
81 quite ductile can be hammered into
- very thin alleged sheets and still retain
It's character is beautiful to look at and
s. by virtue of agreement among the
- civilized nations of the world, accepted
49, the standard of monetary value by
ALL It makes charming ornaments,
rings earrings, watches chains, neck
laces and whatnot. And because of all
3 these things 1t Is most sought after by
IS men,
It is found in many parts of the
world but chiefly in mountainous Sec
tions for it is associated with igneous
rock, rock produced by heat-earth's
interior heat-and cast up at some re-
mote geological time to the surface OF
the earth Here erosion does the rest,
in so far as flake and nugget gold IS
concerned.
So when gold was first discovered in
Alaska back in the early eighties, men
began to turn hopefully to that frozen
country in search of rich deposits of It.
Placer mining became the order OF the
day. washing gold out of stream soil
where it had been deposited by the
stream.
However Alaska as great gold coun-
try did not come into its own until
1898 and 1899, the date of the discov-
ery of gold at Nome and the develop.
nent of the field. OF this discovery and
the subsequent activity that followed ~
there are many men throughout the country
stilI living who were like Priam at the siege OF
Troy party to it. The terrible hardsnlp ana
frenzy of that period has not seen counter
part to this day, in so far as the United states
lad In hNg
to California in '49 and to the Klondike fields
in Canada stampede" the word used by
those who have been witnesses OF a rusn' u
the only word in the English language that oe-
fines accurately the wild, blind fury OF men on
the trail Every form of suffering Is there;
every form of succor and mercy; every form OF
brutality; every form of generosity. Men, &C"
corCling to the bias of their nature, either rise
to the spiritual heights or sink to the depths OF
hell The stampede" for gold tears away the
veneer of civilization and leaves stark naked
man, elemental man fighting it out to the end
of the trail with his fellow man, nature and the
bright angels of his nature
COLD production in Alaska for 1925 was
$6845, 900; for the year 1929, it was eStt-
mated to be- as of January /, 1880, $7,748, 600.
Since 1880 the total output of gold from our
northern possession is set at $685. 10000,
percentage of return q paltry investment
uneuualed in the annals of the world save
only in the case of one, that made by Thomas
Jefferson while he was President. This coJns
try gave Russia $7,200,0 900 for Alaska in 1857.
Last years gold production alone in the terri
tory would have paid for it.
The biggest single gold year in Alaska was
1906 during which year $l8000000 worth OF
gold was produced. It was the peak of the
Nome fever period. BY that year placer min
ing had been replaced largely by machine proc
ess mining, fact that accounted for the
huge total. Men, in speaking of these years at
Nome, recall seeing on more than one occasion
two, three four and i've million dollars of gold
bullion piled on the wharf at Nome awaiting
shipment out of its native environment.
Today, gold mining in Alaska on large
scale is machine process mining DredgeS are
used to lift the soil and handle it through .
washing process TO the end that it yields up its
treasure. One sees little Of the mining methods
save where the prospector roams and works out
by himself or with his 'pard' claim. Dredges
charge 80 cents per yard for their work and
there are in round numbers, $50 pans to the
yard
The present discovery of gold in paying
quantities will have boom effect upon Alaska,
declares DR.. Philip Smith of the Alaskan divis-
ion of the Geological Survey at Washington.
IT." said Mr.. Smith, will focus attention
upon that distant possession of ours, bringing
something in the way of knowledge of its un-
suspected beauties and wealth. The airplane
and the radio have changed this once almost
God-forsaken country, cold mountainous.
rocky. Valleys it has, of course. beautiful as
any on earth, with blooming gardens and rich
pastures filled with cattle and hogs.
Inaccessible. practically, a few years ago.
today 1t has a railway line reaching from
Seward to Fairbanks, distance Of 470 miles,
off in