The Daily Alaska empire., 1949-10-31
Slide on M. Roberts
Claimants Holding Up Despite
 Brass Finding; Bedrock Is Still Sought; Snow Strands 150 Men

ment at the Fishwheel gold diggings up by the Arctic Circle is begin ming to feel the pinch of priva- ton.
 This was the word from Jack Datum, Fairbanks Newsminer re- porter, who returned from the frigid tent town 165 miles north east of here Saturday.
 Many who have lived in lean-to shelters are building more perma- nent log walls, and those who came with insufficient clothing and bed ding are awaiting planes to take them out" Daum said.
 Confident that they are on the road to riches, many are erecting log walls for their tents, and in- sulating them with three feet ot earth. Native Indians give helpful advice to those who plan to stick it out for month or so more"
 OLD TIMERS STAND BY
 They listen to the old timers among the prospectors, who scoff at rumors that the strike is mot what it's cracked up to be-" A re- port of an assay of some of the original nuggets from the Yukon river here, which said one nugget was brass" and a couple of others appeared to be pocket or poke-worn, failed to discourage such old-timers as Ed Farrell, Datum reported. 1 He said Farrell, and others pointed out that "salting' or planting gold along nine miles of river shore would be pointless and profitless.
 Who can salt a whole river?' ] Farrell asks. ;.
 Tn half-mile stretch of new airport are camped many boys from the States, to whom the whole affair is as new as it must have reen to the original 49ers cen tury ago in California.
 Some of these, Daum reports, are F. Howard and Robert Alexander, Houston, Tex; Joe Trumbpy, Grants Pass, Ore; c. V. Johnson, Seattle; Robert Barenz, Billings, Mont; E. J. Parker, Bridgeport, Conn.,; Richard Pickins, Richmond, Calif.;' and Benny Barbee, Rocky Ford, Colo.
 Joe Metro and Paul Ben, pros pectors, flew in from Old Crow. in Yukon Territory, but are being de- tained at Fort Yukon, north of the strike area, by legal technicalities on Canadian prospecting rights on American soil.
 It was Daum who prevailed upon Gilbert Lord, Fort Yukon road house proprietor, to send in samples to the University of Alaska for assay. Geology Professor Richard Ragle said he found one of the mug gets was brass, and that some others appeared to have been car ried in pocket or poke for some time.
 Daum said that Clifton Carroll
 the young fisherman who reported finding nuggets on the axle of his lishwheel couple of weeks ago denied emphatically that any part of his strike was brass.
 T had only gold in the glass tube turned over to Lord," he said. T know nothing about any brass. He said two original nuggets had been tested by Al Rowe, a Fort Yukon mechanic. Rowe told Daum that he had tested two nuggets but said he did not know about some of the smaller, untested ones. Meanwhile. some 150 gold seekers are stranded on the eight-mile stretch of river bank, marooned by heavy ground fog and a swirling snowfall.
 Old-timer Farrell, prospector- miner since 1900, said he refused to give any credence to hoax ru- mors.
 There is good possibility that few brass filings from river-boats have been picked up by the wheel, he said, "but that doesn't mean the rest of the gold is not genuine i I have seen enough other good prospects to convince me that the time and effort spent sinking a few holes here are well spent.
 There have been plenty of colors banned, and other nuggets found that I know were not salted. My holes are going down. You can't tell anything until you hit bed- rock"
 Farrell said he and his partners plan to fly a prospect boiler to the site to speed up digging operations A prospect boiler is a portable steam boiler which feeds live steam into a thawing point driven into the frozen ground. It's about 10 times faster than the wood-fire method now being used.