Show I GoldDustbpflxSlouelatCape flame Marvelous Sea Beach Mining In AlaskaPrecious Metal Dug Up Like Dirt Richest and tf Easiest Mining In History But Easy Part Will Soon be Over When Gold = Bearing Sea Sand Is Exhausted Origin Is a Mystery t Copyrighted 1E33 by S S McClure CoSt Co-St anchaol Alaska Sept 1T11e most remarkable gold mining at present pres-ent In the world if tint In the entire history of gold mining is that now in progress at and about Cape Nome o all Norton sound Bering sea Alaska situate about 225 miles north and west of the mouth of the Yukon river or 15 miles from this point Gold was first discovered on Snake river last fall and during the earlier portion of the season Cope Nome district had acquired ac-quired considerable repute as a gold Ii producer and not a few miners from the Yukon river country many of them stranded here went over to Nome and either staked such claims as they could get or secured work as they could find it Much complaint was made that claims had been taken by persons holding hold-ing powers of attorney their principals r not being present in person and in It June the Cape Nome district had be the mouth of Snake river although Nome City is the postoffice While the city possesses a number of frame houses tents are the prevailing shelter and prices for commodities arc pretty much as they are in all mining towns Notwithstanding this is one of the most accessible mining towns on earth as ships from any part of the world may come up to its very doors making due allowances for no harbor and much I delay between ship and shore in bad weather Meals are from 150 to 250 I each a bed in a tent 150 plain drinks 50 cents each beer 50 per glass and other things in proportion including a I mutton chop at L25and by the way these are not much in excess of prices I at first class places in New York I City Copper plate for use in rockers j is worth its weight in sliver and one miner who had no copper substituted I silver dollars for it sixtyfour of them being required to properly plate his rocker which added to its first cost I a deserted village twelve months later I Gold Dust Not Popular As Money Nome gold Is much darker in color i than the gold of the Yukon river country coun-try assaying 19 an ounce though the current trading price is S16 an ounce Gold dust and nuggets constitute the bulk of the currency and gold scales are as necessary in the stares as the ordinary grocers scales And gold dust as a circulating medium is not as popular pop-ular as it mint be tor com r paper money commands a premium of 7 percent per-cent in many localities Such money is known as chechako or newcomer as only the new arrivals have it and that is the esquimo word for new arrival ar-rival Winter at Anvil City that is to say in the entire Nome district ordinarily continues from October to June and a temperature of 50 or 60 degrees below is not unusual On the 21st of December the sun barely rises above the horizon u i < t r f k m X Sl SV A jj LEtrJjI L 1 ARCTI C S S r I C STATES 6 s k if S m 4 S l S S Ji ThS > < S L S ir44 jt I I t J4j C L f 5 t LJ i1T jj r T 1 > X r w k exLV2 > v = Ki r s i HAP SHOWING THE LOCATION THE 3fEW liUNSS ANDJVEEOZHOJJS OF 1 LMEKS WITHE1TLABGED SECTION SHOWING dANE ROM come so unpopular that reports were circulating to the effect that the whole I thing was a Take foisted on the public pub-lic by the transportation companies to improve their business I S Whatever of truths may have been in these stories is now of small import I for in June or early July some one of the stranded miners tenting on tIleS tIle-S beach as the only unclaimed space aci identallj discovered gold in the sand I at his feet He told the story quickly I among his stranded friends and soon all the unemplojed were at work on the beach with any and all kinds of tools that would dig Their success was such that within a few days men who had work on claims along the creek at 10 a day and board threw up their I jobs and took to the beach expecting 1 to earn and actually earning in many instances as much in an hour as they had earned in a day The Easiest Mining On Record Never had such easy mining been heard of never had it been found so unexpectedly and so opportunely and I It was not long before everything else was deserted for the seashore and even Women and boys of 10 or 12 years were to be found as busy in the sand as the men were Since the discovery the number of beach combers as they are called has steadily increased and today is presented the strange sight of hunS I hun-S dreds of miners of both sexes an < J all ages and conditions strung out along E5 the beach for a dozen miles or more For miles to the wElrt of Cape Nome S the beach runs straight away In a strip of tide land varying from forty S to sixty feet in width between high and r low water mark extending up to the tS tundra or black alluvial soil which is from three to five feet higher than the beach proper All of this tundra and ill the territory along the leeks and rivers east and west for thirty or forty miles and back into the mountains moun-tains for ten or twelve miles had been staked but on the long strip of tidelands 1 tide-lands no man had t better claim than another or could have under the tideland tide-land laws and here the grand army of oldsokers camped and in very short order had converted the barren strand into a site of tremendous and enthusiast enthusi-ast ic industry At the same time business busi-ness of all kinds begun to respond to the boom from the beach and the usual us-ual colleition of gambling hells saloons sa-loons and dance halls went into operation I S opera-tion At present it i estimated that 1000 to 1200 miners are at work on the beach extending west for twenty S miles All these work with rockers and they occupy just as much territory terri-tory to the man or group ab can work fit f-it It is not unusual for one smallS small-S square bit of beach to pan out S10 to I 15 an hour but of course the space is soon exhausted and the lucky digger must moe to another not Where Docs It Come From This beach deposit of gold is as yet an unsolved problem By some it is claimed that the gold in the sand hith is entirely dust has been washed out from the tundra bv the wave at high tide and deposited S through hundreds of years in the sand S It is found here now from two to five feet below the surface the drift and so plentiful that the miner who does not find it in paying quantities is the I exception On the other hand there are some who claim that the gold is washed in fnm the sea and that the I real field or mother lode so to speak Is to be reached and developed by dredging There may bo something in thus theory hut the other seems to be S the more tenable S The beach to the east of Cape Nome S makes no such gold showing as does < t the beach to the west owing to the existence of a long reach of water or lagoon which lies a short distance I back from the sea and parallel with itk God deposits along the creeks In the S Interior are quit as rich in one dlrec lion as in the ether Life at Anvil City The headquarters of the Cape Nome territory is Anvil City so named from the shape of tilt > mountain above Itat p r J 4t > 1 of 20 made it somewhat expensive I even for this locality Labor in the mines Is worth from 8 to 10 a day and board and even carpenters about the only class of labor are paid 150 per I hour and board themselves As the days in summer are from eighteen to twentyfour hours long a carpenter I can put in a lot of spare time Everybody i Every-body has money and as many who i have it are not used to it they are lavishing their earnings by day on I gambling liquor and dance halls at night Gambling takes the hulk of the dust and every species of game is represented in Anvil City A Thousand Dollars An Hour As to what amount of gold is being taken out there is no means of determining deter-mining It is known that not more than 200000 in all have been shipped by steamer and 100000 of that has gone out within the past week The beach mining is reported to be turning out about 30000 a day but this in thu nature of things can not continue and when it is exhausted these men will go to work on the numerous claims lying back from the sea and along the creeks Here the gold is found in very rich deposits the claim of Lindeburg Coon Co-on Anvil creek turning out over a thousand thou-sand dollars an hour 25000 in twenty four hours one nugget recently found being worth 312 Another claim owned I by Dr Kettlesen in one day cleared up 9000 and so the stories go One may II hear almost any kind of a fairy tale and while many of them are exaggerated exagger-ated the fact remains that just now every man in the district has a pocket 1 full of dust and a heart full of hope and there are no dead brakes in Anvil City What the conditions will be a year hence will not be known until then and can not be predicted Nov 1 communication with the outside out-side world will be completely shut Off for seen months at least and only a few of the people now in the Cape Nome district are fixed with either food or shelter for the severity of the climate cli-mate though those who are prepared with houses to live in and sufficient food and fuel can not only pass the I winter comfortably but can do more I or less work To Mine In Tents This Winter I f There are very few so well off as this however fuel being scarcer than food but among the beach combers a novel plan will be adopted Parties of four six or eight will organize for winter operations by securing a large tent spreading it on the beach over the ground they propose to work in and there they will set up housekeeping housekeep-ing The canvas will be protected on the outside from the weather in every way possible and stoves will be kept going on the inside so that the tent will not only be comfortable to live and to work in but it will never freeze in there and the mining can go on quite as satisfactorily as if balmy spring were the only season known In the Cape Nome district A great rush is expected in the spring but as has been stated ther are no claims un staked anywhere within thirty or forty I miles of Anvl City and what lies beyond I ond those limits is practically unknown But according to the tales of prospectors prospect-ors as far beyond as Cape Prince of Wales 235 miles gold has been found I along the creeks in quantities that would pay from 10 to 50 per man per I day if panned by an expert Claims are offered for salca claim I being twenty acresat prices from 50000 to 150000 and there are of I course at times not many takers at i those figures hut they are expected in the spring with the rush I Thirty Square Miles Staked Out Over 1000 claims covering 20000 acres about thirty square miles of territory ter-ritory have been recorded and it is i generally believed that each claim represents rep-resents a suit at law so hasty and haphazard hap-hazard have been the methods of procedure pro-cedure In securing Claims The claims of this entire section are of the placer variety and so far no quartz has been discovered which I i means that what Is I a busy mining I camp with millions this year may be i and tin the 21s l of June is i does not disappear dis-appear entirely from sight during the twentyfour hours Advice to Prospective Miners ITo I-To the prospective jniner in the j states expecting to t6 his luck in I the Cape Nome rush next spring or rather next season it maybe said that he should keep his attention fixed on weather reports from the northwest and be in San Francisco or Seattle in June to catch the first boat out as Norton Bay usually opens in June What the fare will be cannot be told this year but now it is 60 and 73 according to accommodations to St Michael and 20 on to Nome by theRmal the-Rmal steamers crossing the bay135 miles The distance direct to Nome from San Francisco is about 2800 miles J and from Seattle or Tacoma 2300 miles and competition has made the fare to St Michael the sam What charges I the rush of gold seekers next year will make remains to be seen I is merely an ordinary and agreeable sea trip and I the miner arriving at Nome is practically practic-ally in the midst of his field of labor as soon as he gets ashore and there is little to do except to become a millionaire mil-lionaire as soon as convenient At the same time I may be remarked with truth that if he is comfortable at home and is doing fairly well he had better stay right where he is and thank the Lord for a contented spirit W J LAMPTON |