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Show I ', " - - r - 7 0 - va -- v" r ' a.r,ttSK ..J N0RTH - ' 'J Si- y U K 0 N $Usr. Vterritories BR1T,SH VPj?COLUM 6 (A Qri? 'AL6EKTA Te YUHOV GOLD-MNIHQ COUNrtrv JT is over a dozen years since the news flashed round the globe that gold in immense quantities had been found amid the snow and ice of the Yukon territory, on the border bor-der of far-away Alaska, and adventurous adven-turous spirits hastened from every Quarter into the bleak and inhosplta-b inhosplta-b e land whose very name had been till then unknown to the vast majority. Gold, indeed, had been found there for weaUh oTp8' bUt the Phenomenal wealth of Bonanza creek was only revealed re-vealed in 1896, and it was not till the summer of 1897, when a steamer load hL P"r mlners-every one of whom bad struck it rich" and bore with him "1U8t Bnd nesets-arrived at Seattle, that the world awoke to rival ntl aD.0ther great Afield, trlul I ,Ke f Californ'a and Ausi tralia, had been discovered th?!ndike YUk0D' Bonaa, Eldorado hese magic words were on all men's 1 tongues in the closing years of the ! houlehen,v,h CentUry' Md "travagant though the reports were that trickled over the long and perilous path lying between the frozen fastnesses of Klon dike and civilization, the reality far surpassed the wildest estimates of the first prospectors, and eventually it be came certain that the new gold-field was the richest-ever known in the his fory of placer-mining. For this was not another Rand where without expensive machine and unlimited capital the earth could Th wf-adV yieM SD UDCe of eld. This was the poor man's gold fieid and he needed but a pick, a shovel' and a pan to place him on the road to fortune. To get there was the only difficulty, for one had either to make the long and costly Journey via the mouth of the Yukon upstream to the diggings, or land at Juneau or Dyea surmount the dangerous Chilcoot or White passes, and then travel throueh the line of lakes to the head way of the Yukon, and so downstream to the newly-founded Dawson City al ready a flourishing town of 4 000 in ' habitants. Now Dyea Is desert' 1 Gold Output of the Yukon ' Wealth beyond the dreams of ava rice awaited those who won through' to the Klondike. ,n the first season the few pioneers took $1,500,000 out of Eldorado creek alone, and claims were selling for $500,000. A single "Dan" dirt-two shovelfuls of Varth-wa, known to yield $500, and $150 and $loo pans were plentiful. Men could earn $15 to $20 a day in wages, Tna at that figure labor was scarce, and an attempted reduction was speedily f" lowed by BtrIke By y fol of the century the population of the Yukon territory had grown to 30 000 000, though the recovery of the precious pre-cious metal was carried on under pi cullar difficulties. The ground being frozen solid. It had to be thawed out by huge fires before the dirt could be excavated, and this was the work that could be done during the ,ong and se- of ih. m k The actuaI "traction o the gold by washing was only pOSsl- xvl nVh three summe'- Months When the gold fields of California were discovered and the stories of heir unlimited wealth heralded throughout the world, there was a wild and woolly rush to the shores of the Pacific. In those days it was almost k an Impossibility to get the worst of a I venture to its coast. Starvation was almost out of the question, save in the northern and mountainous districts, and a comfortable bed could always be found on the hillside of the land of eternal summer. There were no huge ice and snow fields practically destitute of bird and beast. On the contrary, there were streams full of fish, anxious to be caught, and forests for-ests Inhabited by flocks of birds that have since acquired reputations for high prices in city eating houses. Again, the argonauts of California and Nevada were almost exclusively hard-headed, hard-headed, painstaking and sober-minded men, who were willing to brave hardships hard-ships and privations providing they ultimately ul-timately obtained Independence. Frozen Up In Winter. The Yukon river Is absolutely closed to travel save during the summer months. In the winter the frost king asserts his dominion and locks up ail approaches with Impenetrable ice, and the summer is of the briefest. It endures en-dures only for ten or twelve weeks, from about the middle of June to the early part of September. Then an unending un-ending panorama of extraordinary picturesqueness is unfolded to the voyager. The banks are fringed with flowers, carpeted with the all-pervading moss or tundra. Birds count- less in numbers and of infinite variety va-riety of plumage sing out a welcome from every tree top. Pitch your tent where you will in midsummer, a bed of roses, a clump of poppies and a bunch of blue bells will adorn your camping. But high above this paradise para-dise of almost tropical exuberance giant glaziers sleep In the summit of the mountain wall, which rises up from a bed of roses. By September everything Is changed. The bed of '" "a3 uisappearea before the lev breath of the winter king, which sends the thermometer down to 80 degrees below freezing point. The birds fly to the southland, the white man to his cabin, the Indian to his hut and the bear to his sleeping chamber in the mountains. Every stream becomes be-comes a sheet of ice, mountain and valley alike are covered with snow. The Klondike Today. From 1900 the production gradually diminished as the crude methods of the Individual miner became Ineffectual with the exhaustion of the richest areas on the Bonanza and Eldorado creeks, which between them have yielded over $50,000,000. In 1907 the output had dropped to $3,000,000 and for the following yrar It was 'even smaller, but this did not mean that the gold field was. worked out The fact was that placer mining had given way to hydraulic and dredging "proD osltlons" In the hands of wealthy com panles, and the vast areas acquired bv them were unproductive pendins equipment for operations on a large scale with modern appliances Is now in full swing, and every scran of earth in the auriferous creeks J right down to bed rock-Is now belne put through the dredging machines and washed for gold, the dredger plowing its way steadily from one end of the valley to the other, while the hydraulic machinery deals with the soil on the hill sides. Science Indeed has swept away the romantic side of gold-mining in the Yukon, but throutrh Its agency the territory is entering on a fresh period of prosperily. which may yet rival the heydey of Its glori. ous past |
