The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 19, 1897, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXIL.—NO. 80. FRANCISCO, TITURSDAY MORNING, SF —— T 19, AUGUS PRICE FIVE OENTS. BLOCKED AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE KLONDIKE GOLDFIELDS, MINERS SEE THEIR HOPE OF RICHES FADE AWAY Men at Skaguay Will Let None Pass Without 800 "~ Pounds of Supplies. HUNDREDS AWAITING A CHANCE TO CROSS. Only Those With Horses Able to Advance to the Yukon's Headwaters---Border Law Rules at the Gateway to the Diggings. SKAGUAY, ALASKA, Aug. 11, by steamship Al-Ki to Seattle Aug. this noon at a bridge they are building I t who had not at least 800 pounds of provi 1 in with scarcely enough food to last them to and decided to allow no one to ns. action was taken to avoid the necessity of in the Yukon country this win ter. stands without a parallel among the unique. at such a meeting What was run o lecad decided {oo dog. 1S own a ers’ meeting sa named Cleveland go for re- haul ut of town two days a a corpse free—of charge. It was the body of young . Fowler of Seattle, who fell into the river and was drowned > clear waterin s ped 1o his back. aces of tt the The change is from the ve The naked truth stripped to the bone must winter here or return home.. Every i the situation worse, and there is no relief in ng tofind a place whereon to nt of some other fellow who has at of 160 acres is staked out by becoming great city. frame or log houses, a faro layout, a black- s to shore. grave. stronger each day that here is de uay at this date five stores, f 1S “Bloomers fitted for shotguns,”’ icians, another professional > sign painted on a board 300 tents and a populatior of ur the women are a their husbands into the xt week. 1 minir .say it Broads mp. Its population is proud of say ets have been back to the from high tide four miles me in base and is walled with tents, piles of supplies and felled trees. The gold-seek never overlook an opportunity to make fun drown their impatier The event of to-day was a foot-race for a purse of $25, in which fifty r Lanterns are flickering like firefi One turns his glance with a shiver whict n entered. | >s among the tents to-night. the snow-topped mountains | . a haif mile from camp point 40,000 feet into the pale night over- | from head. | 1 ““Half way to Klondike and stuck’ is the camp expression. Rich- | ard on Bosworth-Field, did not want a horse worse than the miner | stuck at Skaguay does. Horses can go all the way to the lakes, Horses are worth their weight in gold. ‘ The boniest plug that would | be spurned by a horse-meat factory at a cent a pound is worth $300 here Twele hundred men are waiting here for horses to pack their out- fits over. Many have been waiting two weeks without having a | pound of their freight moved and with nothing in sight to move it. Many are discouraged. Others are beginning to lose hope and heart of | getting into the Klondike this winter. About twelve men have sold | their whole outfits for 50 per cent of cost price and returned home. ‘ About fifty control about 250 horses, which are carrying their own supplies in 150-pound packs in relays to the summit—a slow and laborious process. About 250 are on the verge of selling their outfits} and going back to the States, leaving Klondike for those who can get there. | The most reliable information is that the trail to the lake, beyond the summit, will not be in good shape to be traveled over before | August 25. Gangs of from 250 to 500 men are taking turns working‘ upon it. Packers will charge 25 cents a pound after their own stuff is moved to the lake. It will take an army corps of horses to move all the stuff now on the ground before the season closes. Some miners | say they will kill their horses at the lake and pack the meat in the frozen country to be fed to the dogs or men this winter. | The situation in brief isthis: The man who has horses can A half-dozen Canadian police are here for duty at the lakes and lower down the river. They say that 100 more are coming, and that no man who cannot show a certificate that his duties are péid will be permitted to mine in the northwest country. They expect this to check-any trouble or tendency not to pay. Feeling is very bitter against the Canadian Government over the high duties to be charged. Enough men have not got to the lakes yet to make trouble with the customs officials possible, and the officials themselves have just about arrived at Lake Taglish. Skaguay is greatly excited over a letter dated June 22, which arrived yesterday, stating that James O’Brien had written from Daw- at Circle City that a man | el Al ht of his companions owing to the weight of the | ld-hunters take on a different expression when | feeding people all the time, a | get | s over the pass to the lakes; the man who has no horses cannot. " Before whose steeps ment action. nd dax In spite of 2 | or between there and the head of salt water navigation. View From Juneau North to the Summits of Chilcoot and Whites Passes, ousands of men have halted at Dyes and Skaguay, whence they will doubtiess have io -barescued before winter sets in by Govern« warning the rush coutinues, and no less tban eight vessels, londed with men, horses and supplies for the Yukon country, are at Juneau n Stewart Creek ; that forty-seven pounds of gold had been 'taken | out of the di y hole of one claim. | The report that a 25-cent fee is being charged here for‘each pas- enger who lands is false, though it costs 25 cents to get ashore in any of the swarm of smali boats which surround a.ship the moment she drops anchor in the bay. TROUBLE AWAITS CANADIAN REVENUE COLLECTORS. DYEA, ALASKA, Aug. 12 (by steamer Al-Ki to Seattle Aug. 18).— Miners do not stay here more than a day or two—just long enough to t their goods packed. Only about 300 men are now here. No blockade exists. Goods are relayed and scattered to the summit. | have gone on light. The man who was drowned here was Thomas Wall of Nanaimo, B.C: At weeks. least 1000 men have gone n over this trail in the last three There is a small army of horses and Indians packing. | Government officers here are United 1 shal Richards. No duty on Canadian goods has been collected here or at Skaguay, because Jones has not received a seal and the necessary papers, and ton after ton of Canadian goods has gone over the trail. Jones says he expects trouble between the miners and Canadian officers at the lakes. ““Chief Godson has unlimited power,” said Jones, ‘‘and if he is the least bit arbitrary the miners will call a meeting. You know what a miners’ meeting-is, If Godson tries to stop them somebody will get hurt. It’s a determined set of men that is going in from here. Many have no money to pay duty on their outfits. They said here that having got this far they were not going to be turned back by any Canadian officials or. any number of Canadian officials. The Cana- dians have not had time to establish themselves at the lakes, but wil} begin collecting duty in a day or two. Then something is going to happen, unless the miners manage to slip by them.”’ Here the tide flats are dotted with the tepees of the Indians. ““Jack’’ Hansard, a bank cashier of Portland, Or., and party got into a row on the trail with Indian packers over the price of packing and the matter of furnishing them grub, four days ago. Hansard drew his revolver and was going to shoot, but the Indians overpowered him. United States Commissioner Smith fined Hansard $60. The town-lot boom opened in Dyea this morning. $90,000 SLUICED OUT IN THREE DAYS. JUNEAU, ALASKA, Aug. 10 (by steamer Al-Ki to Seattle, Aug. 18).— The news has reached here that the officers of several United States revenue cutters in Alaskan waters and Bering Sea have had to put some members of their crews in irons to prevent them deserting for the Klondike and leaving the ship dangerously short-handed. The crew of the steamer Dora deserted her at Sitka. | A letter dated June Y from Peter Wyborg, well known in Juneau, has been received by a business house, confirming reports of the great | worth $60 a sack at Dawson City. George McMahon has written to his daughter May here from Dawson City, under date of June 8, that the ‘‘diggings’’ are ‘richer even than reported; that on one claim three men sluiced out $90,000 in three days, and that it is a common thing for many claims to clean | up from $8000 to $10,000 a day. | He says, however, that creeks other than El Dorado and Bonanza do not amount to much; that the country is all located, and new comers must discover new diggings. All provisions were scarce. He stated that the trading company had raised the price of provisions son City to W. H. Hindle of Juneau that rich placers had been found 30 per cent. HAL HOFFMAN. Stacks of supplies are on the summit, abandoned by their owners or | Id fo specuiators for 10 to 25 cents on the dollar, and the owners! The States Commissioner Smith, | Deputy Collector of Customs Jones and Deputy United States Mar- | richness of El Dorado and Bonanza creeks, and stating that flour was | 1$130,000 IN FOUR MONTHS | BV i Four Seattle Boys Strike It ‘ Rich on the Yukon. One Is Returning on the Port- | land With the Product of Their Claims. SEATTLE, WasH., Aug. 18.—Nearly three days overdue, the steamer Al-Ki arrived in port from Alaska this morning at about 3:30 o’clock. The delay was | caused by stopping at way ports to re- cetve freight, consisting principally of canned salmon. the return trip were Metlakahtla, Boca de Quadra, Ketchikan, Port Gravina, Yaas Bay, Sumdum and Sheep Creek. Considerable interest attached to the coming of the Al-Ki, for it was thought she might bring tidings from the famous Klondike diggings. Nor was the hope entirely unfounded, for good news was brought to Willis Thorp of this city, in a letter that came overland from Dawson Tne ports touched on ! | City and was brought down on the Al-Ki. | For the first time since early in the year Mr. Thorp hears from h s son, Ed, who, | it is believed, is now o. the steamer Port- land, en route from St. Michael, with $130,000 in gold dust and nuggets, as the result of a few weeks’ work on the Klon- dike. Three of Willis Thorp’s sons and a young man named, Stewart started from Juneau for Dawson City with a herd of cattle. The boys were to drive the cattle into the interior, sell them and come back for another drove, Willis Thorp in the meantime having come to Seattle to pur- chase another herd of cattle. The second | herd of cattle was purchased, but the bovs never came-back, the father and | friends having no idea what became of | them. The first news from them came, | as stated, on the Al-Ki this morning. The letter stated that the boys on reach- | ing the interior got the gold fever, sold | the cattle and bought a claim, one of | them returning after four months with | $130,600 in gold, and the others remaining in the country to work the property. All the three poys and young Stewart are rich. The AIl-Ki brought down about sixty passengers and 100 tons of freight, and is scheduled to leave again for the north to- Continued on Second Page. | from all over Siskiyou County. PLANDING ON 10 TRINITY ) GOLD FIELDS Every Trail to Coffee Creek Thronged by Prospectors. ALL CLASSES JOIN IN THE RUSH. Men and Women Hurry For- ward on Muleback, on Bicycles and Afoot. EXCITEMENT AT REDDING IS GROWING APACE. W. W. Davls of the Morrison Guich Mine Arrives With a Can Filled With Nuggets. TRINITY CENTER, CArL, Aug. 18— Watching the Coffee Creek rush from tuis end is “‘one continual round of pleasure.” The feverish thing grows hourly as the fairy tales float out and the rushers plod in. The shock of the rush which began outside has just reached Trinity Center, the one little supply townlet of the Coffee Creek and adjoining regions. The rush- ers daily succeed better in keeping the fifty-six miles of dust between here and the railroad at Redding on the move, and ail day pack-laden trampers, pack-laden mules, special carriages and special stages are stringing in with people hot ana Qusty who stop to rest, wash, d~ink, eat, ask and talk at various crowded taverns. From all accounts, more people are go- ing into Coffee Creek over the three trails to its head than over the old stage roed from Reading and Weavervilie. One trail runs eighty miles from Guzelle on the railroad through Callahan’s rancho, enter- ing Coffee Creek through Hard Scrabble Gulch, and over this they are trooping A trail runs from Castella from the railroad througn Cianabar, sixty miles to a junc- tion with the other trail, four miles from Coffee Creek. A miner of the Altoona quicks:lver mines at Cinnabar says they are pouring in over that trail from Oregon. A third trail crosses the Salmon Mountain at the west the extreme head of Coffee Creek from the Salmoa River, where live peovle who never saw a wagon. On a fairly re- liable guess seventy-five a day are reach- ing Coffee Creek over these trails. But this procession from the East and south out over the old Oregon stage road is the main show. This is the end of stage travel and is six miles from the mouth of Coffee Creek, where wagon travel ceases. The first womsan prospector got in last night, and as she started for the guich early this morning she has probably already found a pocket of gold. She is Mrs. Mary L. Gillespie of San Francisco snd Vallejo, a widow, intelligent, pleas- ant, strong framed and middle-aged. She is an old mineress herself and she gives them points. She has prospected ana at Eureka, Nev., she usea to toil in men’s clothes in amine. Three or four years ago she located a land claim and water right in Idano and sold it. She has money. “I'm going out with my pick and pan, just as a miner should,” she said this morning, “but I hear there are no hotels on Coffee Creek, and I won’t camp out without another woman along. I hear there are three or four cabins where women live, and I’ll be all right. 1'll look fora claim and may buy one. She bought a pick and pan, hired a man 1 e Opposite Side of the Narrow Gulch. The 15-foot tunnel goes in on the odd seam which bears the pockets. The big three-ioot nugget lay fifteen feet from the mouth of the tunnel. Its lower end reached to where the roof of the tunnel is, and it extended upward into the small excavation above.