All about the Klondyke gold minesKnox, J. Armoy (John Armoy)
History
All about the Klondyke gold mines
Knox, J. Armoy (John Armoy)
Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Gold discoveries
Mr. Hestwood showed many small nuggets from the new Bonanza Creek
district, where his mine is situated. The gold is the color of brass,
and is worth $16 to $17 an ounce. It isn't as pure gold as found
elsewhere on the Yukon.
THE GOLD FEVER SPREADING.
THE STORIES OF SOME MINERS.
The stories of the returned miners, telegraphed from San Francisco all
over the country and to the ends of the earth on the evening of the 14th
of July, were what started the gold fever, and the craze to go in search
of the precious metal that is now raging from one end of the country to
the other. Soon after the arrival of the Excelsior, the half million
dollars worth of yellow dust, which ranged in size from a hazelnut to
fine bird-shot and kernels of sand, was poured out on the counter at
Selby's smelting works on Montgomery street and then shovelled with
copper scoops into the great melting pot. Those who saw the gold in one
heap said no such spectacle had been seen since the days of '49, when
miners used to come down from the placer districts and change their gold
for $20 pieces.
The luckiest of these miners are Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Lippey, who left
here in April, 1896. They brought back $60,000. They went in by way of
Juneau over the divide, and Mrs. Lippey was the first woman to go over
this trail. She is a small, wiry woman, with skin tanned to the color of
sole leather. She seemed none the worse for the hardships of Yukon life.
She is a good rifle shot, and brought with her the antlers of a moose
which she had shot.
Hollinshead and Stewart, two miners, who had been at work for a year,
had 1,500 ounces, worth about $25,000. Other tenderfeet had done better,
for in a few weeks some of them had cleaned up from $10,000 to $15,000.
Several of the men had bought claims on time, paying a small sum down
and agreeing to pay all the way from $10,000 to $25,000 in three to six
months. Most of them cleaned up enough gold in a month to pay for their
claims and still have a good sum left over.
When the men arrived in San Francisco they found the United States mint
closed for the day, and so they carried their sacks of gold to the
office of Selby's smelting works. They were weather-beaten and roughly
dressed, but the spectators forgot their appearance when they began to
produce sacks of gold dust ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 in value. Some
of the sacks were regular buckskin bags, well made; others were of
canvas, black and grimy from long handling with dirty fingers. As fast
as the bags were weighed they were ripped open with a sharp knife and
the contents were poured out on the broad counter. Then some of the
miners produced from bundles and coat pockets glass fruit jars and jelly
tumblers filled with gold dust and covered with writing paper, carefully
secured with twine. It seems that the supply of gold bags ran out and
this was the only way to bring the treasure down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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