The Nome nugget., January 01, 1900, SPECIAL NEW YEAR'S EDITION, Image 1

About The Nome nugget. (Nome, Alaska) 1901-1904

Image provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections

                
THE NOME NUOOET.
SPECIAL NEW VEAR’S EDITION ^
i
I
25 CENTS PER COPY.
NONE, ALASKA, JANUARY 1, 1900
$12.00 PER YEAR
THE OUTPUT AND OUTLOOK
Of Nome’s Most Famous
Creeks and Claims.
RESUME OF DEVELOPMENTS
p.. PmirtlillHlM-TliMf Arc K«
MPntlMll> Snmmer
of nnlrr Prc*cnleil Work
llrtlrr Hnil llry < rppk«. »>n« a
I.. Plant Will llrrraftrr
f Sit|»|il> Them.
In contemplating the facts ami fig
ures of Nome's unparalleled record ns
a gold producer, one can hardly blame
the world for lieing skeptical when the
first reports of the discoveries were
received at Seattle and San Francisco.
Below we give a carefully compiled
resume of developments on the creek?
which are responsible for attracting
V the attention of the world to this sec
tion of Alaska^.- These facts and fig
ures cun give JBe only a faint concep
tion of the future possibilities of tin
creeks, leaving the tundra and bea-h
out of consideration altogether. The
beach diggings are only an incident of
the gild discoveries here—an incident
so often mentioned that further dis
cussion of it in this article would seem
superfluous. The tundra is mentioned
No. 8, Anvil Creek
more In detail elsewhere in this issue.
The greatest wealth, however, will
come from the . reeks. They would
■ir have been more thoroughly prospected
and their output would have been
many times greater last season but
for the discovery of the phenomenally
rich beach diggings Ifpn epul(| no: ,be
Induced to work for wages 'on the
creeks when with rockers they could
take out from $11) to $:*00 a day on
the beach.
According to the best authorit'c
economic mining can be carried o
only about three months in the yea’
in the coast districts. Uetause of the
absence of fuel for thawing in winter,
and because bedrock is shallow, tiiesi
will continue to lie summer diggings
Fuel for cooking and heating will have
to be imported in tlie future.
Anvil t'rrrk.
m
Anvil creek is now the Eldorado of
Western Alaska: but competent and
experienced mining men claim that
' other creeks only lack development to
make them equally as great gold pro
dueers. Considering the difficulties
under which lumber and labor were
Discovery Claim on Anvil
obtained, ami the tact that none of the
claims were worked over two months,
the output of over $750,000 in 1899 is
enormous. There Jire seventeen claims
on the creek, five below and twelve
above discovery. No. 1 below, owned
by J. Limleiberg, has thus tar proved
to be the banner claim, yielding a nug
get valued at $435 (picked up on the
dump) and a total oi $!17,00U in six
weeks; while discovery, owne<l by J.
Brynteson, yielded $58,000 in three
weeks. Other producers and owners
„ * are as follows: No. 3 above, P. H. An
derson, $30,000; No. 4, A. C. CaMson.
$80,000; No. 5, N. O. Hultberg, $40,000.
No. 7. Dr. Kittleson, $30,000; No. 8,
ft Price ft Lane, $102,000; fio. 9, 'the
Swedish Mission, $t>8,0()b; 10 and 11.
purchased last tall by C. I). Lane for
$00,000. Mr. Lane also bought No. ^
below for $75,000.
Knim hml Mcoln
Nicola gulch comprises three claims
and enters Anvil'creek at No. 11. A
large quartz vein, crossing the gulch
near its mouth, is supposed to be the
principal source of Anvil creek gold,
as none of the claims above the vein
or on Anvil above this gulch are rich,
hack of water interfered with work
here last summer.
The output of Snow gulch is esti
mated at between $500,000 and $000,
000 in two months, coming from four
claims owned principally by the Pio
neer Mining Co.— Brynteson, Lindberg
and Llndblom. Late in the fall C. IJ.
Lane purchased No. 4. a trench claim
drain ditch early in the summer, and
surrendered their lease.
flood prospects have been found on
different claims above No. f», but no
attempt to work them has l>een made
Dexter Creek.
Scarcity of water interfered with
operations on this creek last season,
but sufficient work was done to prove
that it is fully as rich as Anvil. It is
about three miles long and has its
source in the same mountain as
Nicola gulch and Dry creek, but flows
in an opposite direction into Nome
river. The Scandinavian pioneers who
located Anvil creek also located a ma
jority of the eleven claims on Dexter.
On the left limit the gulches are rich
and pay dirt is found on the benches,
while gulches on the right limit do not
Street 5
at the head of the gulch, for $20,000
A company comprised of the Beach
brothers and members of the Aina
worth party from Portland are work
iug No. 1 on a two years' lay. This
claim comprises the mouth of the
gulch and reaches across Glacier creek.
•The lessees have been sinking and
drifting during the winter on one sec
tion of the claim, and although bed
rock has not been reached at a depth
of ten feet, the dirt runs 40, 50 and 60
cents to the pan. The work is done
without thawing machines, as the
ground is not frozen sufficiently to pei
mit of their operation. Big dumps
will be ready for the first run of water
before the.opening up of claims else
where.
A large vein of quartz, with free gold
visible, was discovered at the head oi
Snow gulch, running almost parallel
with Anvil and Glacier creeks. Thlt
vein has been traced through several
claims located by Messrs. I^eedy, Ves
tal and others. On the l^eedy claim an
unsorted sample taken from across the
vein at a point wherA it is about fifty
feet wide assayed $3<V to the ton.
With the exception bf discovery (re
ferred to above as N'i 1 Snow gulch)
work on Glacier free* was commenced
late in the . eason, consequently was
limited, and was confined to No. 1 be
low, and 2 to ti above, inclusive. This
stream is one of the largest tributaries
of Snake river, and is about seven
miles long, i here is an ample supply
of water, and bedrock is shallow.
At No. 1 below, owned by Lane £
Price, high wafer caused a suspension
of work just as their extensive bed
rock drain was nearing completion
This claim is said to prospect equally
as well as No. 1 Snow gulch.
No. 1 above remains practically un
prospected because of a contest for
ownershin.
Assessment work was commenced 'in
a desultory y-^y on No. 2 above, owned
by a <'.**pany ol^San Fraadflco Ger
mans. «, /-y I pan prospects,
they borrowed* ker and two men
took out $25 in* .. . hour and a half.
Later the clean-up win* cs was
$50 a day and upwards to the man. A
$25 nugget was the largest found.
No. 2 at. >v« ut owned by the Ingra
ham company. Only three days' sluic
ing was done on this data, and al
though the pay ajreak was not reached
the cltan-un aveiaged an ounce a day
to the man. ,irti running as high as
50 cents to t^e ;>a-i was found.
The limited, amount of work done on
No. 3Vs by Jones & Co. did not un
cover the p%r atreak, but they tool}
out $10 to $ljfa'day to the man during
the few days! they were sluicing.
The most -thorough prospecting and
extensive development work on the up
l>er series of claims was done on No. 4
after its purchase in August from the
original locator by an English com
pany, the consideration being $20,000.
A crusf-ctU the lower end lino,
where y»e dn^vnee from rim to rim is
about SOO feet , exposes six feet below
the surface, tnVhe old bed of the creek,
a pity Htr«a.v eaout three feet thick in
the center and twenty-live feet wide.
Phis prospects as high as $3 to the
pan. Just as Superintendent Paul had
everything in readiness to commence
sluicing, tlie freeze-up late in Septem
ber caused a suspens.on of operations
for the geason.
Otf.No. 5 the A. C. Co was also
“froze out" for the season alter open
ing up the property with a big dra.:
ditch and cross-cut; but the value o.
- *.- —«■'--k
owned by Lap*, were worked on lays
•nd their total .yield la known only to
KO to MtiO a day to the
onalkf'taken out. The
ireetaln 10 and 11 were
the clean-up from a week's run eoukl
not be learned by the Nugget repro
tentative.
Leasees on No. C were discouraged
by striking froaen ground In theti
:ene, Nome
prospect well. Following are a few ot
the panning anil rocking records made
last season: On No. 5 as high as $2
to the pan was found, and E. M. Wal
ters panned out $120 In a day; on No.
10 one man picked up $00 with hit
lingers after a freshet; Win, Walton
rocked out $80 in less than an hour.
A majority of the owners and lessees
took out dumps to be sluiced during
high water next spring.
Dry ( r«*ek.
As its name indicates this is a dry
creek, in consequence of which its out
put last season was very small. It is
about seven miles long, and good pros
pects are found from head to mouth,
tiedroek is deeper than on any of the
other i-reeks named in this article, be
ing from sixteen to eighteen feet In
the few shaits sunk. C. I). Lane and
associates are owners by location oi
purchase of several claims on th.:
creek, and during the coming summe.
will put in a large pumping plant a
the mouth of Dexter creek to furnisi
water by a pipe line to work the mine:
| of both Dry and Dexter creeks.
♦ tkbi . \7
Hock creek has nA be*.4i wotgflU
tensively: ne- nheless it JlilMA.
well. Just as he season pnKt(^Vh>
laymen on the Pioneer Miffifi# Com
pany's claim struck a pay streak twen
ty teet wide, runhing from 10 to 5i
cents to the pan. Nuggets worth from
$l to $2 were also found. The creen
is full of bowlders and rocks.
Some sluicing was done on Osbori
and Buster creeks, tributaries of Nome
river, with profitable results, but de
tails are not now obtainable.
That the bench claims contain pay
dirt has not been demonstrated except
in one or two instances on Dexter
creek.
A. K. SOUTH WARD.
llefordcr of the Mlu
Ing District.
Mr. A. E. Southward, deputy record
er lor the Nome mining district, is a
native of New York City, inhere he
spent his boyhood days and received
his education. He came Weat'in 1897
A E. Southward
I
I
and to the Pacific coast in 1898. The
winter of I$98 and 1899 he spent in
Alaska, arriving at Nome in January,
1899. In the following month be was
given the appointment of deputy re
corder. which position lie has since
filled in a most aHMhble manner.
There have been recorded in his office
upward of 5,000 claims. He estimates
that In
Nome
15.000 claims
to the claim, this
large area of
| popular and
has
who
ing
his
the sur
with the
over
80 acres
a
is a
who
l
for
tc
WHO DISCOVERED NOME?
I
Tradition A\ ards Honor
to Several.
AH EPOCH IH THE HISTORY
♦
Of Mlnlnw—The (tlilesl Inlintiilfints
Tell (imllli'llni: Stories—Sen ml I
■invlfinn l.iicntril lleMt Clnlmn and
Claim Mont of he Honor— HIITer
enl Aeconnln lilvrn.
l
Who discovered I he Nome diggings?
Was It Blake, Lineerlterg, I.indhlom.
Hrynteson, Hultber-{. or the Lapland
ers? Or was it sane unknown whose
modesty prevents him from putting in
a claim for the 'inor’ There are'
more conti adietoryT'accounts of the
memorable evenTHtn tit ’T-e a.e indi
viduals ramed abo\*. It is an und's
pitted fact, howovcji, that all of the
above ramed individuals except Blake
are members of t^ie “close corpora
tion" that located iVnvil and Dexter
creeks and Snow gui'h. The discovery
marked an epoch n t only in the his
tory of Alaska but also in the history
of milling. We wi.l tell the tale as
twas told to us. leaving future histo
rians to settle the dispute.
Story of l.i•iilerherKi
Jafet Linderhevg is one who claims
that he was the .^an, and has been
interviewed and wiitten himself about
it, until in the miiiis of many he has
established an indisputable claim to
the distinction, in one of his recent
communications hinderberg solilo
quizes thus: k
“Late in the summer of 1698 my
partners, Mr. Brynt. sen and Mr. Lind
blom, and myself le*t Golovin hay and (
started to do some irospecting. Ilith-!
erto we had had vetv poor luck In our j
mining adventures, so we proceeded I
Falkenburg, ramping dose to the
river emptying into Bering strait in
the neighliorhood of Port Clarence.
These men had been np the river pros
pecting at that time, and were on their
return to the schooner. Being short
of provisions themselves, Lindblom
had to lie contented with a piece of
stale bread and some dried Ash which
he obtained from them, and continued
his way back to Port Clarence. From
a prospector there he secured some
provisions and started out anew in the
hope of reaching the trading station
at Golovin bay, by way of the head
waters of Fish river. He walked up
the river some thirty miles, when he
met a party of twenty natives going
down stream in their big canoe. From
the chief. Pomashack, Lindblom wa^
allowed to go with them to Golovi
hay. The next day the Indians killed
a walrus and landed in the evening at
i he mouth of Sinook river, where they
went Ashing for a few days.
"During this time Lindblom amused
himself by trying to And out if there
was gold on the river banks. The only
implement at his disposal corsisted o
a small frying pan used by the ••stives
for cooking purposes. With this crude
and greasy miner’s tool he succeeded
in Amling some good colors, thereby
establishing, to his own satisfaction,
the fact that gold was there. This
was the 11th of July, 1898. The next
day the Indians left Sinook river and
sailed along the coast to the mouth of
Srake river. While stopping a few
days Ashing at this place, Lindblom
again tried his former experiment
with th*' frying pan. and found on
the banks of Snake river some good
colors.
\\ unfed to Know Minina.
“The 19th of July the party arrived
at the trading station at Golovin bay,
where Lindblom told the trader, Mr.
Dexter, and Missionary Hultberg
about his experience and the location
of gold. Not being a practical miner
himself at that time, and eager to ob
tain some knowledge concerning pros
pecting and mining in general, Lind
blom went up Fish river to secure
work. Gold had previously been found
there. He worked at these mines until
the 8th of September, when he came
down Fish river to the trading sta
Landing Merchandise on the Beach
without any definite idea as to our
destination. We had not the slightest
inkling that there;, was gold to be
found in and aboutlCape Nome. * *
• It was on the fifth of Septemb0
1898, that we panneB out our first gold
dust on Anvil creilk. The first pan
produced $5. Sizing up the situation
at a glance we sawtthat we had made
a strike indeed. After a hurried con
sultation we decidwMto return to Gol
ovin bay with all ha3te, sto:k our
selves out with provisions, get two
other men, ami forir a district in the
new region. We li^* no time in our
return to Golovin hi .. where we were
joined by Or. Klt-’elnen and G. W.
Price. Having the requisite number
tb form a district \y« left immed'atelv
for Cape Nome, where a district was
formed and da ms yore staked off.
“When we came to Golovin bay di
rectly after our discovery the news of
our good luck provdff*tdj good to keep
* • * Our description of the Cape
Nome territory a~d its auriferous pos
sibilities was adequate enough to fire
hundreds with thlc desire to drop
everything and go.j * • * Claims
were staked out ■■%{“ry where regard
less. In a very sl#> t time the whole
place had been anfjAm iated, and th»
barren waste whlehjujt three had seen
on the 16th of Sc/wmer was changed
into a fairly civilized community. We
were absolutely ign<ffant of the gold
bearing quality of «the sand on the
beach. We were content to confl"e
our operations to the rich creeks
which abounded there. We arrived at
Cape Nome the second time October
26th.”
It is noticeable thht Llmlerberg in
the foregoing account does not cla'm
the distinction himself of having dis
covered the riches of the Cape, but
leaves the reader to guess who it was
of the three that panned out the first
shovelful.
What Bro>tr*a Says.
“History” record^ another claim,
which, in the words of Ivan Brostrom,
one of the early Nome operators, Is
given as follows:
“The credit of the discovery of gold
In the Nome mlniDg district belongs
to a Swede by the name of E O. Llnd
blom. In the soring of 1898 Mr. L*"d.
blom left San Fran, ‘geo as one of the
'•rew of the whaler Alaska. Life on
board this vessel was most disagree
able to him, a»d when the bark an
chored at Port Clarence to take on
board a new supply of fresh water
Mr. Lindblom grasped the opportunity
to leave the ship. Without anything
to eat. and with only the clothes he
had on his back, h^vuck out among
those barren mountains in search of
an Indian camp. Lite on the evening
of the second day'^'met a party of
white men belonging to the schooner
i
tlon. During his absence, Missionary
Hultberg, with a party of five men,
had been over to Snake river pros
pecting, but pronounced Lindblom’s
gold discovery a fake, and the men
themselves admitted that they had
been on a wild-goose chase.
“Liudblom, however, knew there was
gold at Snake river, and induced two
Swedes, Bryntesen and Linderberg, to
go with him on a prospecting tour.
They left Golovin bay the 11th of Sep
tember. arriving at Snake river the
15th. On the 18th they found some
coarse gold on what today is known
as the discovery claim on Anvil creek.
On Snow gulch they panned out some
$3U. The discovery of gold was an es
tablished fact, and the prospectors
staked out claims a”d returned to Gol
ovin bay the 5th of October.
“In order to organize a mining dis
trict the prospectors told their experi
ence to a few selected ones, a*>d as r
•'onsequeuce of this information a
party of seven men, consisting of Lind
blom, Bryntesen, Linderberg, Kittel
sen. Price. Tornanses and Adams, with
amplp tools and provisions, left in the
mission schooner on the 12th of Octo
Iter. arriving at Snake river the 15th
Thev w’ent into camp on No. 6 A"v“
creek. and there organised the Nome
mining district, with Dr. Kittelsen as
recorder. On No. 8 and on Snow gulch
the party washed out 91,800 In four
davs.
“After having built a storehouse and
staked a large number of claims, the
party went down to the mouth of the
Snake river, where they found the
schooner frozen in two feet of Ice.
Thev cut the vessel out of the Ice and
hauled her up on shore, and made for
an Indian village located some twelve
miles east of Snake river. There they
secured a dog team from the natives
a”d started for Golovin hay. Two days
out on the trip they met Missionary
Anderson, who, being provided with
reindeer teams, conducted them to the
trading station.”
Still Another Aeeooat.
Still another account is given-by an
authority, who says:
“The discovery of gold on the Anvil
and adjacent diggings was originally
made in 1898 by two prospectors
; named Huckberg and Blake. Not be
ing able to do much work that fall, the
two came out for the winter. Huck
berg came by way of Golovin hay.
; where he communicated his tnforma
l tlon to G. W. Price, representing Chaa.
| Lane, of Ban Francisco, and others,
among them being Linderberg, Lind
blom, Bryntesen and KJelimaa. They
formed a party, wont to the Nome
creeks, and located all they could,
starting a great winter's stampede for
Nome. These wore the claims on
coniaoao am rwa %,
T. I>. 1'snhfl.
Hon. T. D. Cashel, mayor of the mu
nicipality of Nome, was lioru in Corry,
t’a., in April. 1888. He graduated at
the Christian Brothers’ Seminary at
St. Louis, Mo., in 1887. Much of Mr.
Cashel's life has been devoted to the
railroad business, he having been in
the employ at different periods of near
ly all the great transcontinental roads.
He was revision clerk in the auditing
department of the St. Paul Railwav
Company. chief clerk with the N. P.
Mayor Cashel
at Portland. Oregon, and claim agent
of the Great Northern at Seattle. He
came to the Yukon country via Ju
neau and liyea in 1895, going to Forty
Mile and then to Dawson, at Doth 01
which localities he was actively en
gaged in the mining business. Mr.
Cashel is well and favorably known
all along the Yukon, where he wit
nessed the great rush in the early de
velopment of the Klondike. He came
to Nome on June 2b, 1899, and imme
diately began to take an active part
in the development of the country and
to secure mining and other properties.
He was so aggressively active in the
defense of the rights of the beach
miners when an attempt was made to
oust them from the beach diggings,
that he gained great popularity witn
the masses, received the nomination
for mayor of Nome and was elected to
that office by an overwhelming ma
jority.
vessels in fair
be imffley b
dence/t by^lbe tl
■panr-*•»»•. irfFi
unloading the cari
fall.
Timbers for the dock which the A.
C. Co. proposes to build at Nome in
the spring are being gotten out at
Unalaska. '1 he size of the dock is not
known at the local office of the com
pany, but It will be large enough and
substantial enough to permit of the
loading and unhndlng of the largest
Tnat it will
jure iw evU
any.
of the Bertha last
JudKe Alonso Hina.
United States Commissioner Raw
son, of Nome, was born in Des Moines,
Iowa, in 1868. He graduated from the
Iowa State University In the class of
’88. He afterward studied law and
was admitted to the bar. He then
went to New Whatcom, Washington,
where he practiced law for five years.
In 1898 he came to Alaska as agent
and attorney for one of the large trad
ing companies operatlpg on the Yu
kon. In the winter of ’98 and ’99 he
was stationed at a point 100 miles
below Weare. In the spring of ’99 he
came down the river in a small boat
behind the ice, and after spending a
short time at St. Michael in the prac
tice of his -profession he came to Nome,
landing here in September. Shortly
after arriving here he received the ap
pointment of United States commis
7
Jude* Rum
sloner at the hands of 17. S. District
Judge Johnson. At the election fol
lowing the formation of a municipal
government for Nome held on Septem
ber 12. Mr. Rawson was elected mu
nicipal judge by the votes of the clti
sens. He has filled both positions ac
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
Of Country in the Vicinity
of Nome.
FORMATION OF THE ORAVELS
H%trft«'tn Front the Official Hrport of
I lit* I nltnl Htnlr (•niloKicnl S«»
try->llon (iuhl In Ktlrnctnl Front
Bench Knotlm nml I'rrek Bntvfli
Fuel Scnrcc mill Font of l.lvlnv
HImH.
Cape Nome district is situated on the
northwest coast of Alaska, on the
lorthwest arm of Be-in,; sea. at the
entrance of Norton sound. It is the
southern promontory of a large penin
sula, extending westward toward Sibe
ria between Kotzebue and Norton
sounds, ami largely separates Bering
sea from the Arctic ocean. Westward
this peninsula terminates at the ItiSto
meridian in Cape Prince of Wales, the
most westward extension of the Amer
ican continent, which is here separated
from Asia by Bering strait, about sixty
miles in width.
The promontory on which the Nome
district occurs has long been known on
nearly all Alaskan maps by the name
of Cape Nome. The district lies about
100 miles northwest of St. Michael,
and just outside of the Fort St.
Michael military reservation. By
Rocking on the Reach al Nome
ocean steamer route it is nearly 2.700
miles northwest of Seattle, ami about
750 miles from Dutch Harbor, tin
alaska. The Cape Nome region as
known at present extends from Capo
Nome, the apex of the promontory,.
.some thirty, miles or more northwes^
•ward utongWhi cuAA aba about fweiny
•viJ-'-i in'n? .'Jain the i.jrtb. In th» o,!tj
( «llv l*t tn’u tt*. ’.u' HlUuflh a?* - >
the Srake river, (he thriving city of
Nome is situated.
From Cape Nome for thirty miles oi
more westward to near Synroek the
shore line is comparatively straight
and smooth, but lying back of the
shore line, between it and the base of
the mountains, occurs the well-known
tundra. This consists of a strip of
treeless, moss-covered marine gravels,
forming a coastal shelf, which along
the beach is about thirty feet abovh
sea level. From here It slopes gently
upward until at the base of the mouti
On the Tundra
I_;___
tains, some four or five miles from the
beach, it attains aa elevation of 150
or 200 feet. During the summer It is
usually wet. soft and boggy and is
dotted here and there by a few pends,
and is traversed by the Snake, Nome
and Cripple rivers and other smaller
streams which carry out the drainage
| from the mountains.
Toimikth phy nnd tieuloio •
Along the north edge of the tundra,
at the beginning of the mountains, the
topography is low and rounding, with
the floors of the main valleys rather
flat and from one to three miles in
width. Seven miles north of Nortte,
crude gravel terraces, seemingly rtta
rlne. were observed \o the height of
about 1,500 feet. These seem to mark
successive stages of land elevation
still going on.
Further northward, twenty or thirty
miles from the lieach, the mountains
berome more rugged and rise. In some
instances, into seemingly permanent
snow peaks, but probably nowhere ex
ceed 3,000 feet in elevation.
The nearest harbors for deep-sea or
ocean vessels are Port Clarence, sixty
miles northwest of Nome, and Golof
nln bay, the same distance northeast.
It is not unlikely that one or both of
these harbors will be connected with
the Nome district by rail should the
NOME
ceptably and with honor. So ably has
he conducted the affairs of the city
that Nome enjoys the distinction of
being one of the beat governed frontier
mining towns in America.
district prove as rich as present pros
pects indicate. Port Safety, a small
harbor to the east of Cape Nome, will
admit vessels not drawing over eight
COMTIMUUt OM MU 1