Knute Langlow of Tacoma was one of the passengers on the Steamer Roanoke that arrived yesterday from St. Michael, and it is sale to say he was the happiest man on the boat, for he brought down more gold than any of the many passengers. His "sack" was variously reported as containing between $75,000 and $100,000, but he is a modest man and said that $74,000 was all that he had brought back. Mr. Langlow does not like to talk of his good fortune, but last night in the course of a conversation, he said:
"I secured a fraction on Hunker Creek and No. 12A on Eldorado, but I have not really opened up my claims yet. The greater part of the $70,000-odd of gold dust I brought down came from the claims of my two brothers, Eldorado 12 and 17 above on Bonanza. We worked 16 men, night and day, on the Eldorado claim at $1.25 an hour each, last summer. We were running two strings of sluices and from July 20 to September 1, we cleaned up over $50,000.
Louis Langlow and his pretty wife and daughter, Marie returned to Tacoma earlier this summer and last night there was a happy reunion at the Langlow residence on South J Street. Louis Langlow, with a younger brother first went to Alaska in 1893.
Mrs. Langlow and her daughter went to Alaska in 1894.
Commentary
This is the last printed word we have of the Langlow family in the gold rush, as it appeared in the old Tacoma Ledger. Some of the dates are incorrect, as we know that the younger brother, wife and daughter went north to Forty Mile on separate journeys in 1895. The "sack" containing $75,000 in gold dust is only a figure of speech. At $16 an ounce, such an amount in gold would weigh 288 pounds. Not so easy to handle on and off boats down the Yukon and across the Bering Sea.
The returning traveler had an unseen treasure awaiting his arrival at home in Tacoma. A son, Lorimer, then almost eleven months old had been born during his father's absence in the Yukon.
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