After sitting on the fence and watching stampeders pass this way to Chisana all summer, Whitehorse now has a placer excitement just outside of her front gate. And it looks good, too.
Friday of last week, George M. Stevens, one of the pioneer miners of Southern Yukon, came to Whitehorse and quietly informed a few of his friends of a discovery - three discoveries, in fact - which he had made in the vicinity of Dugdale lake, ten miles south of town, one on Wolf creek, the other two on old river beds in the same vicinity. Stevens, who has valuable quartz holdings back from Robinson, twenty two miles up the railroad, had first "wised" the Wheaton miners of his discoveries and six or eight of them staked Friday of last week. Geo. Armstrong and C. A. Mowry "took a walk" Sunday and staked on Wolf creek and one of the dry beds. Monday morning Captain P. Martin, Geo. Curtis, W. A. Puckett and E. J. White went out on the train and all staked on Wolf and Extension. (As none of the four weigh less than 200 pounds, the discoverer did not ask them to enter the free-for-all race for claims.)
By Monday evening the whole town was excited. The news had been whispered around that a discovery had been made and that several claims had been already staked. By
9 o'clock that night between thirty and forty men were hiking southward. Some on horseback, some in wagons, some on handcars, but the majority on foot - professional men,
mechanics, laborers, loafers, rich men, poor men - but no beggars or thieves. Those who used horses and handcars beat some of the "mushers" only by a few minutes, but all staked claims and tired and weary men were wandering back to town from 5 o'clock in the morning until noon of Tuesday. About a dozen went on Tuesday's train and secured claims "away up the creek" and that night a delegation from Tokio hot footed it out and staked further up and within the shadow of old Golden Horn. In all, nearly one hundred claims have been staked and others will be staked.
The small amount of prospecting done on the creeks justifies the stampede. Experienced miners who have panned in the first hole - a mere surface scratch made by Stephens on Wolf creek - say the dirt would wash an ounce per day to the shoveler if sluice boxes were used. From $8 to $12 per day is the estimations placed on the other two creeks - which are not creeks, only dry creek beds.
W. Wenrich used a frying pan with which to prospect on Wolf Tuesday and
says he secured six cents worth of gold from as much gravel as would fill a gold pan. As the average shaft bucket holds thirteen pans, this would be ninety cents to the bucket which is good ground even on such world-famed streams as Eldorado and Honanza.
Wolf creek is the stream which empties into Dugdale lake a short distance
south of the 101 mile-post on the railroad. It evidently rises on the south side of Golden Horn mountain, running close to its base along the east side and thence through several miles of forest before reaching the railroad under which it runs just before entering the lake. It is a fine stream of water and even at the present time, probably its lowest stage, contains fully ten sluiceheads of water.
The proximity of the creeks staked to transportation facilities and to Whitehorse makes the new field a most promising one, and the claims, if proven to contain gold such as will warrant their being worked even by dredge or hydraulic methods, will be very valuable.
Already the Wheaton bunch, Adam Birney, Billy Hair, Fred McGlashen, Howard Cochrane, Mr. Becker, McSweeney and two or three others including the discoverer, Geo. Stevens, are prospecting in several places on Wolf creek and, as they are all experienced men who know their business, there will be something to report soon if there is any gold there. Also, Assistant Gold Commissioner Miller and Recorder "Teddy" Curran will be kept busy recording claims for some time to come.
STAMPEDE NOTES.
Geo. Armstrong, Geo. Curtis and Jack Parker all say the water in Wolf creek is very cold, and they should know.
Captain Martin staked on the starboard side of the creek.
For landscape and scenic effects, the editor's claims are not excelled.
Dr. Clark and Prof. Grant will never attempt to cross the continent on a hand-car if they have to pump it. The former is wearing a slab strapped to his back in the hope that he will eventually be able to stand straight.
L. B. Davis, like other old men, waited for the train. Jim Hume walked and wished he hadn't,
Eddie Marcotte says there are better looking creeks than Wolf on his ancestral estate in the south of France.
Fred McGlashen entertained with a tea party in Stevens shack Monday afternoon.
It is easy to tell an old route agent by the way he walks ties and studies scenery at the same time.
W. A. Pucket started with a gun but cached it with his overcoat.
The editor never before envied a rabbit until he saw one running after his game leg had gone out of commission and just when he realized he had missed the train.
Supt. Hahn of the railroad, will never know what he escaped by ordering a
special to return for the heavyweights Monday evening after the regular train had passed Wolf creek station three hours ahead of schedule time. He had a close call.
Barney McGee, Fleming, Hamacher and two fellows in the hospital were the
only men in town who did not show symptoms of stampede fever.
