Capt. D. M. Swain, master of the steamer Rorealis Rex, which plies on
the Illinois river, is interested in a company which will operate a line of steamers on the Yukon river, Alaska, to the gold fields. The route from Seattle, Wash., to Juneau, Alaska, is now covered by the vessels of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. From Juneau the Yukon Transportation Company will have two separate routes to Circle City, the objective point. The freight route, by way of the Bering sea and mouth of the Yukon, is 4,780 miles; the passenger route by way of the Chilkoot pass and the source of the Yukon, is 2,093 - the distances computed from Seattle.
This enterprise is advanced to facilitate traffic into the gold regions of the far north. Intercourse with miners who have made their fortunes in the Yukon country first drew Mr. Swain's attention to this field, and he is much interested in its resources and possibilities, and has made a thorough study of the country. He is assured of the nayigability of the Yukon and its tributaries, and says if transportation facilities for passengers and supplies are made adequate and rapid, the country will develop wonderfully.
Alaska contains 617,000 square miles and has an extent of over 1,000 miles north and south and over 2,000 miles east and west. A range of high mountains parallel with the Pacific coast, about sixty miles inland, divides the country into two unequal parts - the narrow coast strip, which has a mild, moist climate, and the interior Yukon basin where humidity is an unknown quality. Zero weather makes one less uncomfortable than forty degrees above zero in the Central States. The coast district is easily accessible, being reached at all seasons of the year by ocean yessels, and is well known, being visited by many tourists. The Yukon river basin is accessible less than half the year and then with great difficulty.
The Yukon river basin, comprising more than two-thirds of the entire
territory of Alaska, contains over 500,000 square miles and is one of the most remarkable regions in the world. The climate is dry and healthful and has two seasons - four months of warm weather, the mining season, when the sun shines twenty hours a day, and eight months of dark, cold winter, when all mining operations cease.
The discoveries of the last two seasons in this new country show that it
is probably the largest and richest placer gold field in the world, while all along the route, from the source to the mouth of the river, the close observer can see vast treasures of coal, quartz, marble, iron, copper, etc., only waiting for capital to develop the country and furnish means of transportation to bring them within reach of the outside world. Although a hasty exploration of the numerous tributaries of the river during the
short season has proved that every stream, large or small, is gold bearing; yet that part of the fleld thus far developed is of insignificant area. All streams carry flour gold, which increases in its coarseness as the river is ascended. Thus it is evident that the
surrounding gulches must furnish exceedingly rich diggings. All these gold-bearing streams are navigable for suitably constructed boats, and the territory cut by the waters of Alaska is almost unlimited. One hundred thousand men could prospect the Yukon basin and be lost to one another.
During the two months last summer the few hundred men in the diggings took out over $1,000,000 worth of gold. Miller creek, a gulch four miles long, alone produced $350,000 in fifty days, and but few of the claims were developed. Not a few men took out $5,000 to $10,000 during the season, and some took out $35,000, and one man from Milwaukee $80,000.
It is asserted there is a bright future for the entire Yukon basin as a mining region, not only in the auriferous deposit, but in the vast leads of quartz found everywhere.
But the gold and other minerals are not the only wealth that has remained
hidden in this ice-bound treasure-box for ages. The streams contain salmon and other fish in untold quantities. Salmon canning, yet unattempted on the Yukon, could be made exceedingly profitable, and, together with the rich quartz, would furnish a valuable cargo for freight boats returning from taking supplies up the river. The annual output of furs is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and for years to come will continue to be a source of big revenue to any company giving its attention to that trade.
The Yukon is one of the largest rivers in the world, being next to the Amazon in width. It is sixty miles wide at its mouth, and at a distance of 1,500 miles from its mouth has a width of seven to ten miles. The river is too shallow for ocean steamers, but is navigable the entire length for flat bottom river boats of 400 to 500 tons burden. The navigable tributaries of the Yukon are the Lewis, Pelly, Stewart, Tahkenna, Hootalinqua, Porcupine, Tannana, Avik, White, Birch and the Salmon, and many others, to the extent of several thousand miles. Prospectors can penetrate by boat the most remote parts of the gold flelds without hardships, get supplies without fail, work
during the entire mining season, and coming out at the close of the summer spend their winter in milder climates. All this will be made possibie by the line of boats now in contemplation.
The hindrances under the present condition of things to the development of the country are many and almost unsurmountable. The shortness of the season is the most pronounced. The mining season at most is ninety days, and in many localities but sixty to seventy days. Were the fields not of unprecedented richness and extent, the long winter of eight or nine months would be an effectual bar to the development of the country. The shortness of the season makes every day valuable, and hence transportation is the thing
most needed. The length and severity of the winter makes it preferable that men enter and leave the country every year, and the shortness of the season makes it of prime importance
that they enter and leave quickly.
There are two routes to the Yukon gold fields. The freight route is by
the North Pacitic ocean, the Bering sea and the mouth of the river, which, on account of its length and the late opening of the river, will always remain useless except for taking in supplies. The second route is the passenger route, used by the miners who go from Juneau up the Lynn canal, thence over the Chilkoot pass, twenty-four miles, to the very head waters of the Yukon. Here they spend seven or eight days building a rude boat and
raft down the chain of lakes and river, a distance of 600 miles. All this distance is navigable except a shorty portage, and at present is without any transportation facilities except the rude rafts of the miners. The company in prospect figures on this passenger route as a profitable venture. A few light steel launches on this route would shorten the journey going and coming fifty days and would do away with the hardships and dangers now encountered. Thus nearly two months would be added to the short mining season, and this, in a country where labor commands $8 to $12 a day, is an item of vast importance.
To enter this country at present, which is done by the miners' route,
requires an expenditure of $125 and much hard labor and suffering from privations endured. It requires a greater amount of time and money and hardships to get out. Since the open season at the most is but 120 days, the miner must take half of the time going and coming or must remain in the interior and endure an arctic winter. Swift steel launches would cover the distance in five days at a cost of not more than $75 for the trip.
At present it costs from $150 to $250 per ton to get supplies into the
country. This is due to the high charges of the Indian packers, and to the lack of proper transportation facilities on the river. The company in prospect proposes operating by way
of the ocean and the mouth of the river, laying down the cargo at Circle City, the center of the gold field, at a comparatively low figure.
A company having the proper facilities would, no doubt, command the carrying of the United States mails. The government has been urged by Gov. Sheakly, of Alaska, backed by the petition of the inhabitants, to establish a mail route connecting Junea with Circle City, and has signified its intention of doing so next year. The government has estimated the cost of making the six yearly trips at $12,000.
Until two years ago comparatively few miners ever visited this region of
wealth where nature had been so lavish. In 1893 about 300 men went; in 1894, 600 entered, and last year over 3,000. If proper transportation facilities are furnished and made known in 1896 20,000 probably would be a low estimate of the number that will seek riches in this new country. The movement toward the coast, on the way of their long journey, would
remind the Californians of '49.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is authority for the statement that the
mines were short 2,000 tons of provisions this year, and that many were on the verge of starvation, with money to burn in their pockets. This shows the vast importance of a line of freight steamers.
The company now forming in Chicago proposes to put one or two large
freighters on the Yukon, to run from its mouth to Circle City, the supply point for the gold fields; five swift launches of seventy-five to 125 passengers capacity to ply on the upper course of the river to carry passengers in and out, and to take prospectors and supplies up tributary streams.
The change in conditions and prices to be brought about by the company
is summed up in their prospectus as follows:
The company will be strictly a transportation company, without any trading interests to protect.
Mr. C. K. Zilly, of Seattle, Wash., in an interview some few weeks ago
said:
"I have been working in a mine on Mastodon creek, which is a tributary of Birch creek. There are fifty-four claims on Mastodon creek, and I should judge twenty or twenty-five are opened up. This is the first season on that creek, and I estimate that the miners took out about $150,000 to $200,000 of gold. It is all placer mining. They began early in June, and worked until about September 10, when the night frosts began to interfere. It is a fact little known that one company has been operating a mine on Ungla island, the output of which is $60,000 per month."
"Did you bring any dust?"
"Yes, a little. But I didn't work any claim for myself: I worked for
wages - $15 a day. No. I wouldn't advise anybody to go there unless he has money. He ought to have at least $500, so that he can get out if he strikes bad luck."
"What route did you take?"
"We went up by the Chilkoot pass but came out down the Yukon to St. Michaels. But we need better transportation facilities. There were 150 miners who came up on the San Francisco steamer who could not have paid less than $10,000 in fares. We got a numerously-signed petition to the San Francisco company running this line of steamers to put in at Seattle, but they declimed to come so far out of their route."
The latest advices from Alaska state that another new strike has been made in the Birch creek district, news of which has not reached the outside world. It was discovered by Dick Lowe. In two and one-half days Dick washed out $130 with a gold pan, his largest nugget weighing $53. On the Pelkey claim, owned by a French Canadian, twenty-two men, each with a gold pan, made a novel test of its riches. They all began
work at the same instant, and in one hours time they panned out $400, the lowest pan taken weighing $34. Bob Ainsley bought a one-fourth interest in another claim, paying for it $1,200 cash and the balance on bedrock. In five weeks' time he cleaned up the balance of the purchase price, amounting to $2,200. The largest nugget taken out this season weighed $234, and came from Ainsley's Glacier creek claim.
Provisions are not plentiful and many miners had to quit early and return to Seattle. On one boat 200 men left at the same time after fifty days work. There was not a man that did not have money, the entire 200 averaging $1,000 each. Two had over $20,000, and the sacks ranged from that figure down to $1,000. If these men could have staid fifty days more they would have more than doubled their wealth. With the advent of the boats of the Yukon Transportation Company, it will be made possible for more days of labor, plenty of provisions, no danger in the trip, no exposure, or hardships - in reality a pleasant summer's jaunt.
The contracts have been left for the boats. They will be built at Seattle and the machinery for them at Capt. Swain's works in Stillwater, Minn. The first passengers for Circle City will leave Seattle May, 1st, but no freight will be accepted
via passenger route after the 15th of March. The fare for the round trip will be $180 from Seattle, and freight $15 per hundred. The freight charge seems high, but at present Indian
carriers charge that for taking it over the Chilkoot pass, a distance of 24 miles, while the company charges are for 1800 miles.
