Part 1 (1/2)

Klond.y.k.e Nuggets.

by Joseph Ladue.

PREFACE.

The extraordinary excitement arising from the reports of the discovery of Gold in the Klond.y.k.e region in the great Canadian Northwest is not surprising to one who, through personal residence and practical experience, is thoroughly conversant with the locality.

Having recently returned for a temporary stay, after a somewhat successful experience, I have received applications for information in numbers so great that it far exceeds my ability and the time at my disposal to make direct replies.

I have therefore arranged with the American Technical Book Co., 45 Vesey Street, New York City, for the issue of this brief description, preparatory to the publication of my larger book, ”Klond.y.k.e Facts,” a book of 224 pages, with ill.u.s.trations and maps, in which will be found a vast fund of practical information, statistics, and all particulars sought for by those who intend emigrating to this wonderful country.

It is well-nigh impossible to tell the truth of these recent discoveries of gold, but while I can only briefly describe the territory in this small work, it shall be my endeavor to give the intending prospector, in the large work above mentioned, as many facts as possible, and these may thoroughly be relied upon, as from one who has lived continuously in those regions since 1882.

JOSEPH LADUE.

KLONd.y.k.e NUGGETS

CHAPTER I.

KLONd.y.k.e.

Klond.y.k.e! The word and place that has startled the civilized world is to-day a series of thriving mining camps on the Yukon River and its tributaries in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

Prior to August 24, 1896, this section of the country had never been heard of. It was on this day that a man named Henderson discovered the first gold.

On the first day of the following month the writer commenced erecting the first house in this region and called the place Dawson City, now the central point of the mining camps.

Dawson City is now the most important point in the new mining regions.

Its population in June, 1897; exceeded 4,000; by June next it cannot be less than 25,000. It has a saw-mill, stores, churches, of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic denominations. It is the headquarters of the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, _and perfect law and order is maintained_.

It is at Dawson City that the prospector files his claims with the Government Gold Commissioner, in the recording offices.

Dawson City faces on one of the banks of the Yukon River, and now occupies about a mile of the bank. It is at the junction of the Klond.y.k.e River with the Yukon River. It is here where the most valuable mining claims are being operated on a scale of profit that the world has. .h.i.therto never known. The entire country surrounding is teeming with mineral wealth.

Copper, silver and coal can be found in large quant.i.ties, but little or no attention is now being paid to these valuable minerals, as every one is engaged in gold-hunting and working the extraordinary placer mining claims already located.

The entire section is given up to placer mining. Very few claims had been filed for quartz mining. The fields of gold will not be exhausted in the near future. No man can tell what the end will be. From January to April, 1897, about $4,000,000 were taken out of the few placer claims then being worked. This was done in a territory not exceeding forty square miles. All these claims are located on Klond.y.k.e River and the little tributaries emptying into it, and the districts are known as Big Bonanza, Gold Bottom and Honker.

I have asked old and experienced miners at Dawson City who mined through California in Bonanza days, and some who mined in Australia, what they thought of the Klond.y.k.e region, and their reply has invariably been, ”The world never saw so vast and rich a find of gold as we are working now.”

Dawson City is destined to be the greatest mining camp in the history of mining operations.

CHAPTER II.

KLONd.y.k.e FACTS.