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eavingNome in the evening, by the following noon we were off a small settlement comprising a few scattered sod houses, warehouses, and tents, called either by the Indian name "Chenik," or "Dexter's," after the pioneer who lived there with his Eskimo wife and children. Dexter had settled at Chenik a number of years ago, and was making money by trading with the natives, when, in the autumn of 1898, the discovery of gold at Nome made him a very rich man. He was among the first to secure valuableclaims. Chenik, as I prefer to call it, is a sand-spit in the entrance to Golovin Bay, a large and shallow body of water with treacherous mud-flats, surrounded by great barren hills and the all-pervading tundra. Not a tree is to be seen, but rising immediately behind the scattered settlement is a steep hill, less somber than the rest, upon which the occasional wooden bier of a departed Eskimo makes the scene less monotonous. There is a small Swedish mission, in charge of a good man, Mr. Hendricksen, who was looking after the welfare of fifty or sixty natives there encamped. The entire picture is far more cheerful than that of Nome. Until further and more definite information concerning our destination could be gathered, we made temporary camp on dry ground not far from theshore, fortunate in being able to borrow some loose boards for a flooring. The weather certainly had been and was very good to us, the days bright and clear and, at times, quite warm, but the nights always cold.
Generally, what was learned about the Council City country was far from reassuring. Men who seemed to be of a sturdy, reliable sort, and who said that they had been there, reported that it was not worth while, and dilated upon the arduous work of dragging one's self and one's boat up the shallow streams, eaten up by mosquitos, to find everything staked and nothing doing. I recall a Hebrew who made us a visit, and, almost with tears in his eyes, entreated us not to blight our young lives by going to Council City; and what a chapter of horrors he detailed!He maintained that we should go to Eagle City, about fifteen hundred miles distant via the Yukon River, where nuggets as large as one's fist lay carelessly about, and where there was a great field for lawyers. He insisted that we take his picture, in order that in the future we could point to it, saying, "This is the man who advised usnotto go to Council City." It was subsequently learned that this gentleman had gone half-way to Council, and no farther. We met some, however, who believed it to be a good country, and who were making ready to set out for it. To get freight up the rivers a narrow and shallow boat is essential, and such a craft, twenty-two feet in length, was quickly and dexterously knocked together out of rough lumber by two enterprising carpenters who weredoing a land-office business. Each one of us became a quarter-owner in theMush-on, as the boat was christened.
Living at Chenik was not agreeable, and we were willing to tackle Council City anyhow. We four, together with the more valuable of the supplies, occupied a ten-by-twelve tent, and the water proposition was worse than that at Nome. It meant a long walk up a hill past the Indian graves and along the high cliff descending steep to the water's edge, to a crevice in it which held a bank of frozen snow. This was brought back in buckets and melted, and, for drinking purposes, boiled and filtered. Then, too, the general epidemic of sickness which prevailed during the season of 1900 among the natives throughout northwestern Alaska was here manifest. They allcoughed, and while we were at Chenik there were several deaths from a complication of measles and pneumonia. Two young Swedish women, belonging to the mission, were faithfully ministering to the sick, for the Eskimo is as helpless when ill as are the members of his household to care for him. Later, Dexter found a dozen of the unfortunates dead across the bay, and tumbled their remains into a single grave.
It is estimated to be fifty miles from Chenik to Council City—twelve miles across Golovin Bay to the mouth of the Fish River, which in delta form debouches into the bay, and the remaining distance up the Fish River and the Neukluk (the Indian name for river-flowing-from-the-west), a tributary nearly as large as the main stream. White Mountain, a spotwhere the Wild Goose Company has a storehouse, a depot for its mining claims above, is about half the way from Chenik to Council, and is the head of navigation for the several small, light-draft stern-wheelers which occasionally make the trip in the interest of the larger mine-owners. It lessens the strain tremendously to get a lift or a tow from one of these boats; and, having obtained the good will of the crew of theArctic Bird, and strengthened it by a bottle of whisky, we got what we wanted. TheMush-onwe had, so to speak, tarred and feathered, and made water-tight and filled with our freight, as much as it could safely contain, the remainder being stored in theArctic Bird. We were about to put our boat in tow and set out, when who should suddenly appear upon the scene but our two friendsof theLane, H—— and T——, with their boat, just returned from Council, looking very tough and very seedy. We were exhorted to reconsider our plans, and as these were mining men whom we knew, whose judgment was entitled to respect, we promptly did so. As the freight was being taken off, though they were very good about it, the triumvirate crew of theArctic Birdwere not a little bit amused, for of course it looked as if we had lost our nerve at the last minute. The returned prospectors had been disappointed in a piece of ground upon which they had a "lay" or lease, which fact, in the main, accounted for their premature departure and the lugubrious view which they took.
So we camped again at the same spot and deliberated. Finally, in the evening of July 15, we set out, T—— transferringhimself to us, and G—— remaining with H——, the two latter having decided to get somehow to St. Michaels, thence up the Yukon to the Tanana River, where a strike had been reported, and big game was said to be abundant. As a matter of fact, they were obliged to remain at Chenik for a considerable time on account of the quarantine which all ports had against Nome and vessels which had touched there.
TheMush-onwas the last of the string in tow, which consisted of a small barge or lighter, containing Wild Goose Company machinery, and the boats of several others, who were also going up the rivers. My brother steered the barge, and C—— our boat, according to instructions from the captain. T—— and I, who felt used up, lounged on some sacks near thewarm engine. After running upon and backing off various mud-flats, at midnight theArctic Birdrested at the delta of the Fish River, and all hands drank coffee, and the whisky which represented our fare. It was, of course, daylight,—a weird, grayish effect,—and fairly, but not disagreeably, cold. Then we entered and pushed slowly up the swift and shallow stream, the mosquitos, for the first time in our wanderings to date, making themselves manifest and felt. All of us had the same thought and sensations. For the first time there was a semblance of "God's country." The beautifully clear stream,—flanked on each side by scrub willows and an occasional small spruce-tree,—whose tempting water one could dip up and drinkad libitum, seemed in places filled with fish,darting swiftly about above the gravel bed. Hills that appeared more like mountains loomed up in the distance, gray in the early light. There was the inevitable tundra, of course, but it seemed less all-pervading—it had finally met with some competition.
There were many curves and sharp turns where the boats in tow would have been wrecked but for the men who, wrapped in their sweaters and coats, steered them. Many times theArctic Birdwould run upon a riffle (where the water runs very shallow over the gravel), to be temporarily baffled and obliged to back off and seek another course. The stream averaged hardly two feet in depth. Frequently the fraction of an inch meant progress or failure. When in plain sight and almost in reach of White Mountain,that fraction of an inch was not in our favor, and it being then three o'clock in the morning, anchor was thrown out, and all hands turned in to await the coming of the tide below, the crew pulling out their mattresses, and the "cheechawkers" (the Eskimo name for newcomers, universally used in Alaska) conforming their shapes to the various sacks and baggage. By noon we were disembarked and camped at White Mountain, a few feet from the river. Our "library" of law books seemed to weigh a ton. This was the best camping-spot yet. The scene was pretty; it seemed a healthful place; and water, plentiful and good, was very near at hand. But the mosquitos were numerous and fiercely persistent; and before turning in, the tent was sealed as hermetically as possible, and thereensued a general and complete killing of the insects that remained inside.
In the forenoon of the day following, July 17, we felt ready to start. Even if our boat could have held all our freight, which weighed perhaps a ton, it was not wise to carry it, on account of the extreme shallowness of the stream, it being then, according to the "sour doughs," unprecedentedly low, due to the unusual lack of rain. So half of the freight was intrusted to John Dejus, a French Canadian, who, with his partner, was "going up to Council anyhow," and who agreed to freight our belongings at what was a very reasonable figure, considering the toil which it entailed. A certain amount of unpacking and rearranging had to be done in order to have readily at hand cooking-utensils and food and all the comfort thatcould be manufactured for the trip up the rivers. The tow-line was eighty or a hundred feet long, with small pieces of rope branching out near the end to throw over the shoulder and pull from, the object being to work from the shore and keep the boat well out in the stream, in the deeper water. Three of us pulled, and one sat in the stern and steered with an oar. As a matter of fact, the fellow who had the latter occupation had the hardest time of it; and, as we progressed, there was greater enthusiasm for the end of the line than for the "steering" position, which meant a continual jumping out into the stream and shoving the boat off from the shore, or backing it off a riffle and pulling and guiding its nose out against the swift, adverse current into water perhaps an inch deeper, which savedthe situation. Hip rubber boots were essential. Undoubtedly, it was hard, exhausting work. We met others with boats less suited to the task than ours, apparently hopelessly stuck, pulling, hauling, shoving, and swearing. It was frequently necessary for some unfortunates to unload their boats, get them over a riffle, and then reload. Others would "cache" part of their freight (deposit it by the way), and struggle onward, to return later for the remainder. At first we got along very well pulling from the shore, though this meant not infrequently falling over one another when the shore developed into a bank with uneven ground, or delays and complications arose from the protruding brush. However, as the stream was very low, most of the work was done from the dry bed. At times themosquitos were very annoying; all of us wore netting. One night, when about to encamp, almost dead to the world, these pests were the worst I have ever encountered; the atmosphere was black with them. But, on the whole, the mosquito feature of the trip had been much exaggerated; for, as we proceeded, the netting was wholly dispensed with, and at Council City, most appreciated of surprises, these insects were not at all! It almost took the heart out of one to see returning prospectors or freighters in their long, narrow skiffs, sometimes assisted by a sail, come flying down the stream, who, when hailed as to the condition of the river above, invariably shouted back that it became more difficult. And it did become more difficult soon after turning into the NeuklukRiver; and, furthermore, it began to storm, so that when our tent had been finally erected, it was a question whether the wind would not tear out the pegs, which had been driven into the loose gravel of the dry river-bed, and land us somewhere down-stream. But all that is now an interesting reminiscence. In spots the stream was black with salmon and salmon-trout. We passed several camps of the river Eskimos, who were drying fish, fastened in clothes-pin fashion upon an ingeniously contrived rack. The Neukluk in places was broad and shallow, or broken up into a number of streams by alternate gravel bars, or occasionally the stream broke, forming an island, and it was a question which branch to follow. Rain for a day added to the complications, but it was not sufficient toraise the stream. As our destination was neared, the country appeared bolder, more mountainous, and it was a pleasure to see once in a while a little forest of spruce on the shore of the stream. But now the tow-line was practically abandoned, and it was a case of hauling and shoving the boat with hands and shoulders, one of us frequently going on in advance to discover a route which would afford the necessary passage, or to kick out a channel through the stones and gravel. It was a wonder to me frequently that some of us were not bowled over, tired as we were, by the strong, swift current. Sometimes it was too much for poor human nature to stand, and the one would curse the other liberally for not doing this or that, all to be forgotten and forgiven after the inner man had been appeased and rest obtained.
At last, late in the day of July 19, on rounding one of the many curves of the river, Council City, in the bright evening sunlight, burst upon the view, the prettiest, best sight that we had seen in Alaska. The peculiar light seemed to magnify it, to make it stand out very clear and distinct. There is a sudden high plateau, terminating abrupt and sheer at the stream in a rocky cliff some thirty or forty feet high, bare for the most part, but covered here and there with a growth of moss and shrubbery. This elevation tapers down to the level of the stream, where the little camp of miners marks, at the east, the point where Melsing Creek flows into the Neukluk, and also falls off at the west, where the large camp or general reservation is found, free ground for all. Along the plateau and beyond—asprawling, scattered collection of log cabins, saloons, and dance-halls, with here and there a sod house or tent—is Council City. Back of it, to the north and west, along the foot of a bleak mountain which seems to shelter the camp, is the narrow belt of invaluable timber. The river-bed here is perhaps a hundred yards wide, but at that time the greater part of it was visible, the stream breaking above and coming down in two rapid, narrow forks touching each side of the shore. Across the river and the bar, and following its course, is a long stretch of tundra reaching out for several miles to low and barren mountains in the south and west. In a straight line southwest, over the tundra and mountains, it is said to be eighty or a hundred miles to Nome.
In the late autumn of 1897, a numberof prospectors, on being told by a native that there was gold in this section, set out from Chenik. They wintered at the present site of Council, and in the following spring staked out what seemed to them the best mining ground in the surrounding country, the richer claims being on Ophir Creek, a tributary to the Neukluk, several miles above Council City. This, therefore, is the pioneer mining camp in northwestern Alaska, but known to comparatively a few only, on account of its inaccessibility.
We passed the camp at Melsing Creek, and, exchanging salutations with the men there, who knew how we felt, proceeded slowly along the foot of the cliff, over the last riffle. Then, making fast theMush-onamong the other boats, we pitched our tent near the stream on the"reservation"—there at last. This experience from White Mountain to Council was the hardest physical work which any one of us had ever done or ever expects to do. The distance from White Mountain is generally estimated to be twenty-five or thirty miles. Leaving there at ten o'clock Tuesday morning, and making good average time, we were at Council at half-past eight Thursday evening, the actual working time being twenty-three hours, and the remainder being spent for rest and meals.
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hisplace had the appearance of a real mining camp. The men one saw, for the most part, looked like the genuine article. A number said that this wasthecountry. Many were non-committal—they were making ready their packs for the "mush" to the auxiliary creeks above, where they thought the richer deposits were. All had to admit that it was an auriferous country, that "colors" could be found everywhere along the creeks, but the question was, and always is, Will it pay to work the ground? It frequentlyhappens that one is the owner of a mining claim which undoubtedly contains a fortune in gold, but the unfortunate fact remains that it will cost him more money to get the gold from the ground than the value of the gold which is in it. All agreed, however, that this looked something more like "God's country." There was a verse going the rounds whose sum and substance was that the devil had to be punished, and, therefore, had been sent to Nome.
We dined that evening at midnight, our meals being somewhat irregular in those days. On the 19th of July this definite resting-spot had been found, and here we would try our luck until the close of the season. The most desirable and healthful position seemed to be up on the cliff where the log buildings, which denotedthe heart of the "city," were situated. It was soon learned that the place had been surveyed, imaginary streets provided for, and town lots duly awarded. This fact was discovered the next day, after we had selected a spot for encampment and were about to level it off. Just then we were interrupted by an individual who held the proud position of town recorder, who, pleasantly enough, said that we were about to squat in the center of astreet, and that, although he personally had no objection, our camping there would establish a precedent which might cause trouble. We shall not forget old Pete Wilson, a Swede living in a sod house near by, who came forward and told us that we might camp upon his neighboring lot until the fall, "free gratis," and who further said that he would trustus not to set up a title to the ground adverse to his. This is but one instance of the many kind and generous acts of which such men are capable; and it was the beginning of a neighborly association with this hearty old miner, who contributed in many ways toward our agreeable sojourn at Council City.
After singling out the least humpy spot, the tundra was torn and hacked off it until a layer of damp clay earth was reached. This was then pretty well leveled and ditched, in the belief that, by giving the sun a good chance at this surface, it would become ideally dry, a fine place to sleep over. But, though the sun was unusually friendly and, at times, in the middle of the day, hot, that ground remained as damp as ever. We realized at last that frozen earth and ice beneath,a barrier to the seepage, made the trouble irremediable. Two large tents, one made to open into the other, were used, respectively, to sleep and to cook and eat in, and near the side of this oblong arrangement was erected the "office" tent. A bunk put together and a folding cot, picked up at Chenik, kept us off the ground at night. It is a tribute to the general healthful conditions of that country that during the seven weeks we lived there, despite the night dampness, which seemed at first of ill omen, none of us was afflicted with even a cold. For warmth, comfort, and protection, a reindeer-skin is invaluable.
There were perhaps two hundred persons about Council at that time. Most of the miners had made their camps above, on the creeks where their claims weresituated, to remain there during the working season, though many trudged back into town periodically for supplies and what not. Of course the number of saloons, with their dance-hall and gambling adjuncts, was entirely disproportionate to the population of the place, but their proprietors were looking forward to activity in the late fall and winter, when mining would cease. A number of horses and mules had been brought overland from Nome, small fortunes in themselves. People were continually straggling in, and, camped as we were on the bluff, with that last riffle into Council almost at our feet, when a splashing sound, intermingled with a bumping noise against the stones and with oaths and exhortations, was heard, one, or all in chorus, would exclaim, "Another case of 'mush.'"
Very soon, and in no modest fashion, the signs "Attorneys at Law" and "Surveyors" were flashed upon the public. There were two other lawyers at Council, but no other surveyors. It became at once necessary to examine the mining records and learn the system, if any, of indexing, with reference to searching titles; and it was in this connection that we met Mrs. A——, the duly-elected recorder for the El Dorado mining district, which district is thirty miles square. The wife of the agent there of one of the large companies doing business in Alaska, she had come with her husband to Council a year before; had spent the long winter there; and, commanding the respect and admiration of the mining community, had been elected recorder to straighten out and keep honest recordsin the books, which hitherto had been in the custody of some rather suspicious predecessors. Young and good-looking, her face was both refined and strong. Some of Bret Harte's characters were suggested. With great labor and intelligence she had brought order out of chaos, and had so indexed her books with reference to creeks and individuals as to render the work of the searcher comparatively simple.
A few words concerning mining law as applied to Alaska seem now appropriate. The United States laws, which control, permit an individual to "locate" and hold as many tracts or parcels of ground as he desires, each not exceeding, however, twenty acres in area,provided, first, that there be a bona-fide discovery of gold; second, that the ground beproperly staked or marked out; third, that at least one hundred dollars' worth of work be done on each claim every year. It is further provided that the miners may organize a district, elect their own recorder, and make rules and regulations which shall have the force of law in so far as they are reasonable and not in conflict with the federal statutes. Many perplexing questions arise, however. Our laws are too liberal and loose, leaving open too wide the door to fraud and blackmail, such as exist galore in Alaska, and which could not be practised under the carefully drawn Canadian statutes. For instance, though the law requires that a claim shall be distinctly marked or staked, there is no provision made as to how it shall be marked, nor is it made obligatory that the stakesshall be maintained. The fraud and confusion arising from this situation are aggravated in this barren country, where timber is very scarce, and the original stakes, for the most part, are made from the inadequate scrub willow found along the creeks.
Placer-mining (as contradistinguished from quartz) consists in extracting loose particles of gold from the alluvial deposits in ancient river-beds. Claims which border upon and include sections of the present streams, greatly reduced in size, are known as "creek" claims, and are generally supposed to be the richest. There is on every creek a "discovery" claim, and all the others upon it are known as Nos. 1, 2, 3, etc., "above" or "below Discovery," and are so staked and recorded.Those claims which are located farther up the bank, and which do not embrace the stream, are called "bench" claims, and are known frequently by the name of the wife or daughter of the miner, or by any fanciful designation. It was this latter class of claims which, up to that time ignored or overlooked, in the middle of the season were discovered to be in many cases richer than the creek claims. Many who had left the country, disgusted and crying out against the laws which permitted a few individuals to take up and hold an entire creek, had passed over this good ground without even prospecting it. On the other hand, more persistent miners had secured rich claims where apparently there was no ground to stake. The twenty-acre claim is usually staked out in the shape of aparallelogram 1320 feet by 660 feet. One is likely to locate rather more than less ground than that to which he is entitled. Therefore, some of these canny old boys would measure along with their tape-lines, spell out a "fraction," and immediately seize upon and hold it.
We were early impressed that there was no "fake" about this country. It was a continuation of the wonderful formation which, beginning in the west back of Port Clarence, extends eastward and back of Nome to the Golovin Bay country. Clients began to drop in. In many instances they sought free advice; and, sometimes, when the conversation had reached the legal point, it became necessary to instruct our callers that, if they desired to know anything further, our consultation fee would be exacted. It wastherefore a case of pay up or move out. For Alaska, our law library was imposing and complete. Certainly it was the best in Council City. The surveyors (T—— working in as chainman) were busy.
We had been settled only a few days when First Lieutenant Offley of the Seventh United States Infantry, with thirty-odd men from St. Michaels, trudged by our camp, and it was good to see them. The lieutenant had been sent to preserve law and order and hold military court pending the passing of the country into the hands of the civil administration, and the arrival at Council of the United States commissioner, as provided by law. They camped in their round tents near the river and beyond the reservation, in our plain view, whence the various bugle-calls came to us very clearly and marked the time of day.
The world is very small. It soon developed that, after the Cuban campaign, Lieutenant Offley and my brother, by chance, had traveled together in the same train from Montauk Point, in the same seat, and the lieutenant, weak from Cuban fever, had been assisted over the ferry to New York by my brother. Neither knowing the name of the other, they next met at this jumping-off place.
Throughout his stay at Council the lieutenant performed his duties with an ability and conscientiousness which commanded the respect of the community; and there was much for him to do which was both novel and perplexing—for instance, the assumption of the judicial rôle. One of the things which tried him sorely was the case of a woman physician, who had wandered down from the Klondikecountry and squatted with her tent on a lot which somebody else claimed. The case was argued before the lieutenant, and the decision went against her, and very properly. She refused absolutely to vacate, insisting upon being a martyr; and, though the duty was unpleasant, for the sake of example at least, she was put under arrest, with generous jail liberties. Finally she was sent down the river with a corporal's guard to the higher authorities at St. Michaels.
Within a short time we had as much law work as we could do, and very interesting and novel, and frequently fatiguing, it was. In addition to drawing agreements and deeds, it consisted of preliminary interviews in that stately office, followed by long and laborious walks for many miles through the timber, up anddown mountainous hills, over tundra, and through streams, to the mines on the creeks beyond, there to examine stakes, witnesses, and liars. Frequently, before starting back, we would be invited to eat with the men, and a fine lot they were as a rule. Then the case had to be presented before the lieutenant and argued, with the assistance of mining-law quotations and diagrams. In many instances the lieutenant would make a personal inspection of the property in dispute. If one side appeared to be clearly in the right, the other party would be ordered off the premises; if it seemed to be an honest contention, and there was merit on both sides, the disputed ground would be tied up, a dead-line drawn, and soldiers camped there to see that neither party mined the contested territory. Eitherparty, if dissatisfied, might appeal to the federal court then established at Nome. But we were hearing strange tales about that court. There was a persistent rumor that it was only the instrument of a great scheme to confiscate the rich mines. There was said to be a large corporation organized in the East, with influential political backing, whose guiding genius, on the flimsiest of pretexts, in violation of all the rules of legal procedure, and virtually under no bonds, was being repeatedly appointed by this court receiver of these mines.
Through a tip from a client for whom we had done some legal and surveying work, my brother and I secured a fraction of mining ground on Melsing Creek, which was staked, surveyed, and recorded as the "Eli Fraction." We four staked out also an association claim of eightyacres on a bench of Ophir Creek, which claim is called the "Rajah," and we secured other interests farther up on Ophir Creek. As a favor to friends, we would be willing to sell out our mining interests for a million dollars cash!
In placer-mining the "pay dirt" (usually found near bed-rock) is shoveled into long, narrow boxes called "sluices," varying in length, at the bottom of which are small cross-pieces of wood ("riffles"), or copper plates, or mercury, devised to catch the gold. The creek is diverted so as to send a stream of water into the "head" of the sluice-boxes, and the gold, by virtue of its greater specific gravity, is caught by one or several of the contrivances—the stones, gravel, and dirt being carried by the current out of the boxes, and constituting the "tailings."After a certain number of hours' "run," the water is temporarily diverted, and the "clean-up" takes place; that is, the sluice-boxes are cleaned out, and the gold separated from the black sand and iron substances which usually remain with it. Water, therefore, is absolutely essential. In 1900, at first, the general complaint was "no water," although later, when the heavy rains came, it was "too much water." Placer-mining is a delicate and uncertain business, and is very hard work. Gold is not "picked up" anywhere, and mother earth yields her treasure very stubbornly. The gold of this country consists mainly of fine particles or "dust," and, compared with the Klondike, but few nuggets are found. It is, however, purer than the Klondike gold, and assays higher.
One day in August, with a large pack, and followed by an unattractive but devoted-looking dog, there came into Council F——, whom we had known on theLane. He was only twenty-two years old, but financial stress had compelled him to leave his university prematurely; and he had been among the first to cross the Chilkoot Pass and undergo the rigors of the Klondike. Late in the season of 1899 he had come from the Klondike to Nome, and had acquired, as he believed, some valuable interests there, which he had been obliged to intrust to a partner, as he was carried out from Nome in the fall more dead than alive with typhoid. Returning the next year, he learned that his partner had robbed him, and that all that remained was this dog. So, with his pack and his dog, and the aid of a compass,he had walked over the mountains and tundra from Nome to Council,—sleeping, of course, in the open air and upon the ground,—in quest of employment on one of the Wild Goose properties, "No. 15 on Ophir." And he was rather a delicate-looking fellow. He dined with us, and we extended to him the hospitality of our kitchen floor for the night, for which he was very grateful. Notwithstanding his continued ill fortune, F—— seemed to be in first-rate spirits. He recited a verse which he had composed, after "Break, break, break," etc., which began thus:
"Break, broke, bust, on the ruby sands of Nome,Break, broke, bust—three thousand miles from home!"
The way he got it off caused general laughter. He endured for two weekswork which very few strong men can keep up, working on the ten-hour night shift shoveling frozen ground up and into a sluice-box; and then, pretty well used up, but with enough money to take him home, he departed for Nome, this time by way of the river, saying that he hoped to return next spring. Certainly pluck was not lacking in his make-up.
There is no game in this country to speak of. Occasionally, however, one would scare up a covey of ptarmigan or white grouse, and of course there were fish in the stream. The government recently imported into northern Alaska some reindeer with Laplanders to care for them, and there are scattered reindeer-stations. But none of these animals were seen.
Very pretty wild flowers, many ofwhich I had never seen before, grow out of the tundra. I have gathered as many as ten different species within a quarter of a mile of our camp. In places blue-berries grew thick, and salmon-berries were numerous.
Once in a while a letter of comparatively ancient date, passed on from Nome to some traveler, would reach us—a great treat indeed. Toward the end of August we learned the result of the Yale-Harvard race, which had been rowed the end of June. Miners would come around and ask for the loan of a paper or novel—any old thing would do.
Soon after we had become settled at Council, with intermittent fair weather, it rained almost daily, the rain coming up and clearing off suddenly; and one soon grew accustomed to the peculiarities ofthe climate. It was a great relief to have the nights begin to darken. After the middle of August they became quite dark, and, at the same time, we not infrequently found in the morning a layer of thin ice in the buckets of water.
On August 25 T—— left us, having received bad news from home; and September 1, to the regret of all, the military departed, as the arrival of the commissioner for the Council City district was daily expected, and presumably there would be no further need of the soldiers. A petition, addressed to the general commanding, seeking the retention of the military throughout the winter, was gotten up and freely signed, but fear of the friction which, under such circumstances, is likely to exist between the civil and military authorities, rendered it of no avail.About September 1, a heavy storm with a driving rain set in, which continued with no moderation until the 8th of the month. Dams were washed away, and mining operations ceased. It seemed at times impossible that the tents could stand up against the wind, or that the canvas could longer keep out the heavy rain. The "boulevards" of Council were in a very sorry condition. It was very dismal comfort those days. The Neukluk had become a young Mississippi, and the bar of the stream was now entirely covered. The wind blew furiously up the stream; and it was almost an unbelievable sight to behold one day a freighter sailing slowly and surely, impelled alone by the favoring wind,upthe stream and over that riffle which hitherto had been the heartbreaker.
In view of this storm and the early approaching winter, the mining season seemed to have ended, and we decided to quit for Nome and home on the next favorable day, and began to make ready accordingly. C—— had decided that he would spend the winter at Council, and I determined to return in the following spring. A very good log cabin, nearing completion, which would answer for C——'s residence and the firm's office, was leased, and the bulk of our general outfit moved into it. It was economy for C—— to come with us to Nome to lay in his winter supplies. Sugar was selling at Council for 35 cents a pound; coffee 75 cents; flour $7.50 a sack; kerosene $1.50 a gallon, etc.
Sunday morning, September 9, breaking fair and favorable, burdened withonly a few essentials, we set out in theMush-onat half-past seven o'clock. How different it was from coming up! The boat seemed at times fairly to fly along, borne by the current and assisted by the oars. At a sudden turn we were hailed by some freighters, and later by theArctic Bird, which, taking advantage of the sudden rise of the streams, was bringing up some heavy machinery. The former handed over to us some home letters, and a batch of mail from the latter, well protected, was thrown at us and picked up safely out of the river. This mail added to the general gaiety of the situation. At half-past twelve a short stop was made at White Mountain to pay our respects to friends there; and then we pushed on, rowing more as the river became broader and the current lessswift. Taking the wrong fork at the delta of Fish River, it looked for a while as if we should be stranded on the mud-flats and obliged to return to the proper channel; but by getting out and pulling the boat, which drew practically no water, we soon were well off, wading into the Golovin Bay. Then, with the aid of a bit of canvas, the favorable wind, and our oars, we reached Chenik at six o'clock in the evening, having covered a distance in ten and a half hours which had required four days in the ascent. I believe that is the record time. Fortunately, it was not necessary to wait for means of transportation to Nome, as theElmore, a miserable little tub, sailed from Chenik that night. The fellow-passengers were a tough lot of men and women; and all camped together very informally that night on the floor ofthe cabin. The storm came up again. It was very rough, and in consequence it was a miserable, sick crowd. Having stopped at Topkok for some additional passengers, who came aboard with satchels of gold-dust, theElmorewas off Nome at six o'clock the following evening, bobbing like a cork in the now fast increasing storm. After some difficulty in getting into it, in truly a very thrilling fashion, we were rowed ashore in a life-boat and artistically beached through the surf, a feat which could be performed only by that crew of skilful Swedes.
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omehad become more substantial in appearance,—there were fewer tents and more buildings,—but it was even more unsightly now that the rain had made the streets a perfect sea of mud, knee-deep in most places. The Wild Goose Company's railroad had been laid, and was in successful operation. On all sides was manifest the hustling genius of the American people. We put up at a remarkably promising place, The Golden Gate Hotel; and, after a long unacquaintancewith such a luxury, rested between sheets, and gave our things a chance to dry. We were lucky to have caught theElmore, for otherwise it would have meant detention at Chenik for a week, awaiting an abatement of the storm. It was a pleasure to see some of our friends again, and very interesting to learn the news and latest developments. The story of the wonderful strike of gold at Kougarok and Gold Run, back of Port Clarence, was corroborated, and, generally, the mine-owners said that the country was richer than they had ever dreamed it to be. The receivership story was also very generally confirmed. Undoubtedly there then existed in the civil administration of the Nome country as corrupt a ring of wholesale robbery and blackmail as one can imagine.
The following account may better enable the reader to appreciate the magnificence of the scheme of confiscation which at this time was in a prosperous state of realization.
There had been organized in the city of New York, under the laws of Arizona, with a capital stock of fifteen million dollars, The Alaska Gold Mining Company, of which Alexander McKenzie, a man of political influence, well known in the Dakotas, was the chief promoter and the owner of a majority of the stock. He had placed a portion of the remainder where he believed it would stand him in good stead. The main assets of this company consisted of "jumpers'" claims to rich mining property near Nome, principally situated on Anvil Creek—claims which, having already been taken or "located,"had been "jumped" or "relocated" by certain individuals on some of the pretexts suggested by the looseness of our mining laws, and which in a new country so frequently constitute a species of legal blackmail. These claims, for the most part, had been purchased from the original owners by the Wild Goose and the Pioneer Mining companies, large corporations which had been formed to operate them, and other claims, on a very large scale, and which, with immense equipment at hand for future operations, were already, in the early season of 1900, engaged in taking out the gold in great quantities.
In company and on the same vessel with McKenzie, Judge Noyes arrived at Nome on the nineteenth day of July, 1900, and (to use the language of theCircuit Court of Appeals in the McKenzie contempt cases) "on Monday, July 23, before the court was organized and before the filing of any paper of any character with the clerk of the court, [McKenzie] was appointed by Judge Noyes receiver of at least four of the richest claims in the district of Nome, upon complaints made by persons the interest therein of at least one of whom had theretofore been acquired by the receiver's corporation, the Alaska Gold Mining Company." And this, too, upon papers grossly inadequate, without notification to the parties in possession, or an opportunity for them to be heard, and, generally, in total disregard of the necessities of the situation and legal precedent. The orders appointing McKenzie receiver of these claims directed him to take immediatepossession thereof; to manage and work the same; to preserve the gold and dispose of it subject to the further orders of the court; and expressly enjoined the persons then in possession from in any manner interfering with the mining of the claims by the receiver. By a subsequent order, and in the very teeth of the express prohibitory provision of the statute under which the court was created, Judge Noyes further ordered that the receiver take possession of, and that there be delivered to him, allpersonalproperty of every sort and description on one of these claims and in any way appertaining thereto. The receiver's bond in each case was fixed at only five thousand dollars, though at least one of these claims was then yielding about fifteen thousand dollars a day!
Thereupon, several of the parties thus held up by this highway procedure, upon proof and affidavits, moved the court to vacate these orders, which applications were denied, as were the petitions to the court for the allowance of an appeal from its orders granting the injunctions and appointing the receiver, the court holding that its orders were not appealable, and, in effect, that its jurisdiction in the matter was exclusive.
Upon the refusal of the court to allow an appeal, the Wild Goose and Pioneer Mining companies, which were represented by able counsel, secretly despatched to San Francisco, on a fast vessel, a special messenger bearing papers and affidavits disclosing the record of the court at Nome, upon which to base application to the appellate court, the UnitedStates Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for allowance of appeals and writs of supersedeas. This writ, which, in effect, nullifies the proceedings of the court below pending the determination of the appeal which it, the appellate court, has allowed, was granted in the Wild Goose cases by Judge Morrow, upon the giving of proper bonds.
Meanwhile the receiver business was in full swing, and McKenzie became known near and far as the "King of Receivers," or the "Big One." After a while, when the thing was becoming too notorious, the court evinced a certain delicacy of feeling by bestowing sundry receiverships upon selected friends of McKenzie, instead of handing them all over to the chief. Many mine-owners did not attempt to develop their ground, fearfullest, it proving rich, the receivership jurisdiction would be thereto extended. Charges and countercharges of bribery and corruption were rife, and the fight between the attorneys for the ousted parties and the "ring" became strenuous and embittered.
In the midst of the storm above referred to,—on the 14th of September,—an exciting rumor spread throughout the town that the writs from the appellate court had arrived; and this proved to be the fact. The Nome dailies (three of them) came out with such head-lines as "McKenzie Thrown out of His Job," "Death-blow to the New York Ring," and printed in full the writ commanding a stay of operations and a return of the property.
But McKenzie did not proceed to obeythe mandates of the higher court, nor did Judge Noyes order him so to do, though they both had been served with all the requisite papers.
With the knowledge that the Circuit Court of Appeals was back of them, the Wild Goose people took possession of their mines. McKenzie, acting under the kind of legal advice that he wanted, maintained that the writs were irregular and void, and absolutely refused to deliver up the gold-dust which he had mined. Judge Noyes made an order merely staying all proceedings in his court, and refused to make orders compelling McKenzie to obey the writs and deliver the gold-dust to the appellants.
It became known that the receiver would attempt to withdraw gold-dust which had been deposited in the vaults ofthe Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company; and when McKenzie, in company with one of his "friends," made the attempt, he found himself surrounded by a detachment of the military and a number of the parties interested, together with their attorneys. As he was about to walk out of the building, an attorney stepped forward and stopped him, causing that remarkable person for the first time to lose his head and nerve. It looked for a moment as if there might be some gun-play, but this, fortunately, was avoided. All this happened when the storm was at its height, the miserable streets of the hybrid "city" knee-deep in mud, and when, without the semblance of a harbor, and open to the clear sweep and fierce attack of the Arctic gale, entire sections of the place were under water,and houses and wreckage generally drifting about. It was an excellent background for a dramatic incident.
The next step, therefore, was to proceed against McKenzie for contempt of court. The time was very short; for communication with that country ceases with the freezing of the sea, the latter part of October, and the distance to the appellate court and return is about seven thousand miles. At the last moment, just before we sailed, Samuel Knight (Yale, '87), who, in behalf of the Wild Goose Company, had been fighting the ring with great aggressiveness and skill, gave me, for his firm in San Francisco, the papers on which to base proceedings for contempt of court and arrest.
The storm and rain continued with unabated fury. It was impossible to getaway. All the steamers had either put to sea or sought for shelter the lee of Sledge Island, to the northwest, and the shore was fast becoming a scene of wreckage indescribable. Tugs, lighters, floating piers, and all small craft lay tossed upon the beach. The sea was rising higher all the time, and soon buildings were washed away, and the front and lower part of the town were under water. All machinery which had rested upon the beach was buried in the sand. The entire sand-spit where we had first camped was washed by the surf. Lumber in great piles was strewn all along the water-front, and there were general loot and consequent drunkenness. The saying that the "Bering Sea is the graveyard of the Pacific" seemed verified. Certainly it was the most destructiveand long-continued storm within my knowledge.
It was during this waiting period that we quite unexpectedly ran across V—— and R——. They had, it seemed, gone northwest in their boat for about thirty miles and tried the beach, with but little success. Then, having, as they believed, good information as to the rich strike which had been made at Bristol Bay, five or six hundred miles to the south, they had joined a party and gone thither in the small sailing-schooner which now lay high and dry upon the beach. Caught by storms either way, their experiences were of the hair-raising order, and it was only through the great skill and coolness of the captain and the mate that they were there to tell the tale. Bristol Bay had proved to be a fake, so far as goldwas concerned. But V—— said that the streams were simply red with salmon, and that they found many walruses dead upon the shore, which probably, wounded by the natives, had come there to die. He brought to us a splendid pair of their ivory tusks, in which I have a special pride. Although he plainly showed the effects of his hardships, his cheerful spirit was unbroken, although the thought of having to return unsuccessful, but with hardly a fair trial, hurt his sense of pride. We told him of the Council City country, and it was suggested that he go back and winter with C——, which proposition was quickly accepted.
We dined once for experiment at the Café de Paris, a very clean and dainty-looking restaurant, quite incongruous with its surroundings. This was frequentedby some of the French "counts," German "barons," and persons "representing capital in the East," for all sorts and conditions were to be met at this motley Nome. Really, our general apparel was quite out of place. The proprietor seemed the gentleman. He said that he came from New York, and that his chef was from the Café Martin. When we remarked that we had eaten at the Café Martin, with a French gesture of delight, he exclaimed, "Zen zere ees nussing more to be said!" Most of the things were very good, but we ordered beefsteak, about which we used to talk at Council. That portion of the menu was very well disguised. As an Alaskan friend of mine once remarked on a similar occasion, it was "so tough that you couldn't stick a fork in the gravy."
On September 17 the storm finally abated, and, after an earnest "good-by and good luck" to C——, my brother and I were rowed out to the big shipTacoma. We left many behind who would have given their eye-teeth to be in our boots. It seemed almost too good to be true that we should be upon that stanch vessel, in good health, and with the near prospect of enjoying the delights of a home-coming. As is frequently the case when one has been counting the days which are to lead up to an anticipated pleasure, a certain apprehension that some mishap might occur to delay departure had been felt by us during these last days in Alaska. TheTacoma, which before the Nome excitement had been engaged in the China trade, was officered by Scotsmen and Englishmen and manned byChinamen. Big and steady, with roomy decks, she was crowded to the limit of her passenger accommodations. Though the majority of the passengers had been unsuccessful, the fact of going home made all light-hearted and good-natured.
One of the first persons I saw was our Pullman porter friend, who greeted us grinning and deferentially, though we were still in that wholesome atmosphere where all men meet on equal terms and no one is better than the other until he proves it so. He said that he had been lucky in getting hold of a claim, and drew from his pocket a good-sized bottle pretty well filled with gold-dust. I learned further that he would "railroad" during the winter and return in the spring to Nome, having left behind a "good partner" whom he had so tied up that itwould be impossible to be defrauded! I was flattered to know that on the occasion of his getting into a "jack-pot" (some trouble) he had hunted Nome after me for legal advice. He had many opportunities to get into "trouble" during the voyage home, as he gambled all the time.
Another acquaintance discovered on the ship was the little German pioneer "Captain Cook." We found him unkempt and disheveled, Rip Van Winkle-like, an object of commiseration, seated where he had been led. The old fellow was a very sick man, with dropsy. Quite friendless, he was unconscious of his surroundings, and looked up in a dazed, hopeless way when spoken to. It seemed as if he might not return alive to that "leetle wife in Kansas City." But later, he was taken out upon the deck andseated in the sun, which did him good; for one day as I passed he recognized me with a bright look, and inquired for my "brudder." It is to be hoped that this old man, who patiently had endured so much, safely reached his home with his gold, and received the welcome he deserved.
With bright, sunny weather after the storm, theTacoma, not stopping to coal at Dutch Harbor, steamed through Unimak Pass, and, now in the Pacific, headed for Seattle over calm seas. Spending one beautiful day skirting the shore of picturesque Vancouver Island, and passing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca into that incomparable inland body of water, Puget Sound, theTacomareached Seattle on September 27, after a voyage of ten days. Thence to San Francisco we journeyedby rail over the majestic route which traverses the base of Mount Shasta.
Immediately upon arriving in San Francisco the papers were delivered to the lawyers. The day following, the Circuit Court of Appeals, with great astonishment, learned in what respect its mandates had been held; and, shortly afterward, two deputy United States marshals were despatched to Nome on one of the last vessels sailing for that port. Thwarting the ring by reaching Nome before the ice had closed communication with the outside world, they duly arrested the receiver and brought him before the court in San Francisco whose orders he had deliberately defied. Knight has since told me of his exciting night escape from Nome in a launch, and of his being picked up at sea by a steamer, as prearranged;for, fearful of the damaging evidence which he had accumulated, the ring did its utmost to keep him from getting away, employing as a means to this end the pretext "contempt of court"!
The trial of the contempt cases at San Francisco was long and hard-fought by both sides. McKenzie has had an array of able champions at every stage of the proceedings. Application to the United States Supreme Court was made in his behalf to oust the Circuit Court of Appeals of its jurisdiction to try these cases, but the application was denied.
On the eleventh day of February, 1901, the Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco filed its opinion and judgment in these contempt cases. The long and able opinion delivered by Judge Ross covers the entire history of the WildGoose litigation, and incidentally refers to Mr. McKenzie's relations with the Alaska Gold Mining Company. After referring to and commenting upon the various proceedings, which are summarized as "this shocking record," and disposing of the technical points raised by the receiver's counsel, the Court say:
"The circumstances attending the appointment of the receiver in these cases, however, and his conduct after as well as before the appointment, as shown by the record and evidence, so far from impressing us with the sincerity of the pretension that his refusal to obey the writs issued out of this court was based upon the advice of his counsel that they were void, satisfy us that it was intentional and deliberate, and in furtherance of the high-handed and grossly illegal proceedingsinitiated almost as soon as Judge Noyes and McKenzie had set foot on Alaskan territory at Nome, and which may be safely said to have no parallel in the jurisprudence of this country. And it speaks well for the good, sober sense of the people gathered on that remote and barren shore that they depended solely upon the courts for the correction of the wrongs thus perpetrated among and against them, which always may be depended upon to right, sooner or later, wrongs properly brought before them." It is then adjudged that the receiver did commit contempts of court, and that for the said contempts he be imprisoned in the county jail of the county of Alameda, California, for the period of one year. In conclusion, "the marshal will execute this judgment forthwith."
In view of this deliberate adjudication and severe arraignment by a federal court of rank next to the highest tribunal of the United States, and considering also the earnest efforts made at Washington and the demands of the Pacific coast newspapers for the removal of the weak and unscrupulous judge who had manifestly served as the tool of Alexander McKenzie, his recently dethroned receiver, it was natural to suppose that effective measures would at once be taken to rectify so great an error as his appointment had proved to be. But, strange to say, this reasonable expectation was not verified.
In the United States Senate, on the 26th of February, 1901, an attempt was made to exonerate Messrs. McKenzie and Noyes. Senator Hansbrough of NorthDakota characterized the former as "in every respect an honorable and responsible man," and read a letter which he had received from Judge Noyes, in which the latter elaborately declaims how honest and upright he is and always has been. Senator Pettigrew of South Dakota championed McKenzie as a man of "character," and eulogized Noyes as "the peer of any man who sits upon the bench in any State or Territory in the Union." But Senator Stewart gave the whole affair a very thorough airing, and caused to be printed in the "Congressional Record" the complete history of the receivership proceedings above set forth, together with the opinion and judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals.
One of the last official acts of Attorney-General Griggs was the preparation andtransmission of charges against Judge Noyes, which reached their destination in June, 1901; and as only a reply with explanations was required, Noyes had a lease of official life during the mining season of 1901. His answer to the charges preferred against him was in the nature of a general denial, and a justification of his conduct in every respect.
Despite, however, its various handicaps, the Nome country, it is estimated, yielded in the year 1900 between five and six million dollars in gold—almost as much as was paid to Russia for Alaska in 1867.
Thus far no well-defined quartz ledges have been discovered, but it is not impossible that such may yet be found. Once on a steady basis, it will from year to year, like the Klondike, increase its output until, finally deprived of its onlyattraction and drained of its sole asset, it shall again assume the dreary, uninhabited state in which it was discovered.
Lieutenant Jarvis estimates that, in addition to the two thousand who wintered there, eighteen thousand people were at Nome in the summer of 1900. Probably six thousand remained in the country throughout the following winter, well provided for, as the government at the close of the mining season transported the remaining needy and destitute.
Before communication with the outside world closed with the freezing of the sea, about the 1st of November, C—— got out a letter which informed me of his safe arrival at Council and his settling down in the new quarters. It seems that not enough was found of theMush-onat Chenik to make a toothpick. At ameeting of the "city fathers" at Council the nomination for president of the Town-site Organization had been extended to C——, which he said he had at first declined with becoming modesty; but, finally, under pressure, and as a "public duty," he had graciously yielded and been duly elected. This news of my partner's accession to so high a dignity rather led me to indulge an expectation that, upon my return, I might be received with civic honors.
PART II1901