Golden Alaska Part 3

THE METHODS OF PLACER MINING

in the Klondike region and elsewhere along the Yukon are different from those pursued elsewhere, owing to the fact that from a point about three feet below the surface the ground is permanently frozen. The early men tried to strip off the gravel down to the gold lying in its lower levels or beneath it, upon the bed rock, and found it exceedingly slow and laborious work; moreover, it was only during the short summer that any work could be done. Now, by the aid of fires they sink shafts and then tunnel along the bed rock where the gold lies. A returned miner described the process as follows, pointing out the great advantage of being able to work under ground during the winter:

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLACER MINE, CLAIM No. 3, ON MILLER CREEK.]

"The miners build fires over the area where they wish to work and keep these lighted over that territory for the s.p.a.ce of twenty-four hours.

Then the gravel will be melted and softened to a depth of perhaps six inches. This is then taken off and other fires are built until the gold bearing layer is reached. When the shaft is down that far other fires are built at the bottom, against the sides of the layer and tunnels made in the same manner. Blasting will do no good, the charge not cracking off but blowing out of the hole. The matter taken out, and containing the gold is piled up until spring, when the torrents come down, and is panned and cradled by these. It is certainly very hard labor."

Another quotation may be given as a practical example of this process:

"The gold so far as has been taken from Bonanza and Eldorado, both well named, for the richness of the placers are truly marvelous. Eldorado, thirty miles long, is staked the whole length and as far as worked has paid.

"One of our pa.s.sengers, who is taking home $100,000 with him, has worked one hundred feet of his ground and refused $200,000 for the remainder, and confidently expects to clean up $400,000 and more. He has in a bottle $212 from one pan of dirt. His pay dirt while being washed averaged $250 an hour to each man shoveling in. Two others of our miners who worked their own claim cleaned up $6,000 from one day's washing.

"There is about fifteen feet of dirt above bed rock, the pay streak averaging from four to six feet, which is tunnelled out while the ground is frozen. Of course, the ground taken out is thawed by building fires, and when the thaw comes and water rushes in they set their sluices and wash the dirt. Two of our fellows thought a small bird in the hand worth a large one in the bush, and sold their claims for $45,000, getting $4,500 down, and the remainder to be paid in monthly installments of $10,000 each. The purchasers had no more than $5,000 paid. They were twenty days thawing and getting out dirt. Then there was no water to sluice with, but one fellow made a rocker, and in ten days took out the $10,000 for the first installment. So, tunnelling and rocking, they took out $40,000 before there was water to sluice with."

LEGAL ASPECT OF ALASKA.

Commissioner Hermann, of the General Land Office, has announced that the following laws of the United States extend over Alaska, where the general land laws do not apply:

First--The mineral land laws of the United States.

Second--Town-site laws, which provide for the incorporation of town-sites and acquirement of t.i.tle thereto from the United States Government by the town-site trustees.

Third--The laws providing for trade and manufactures, giving each qualified person 160 acres of land in a square and compact form.

The coal land regulations are distinct from the mineral regulations or laws, and as in the case of the general land laws Alaska is expressly exempt from this jurisdiction.

On the part of Canada, however, the provisions of the Real Property act of the Northwest Territories will be extended to the Yukon country by an order in council, a register will be appointed, and a land t.i.tle office will be established.

The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil government for Alaska, has this language as to mines and mining privileges:

"The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on and after the pa.s.sage of this act, be in full force and effect in said district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the President," and "parties who have located mines or mining privileges therein, under the United States laws applicable to the public domain, or have occupied or improved or exercised acts of ownership over such claims, shall not be disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect t.i.tle by payment so provided for."

There is still more general authority. Without the special authority, the act of July 4, 1866, says: "All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and lands in which these are found to occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States and by those who have declared an intention to become such, under the rules prescribed by law and according to local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States."

The patenting of mineral lands in Alaska is not a new thing, for that work has been going on, as the cases have come in from time to time, since 1884.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POINT AND BEACH AT METLAKAHTLA.]

One of the difficulties that local capitalists find in their negotiations for purchase of mining properties on the Yukon is the lack of authenticated records of owners of claims. Different practices prevail on the two sides of the line and cause more or less confusion.

The practice has been at most of the new camps to call a miners' meeting at which one of the parties was elected recorder, and he proceeded to enter the bearings of stakes and natural marks to define claims.

Sometimes the recorder would give a receipt for a fee allowed by common consent for recording, and also keep a copy for future reference, but in a majority of cases even this formality was dispensed with, and the only record kept was the rough minutes made at the time.

On the Canadian side a different state of affairs exists. The Dominion Government has sent a commissioner who is empowered to report officially all claims, and while no certificate is issued to the owners thereof, properties are thoroughly defined and their metes and bounds established. The commissioner in the Klondike district, whose name is Constantine, also exercises semi-judicial functions, and settles disputes to the best of his ability, appeal lying to the Ottawa Government.

As to courts and the execution of civil and criminal law generally, none were existent in the upper Yukon Valley on the American side of the line during 1897. The nearest United States judge was at Sitka. At Circle City and other centers of population the people had organized into a sort of town-meeting for the few public matters required; and a sort of vigilance committee took the place of const.i.tuted authority and police.

As a matter of fact, however, the people were quiet and law-abiding and little need for the machinery of law is likely to arise before courts, etc., are set up. A movement toward sending a garrison of United States troops thither was vetoed by the War Department.

Canada, however, awoke to the realization that her interests were in jeopardy, and took early steps to profit by the wealth which had been discovered within her borders and the international business that resulted. The natural feeling among the Canadians was, and is, that the property belongs to the Canadian public, and that no good reason exists why the mineral and other wealth should be exhausted at once, mainly by outsiders, as has largely happened in the case of Canada's forests. A prohibitory policy was urged by some, but this seemed neither wise nor practicable; and the Dominion Government set at work to save as large a share as it could. As there are gold fields on the Alaska side of the line, and the approaches lie through United States territory, a spirit of reciprocal accommodation was necessary. One difficulty has been averted last spring by President Cleveland's veto of the Immigration bill, one provision of which would have prevented Canadian laborers drawing wages in this country, and probably would have provoked a retaliatory act.

Canada has already placed customs officers on the pa.s.ses and at the Yukon crossing of the boundary to collect customs duties not only on merchandise but on miner's personal outfits. There is practically no exception, and the duty comes below 20 per cent. on but few articles. On most of the goods the duty is from 30 to 35 per cent., and in several instances higher, but the matter may be very simply adjusted by purchasing tools and outfits in Victoria or Vancouver, for thus far the United States has placed no corresponding obstruction in the way of Canadian travellers to the gold-fields, but, on the contrary, has made Dyea a sub-port of entry, largely to accommodate British transportation lines. The Canadian Government is represented in that region now only by customs officers and 20 mounted police, but it is taking steps to garrison the whole upper Yukon Valley with its mounted police,--a body of officers, whose functions are half military, half civil, and which, it may as well be conceded once for all, cannot be trifled with. There is no question but that they will do their level best to enforce the laws to the utmost. The commander of each detachment will be const.i.tuted a magistrate of limited powers, so that civil examinations and trials may be speedily conducted.

The plan is to erect a strong post a short distance north of the sixtieth degree of lat.i.tude, just above the northern boundary of British Columbia, and beyond the head of the Lynn Ca.n.a.l, where the Chilkoot Pa.s.s and the White Pa.s.s converge. This post will command the southern entrance to the whole of that territory. Further on small police posts will be established, about fifty miles apart, down to Fort Selkirk, while another general post will patrol the river near the international boundary, with headquarters, probably, in the Klondike valley.

The mining regulations of Canada, applying to the Yukon placer claims, are as follows:

"Bar diggings" shall mean any part of a river over which water extends when the water is in its flooded state and which is not covered at low water. "Mines on benches" shall be known as bench diggings, and shall for the purpose of defining the size of such claims be excepted from dry diggings. "Dry diggings" shall mean any mine over which a river never extends. "Miner" shall mean a male or female over the age of eighteen, but not under that age. "Claims" shall mean the personal right of property in a placer mine or diggings during the time for which the grant of such mine or diggings is made. "Legal post" shall mean a stake standing not less than four feet above the ground and squared on four sides for at least one foot from the top. "Close season" shall mean the period of the year during which placer mining is generally suspended.

The period to be fixed by the gold commissioner in whose district the claim is situated. "Locality" shall mean the territory along a river (tributary of the Yukon) and its affluents. "Mineral" shall include all minerals whatsoever other than coal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORT WRANGELL.]

1. Bar diggings. A strip of land 100 feet wide at highwater mark and thence extending along the river to its lowest water level.

2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high water mark; also one at each end of the claim at or about the edge of the water. One of the posts shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim is staked.

3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and shall have placed at each of its four corners a legal post, upon one of which shall be legibly marked the name of the miner and the date upon the claim was staked.

4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long, measured in the direction of the mineral course of the stream, and shall extend in width from base to base of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts at or about the edge of the water and at the rear boundary of the claim. One of the legal posts at the stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim was staked.

5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square.

6. In defining the size of claims they shall be measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on the surface of the ground.

7. If any person or persons shall discover a new mine and such discovery shall be established to the satisfaction of the gold commissioner, a claim for the bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted. A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality shall have previously been worked at a different level.

8. The forms of application for a grant for placer mining and the grant of the same shall be according to those made, provided or supplied by the gold commissioner.

9. A claim shall be recorded with the gold commissioner in whose district it is situated within three days after the location thereof if it is located within ten miles of the commissioner's office. One day extra shall be allowed for making such record for every additional ten miles and fraction thereof.

10. In the event of the absence of the gold commissioner from his office for entry a claim may be granted by any person whom he may appoint to perform his duties in his absence.

11. Entry shall not be granted for a claim which has not been staked by the applicant in person in the manner specified in these resolutions. An affidavit that the claim was staked out by the applicant shall be embodied in the application.

12. An entry fee of $15 shall be charged the first year and an annual fee of $100 for each of the following years.

13. After recording a claim the removal of any post by the holder thereof or any person acting in his behalf for the purpose of changing the boundaries of his claim shall act as a forfeiture of the claim.

14. The entry of every holder for a grant for placer mining must be renewed and his receipt relinquished and replaced every year, the entry fee being paid each year.

15. No miner shall receive a grant for more than one mining claim in the same locality; but the same miner may hold any number of claims by purchase, and any number of miners may unite to work their claims in common upon such terms as they may arrange, provided such agreement be registered with the Gold Commissioner and a fee of $15 for each registration.

16. And miner may sell, mortgage, or dispose of his claims, provided such disposal be registered with and a fee of $5 paid to the Gold Commissioner.