Klondyke Nuggets

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Klondyke Nuggets

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Title: Klondyke Nuggets A Brief Description of the Great Gold
Regions in the Northwest
Author: Joseph Ladue
Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10043]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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KLONDYKE NUGGETS
A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the Northwest

Territories and Alaska
BY
JOSEPH LADUE
Founder of Dawson City, N.W.T.
Explorer, Miner and Prospector
September, 1897

PREFACE.
The extraordinary excitement arising from the reports of the discovery
of Gold in the Klondyke 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, "Klondyke Facts," a
book of 224 pages, with illustrations 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.
* * * * *
KLONDYKE NUGGETS
CHAPTER I.
KLONDYKE.
Klondyke! 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 Klondyke
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 hitherto
never known. The entire country surrounding is teeming with mineral
wealth.

Copper, silver and coal can be found in large quantities, 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 Klondyke 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 Klondyke 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