Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1915 — PLACER MINING IN HEART OF THE CITY [ARTICLE]

PLACER MINING IN HEART OF THE CITY

Edmonton's Plan to Aid tho Unem* ployed Pans Opt Fairly WellGold Found. Edmonton, Alberta, Can.— The gold mining industry, both placer and quartz, In most instances has been for long so closely associated with the wilderness that the average man instantly conjures up pictures of icebound mountain passes, or glaring sunscorched stretches of desert, when he thinks of it To such places his imagination turns where men daily and hourly must face hardship and danger in order to win the precious metal. Yet in the city of Edmonton, since the outbreak of war, some thirty “grizzlies” have been at work on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. Here within half a block of the city’s main stret, and always with the sound of its traffic in their ears, nearly a hundred men daily shovel and sluice for gold. The bars of the Saskatchewan River in the early days and as late as 1900 were worked. Many prospectors at that time made from three to ten dollars a day. Of late years, however, mining of this kind has been abandoned though a dredge, working the bars of the river is a paying proposition. The river runs directly through the city. Since the outbreak of awr and the possibility of large numbers of men being out of employment, the city council suddenly turned their attention 3 to gold mining, which offered returns right in the heart of the city. Within its gates are today a large number of old mining men. Men who’after going through the Klondike rush, settled here. Most of them are today wealthy and retired. But some half dozen of them offered their services as tutors. A number of “grizzlies” so commonly used in the working of river bars and other placer mining propositions, were constructed and for a while they gave instructions as how to work them. About a hundred men soon went to work. Though the highest daily cleanup so far has been seven dollars, the majority of the workers are making from one to two dollars a day. The workmen are from all classes of society. Old-time sourdoughs work next to new-come English immigrants. Two college students working their way through a nearby university put in their off hours shoveling and panning. An out of work literary man and an out of work actor here are working a claim together. The mining game has always been marked for Its tragic side. The stories of men made suddenly rich overnight by some fortunate strike has been told in a hundred stories; but seldom is the other side mentioned, the story of quick flung away wealth that went almost as rapidly as It came. /

Working slowly, toilfully, with the mark of old age upon him, in this diggings within the heart of the city is at least one man who is a living representative of this sad side of the game. His name is Tim Foley. Ten years ago he sold his third Interest in a quartz mine in northern Ontario for $40,000. Today he toils strenuously on the river bank, his great hope, as he himself expressed IL to clean up three or four dollars a day.