Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1899 — ALASKAN GOLD FIELDS. [ARTICLE]

ALASKAN GOLD FIELDS.

An Interview With a Returned Prospector—Lots of Qold There But Requires Patience to Dig It Out. The writer enjoyed a pleasant chat the other day with Geo. R. Sapp of Goodland, who recently returned from a two years “cruise” in the Alaskan gold fields. Mr. Sapp and The Democrat editor are old friends, and while in the city the first of the week he made us a friendly call and in response to out inquiries recounted many interesting features of his experience in his search for the delusive metal in the wilds of the lately discovered gold fields of the far north. George left Seattle about two years ago with a party of fourteen, in a ship owned by the party, carrying all the necessary paraphernalia for successfully prosecuting the search for gold, and carrying about thirty tons of supplies. When about three weeks out a severe storm overtook them and the ship was wrecked on the coast of Vancouver Island and everything was lost. The others of the party soon became disheartened after reaching the gold country, and returned to civilization. With indomitable perseverance George continued the quest for riches and prospected over thousands of miles of territory, not returning until October of this year. His experiences would fill a book, and, while not securing any great amount of the precious stuff, he has a number of claims staked in different parts of the country and expects to return again in the spring to look after his mining interests, and will hereafter spend the summers there. He says the whole country is full of gold, and in all his prospecting, covering a large area of territory, he had never washed any “dirt” that did not contain some gold. In many instances, of course, the “find” was hardly worth working, while in others a few thousand dollars worth would be taken out in a week. Most of the prospectors go there with erroneous ideas and become heartily disgusted and homesick if they do not pick up a a fortune in a very short timfe, and are almost continually on the move, instead of buckling down to business for a year or two and securing a comfortable pile by degrees. George had seen men secure grain sacks before leaving Seattle, to “bring their gold back in,” not knowing that a small sack of the metal would make them richer than they had ever dreamed of.

Conditions have improved much since the “grand rush” to the new “Eldorado,” but prices for provisions would still be considered a little steep by people here. For more than a year, George said, he had tasted no potatoes, but finally going down to the coast one day he found a scow load had just come in. The owner had sold none of them yet and didn’t know what they were worth, but George finally bargained for a 118 pound sack of the tubers at twenty-five cents per pound. Others came up and bought so fast at this price that the seller became alarmed and advanced the price to forty cents per pound. And the rest of them went like hot cakes at that figure. George paid a man $25 to transport the precious sack of potatoes and a sack of flour 35 miles, and finally got them into camp, where they were doled out at stated intervals at the meals of himself and comrades, being one of the luxuries of the camp’s cuisine. Many deaths have occurred in the gold fields from scurvy, caused by a continued diet of half-cooked food prepared by the inexperienced men cooks, but George, being well up in the culinary art, had no difficulty of this kind, and his “table” was the envy of the camps. He says that the rigorous climate agreed w ith him and that he is enjoying better health than for some years, a statement borne out by his i rugged appearance. He showed us a handful of nug-1 gets in their natural state as taken i from gold fields in different parts j of the territory, it all being what: is termed coarse gold, secured from placer mining. Our best wishes go with George in his future mining operatins in the great Alaskan gold fields.