Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1900 — GOLDEN SAND ANDMUD [ARTICLE]

GOLDEN SAND ANDMUD

CAPE NOME MAY YET RIVAL JOHANNESBURG. Millions Will Be Made Out of Tundra Sand Large Investments that Will Boom the Settlement Big Exodus Expected in the Spring. Information received in Washington from Alaska through trustworthy channels is to the effect that Cape Nome alone will next year astonish the world with its gold output. If half the reports that have reached the Treasury Department in official form be true Cape Norns is to be the richest mining camp tias world ever saw. All along a beach thirty miles in extent gold can be washed out of the sands of the sea at the rate of from $5 to $8 a pan. Not only are the sands of the sea bright with gold, but the alluvial deposits of the great plateau, running back several miles to the foot hills, are. rich in gold wherever they have been touched —rich from tile roots of the grass down to the bed rock eight to fifteen feet below. Every gulch back in the foot hills is as yellow as a New York newspaper. Next year the Cape Nome fields will probably contain a population of 20,000 or 30,000 gold seekers, and the precious metal which they crave is not only there, but easy to get. It is "quick" gold sure enough.

There will evidently be a big rush for the gold fields next spring. Front Tacoma comes the report that every day’s mail is bringing orders for reservations of berths front all points in the East to the larger transportation companies that will have steamers on the Cape Nome route. Some of the transcontinental railroads have likewise reserved blocks of tickets that they may be enabled to sell through tickets from the East to Nome. The first steamer will leave Tacoma May 10. A large amount of capital is being invested this winter in projects which are destined to provide business facilities for Capes Nome and York in the spring. San Francisco and Puget Sound men have organized the Bank of Cape Nome, which will open for business at Nome City in June with $200,000 capital. G. N. Wright, postmaster at Nome City, has raised capital to the amount of $150,000 for the purpose of providing a wharf foe Nome in the spring. Ordinary docks cannot be built, because they would be destroyed when Behring Sea freezes solid in the fall. Late last season the steamer Alpha, of San Francisco, shipped 350 tons of Cape Nome sand in ballast for the purpose of determining by special tests whether it could be made to pay. It was not selected material. The sand was loaded as it was scooped from the surf. Although the entire mass was treated in California, and that some time ago, the secret of the mill returns has been jealously guarded. The fact has reached TacomA in a roundabout way that from 350 tons of sand the sum of nearly $9,000 wv realized, or approximately $25 a ton. It is !i»t known'w hether the treatment was fire or amalgamation, though presumed t<< have been the former. Still more conclusive proof of the value of the timdra top sand or mud. as it is described by Alaskans, has been obtained. Two men recently returned from Alaska brought with them a bottle of the top layer of muddy material found immediately beneath the mass of their tundra claims. Upon drying it showed a sandy consistency. Although it was known to carry colors, no one suspected that it was pay dirt. Within the few days.past a series of laboratory experiments have demonstrated that this so-called tundra mud is very rich, but will require special treatment. The two latest crucible tests yielded $37 atpl $39 in gold to the ton. In eight assays the rapge of gold value returned has been from $32 to $l3O per ton.