Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1897 — FAIL TO REACH YUKON [ARTICLE]

FAIL TO REACH YUKON

SIXTY FORTUNE-HUNTERS RETURN FROM DYEA. Bring Disconraging Reports of the Condition of Affairs on the Trails Over the Divide—Company to Ship Dogs to Alaska. New Route Into Alaska. Sixty fortune-hunters who were engaged in an ineffectual attempt to cress the divide from Dyea and Skaguay into the Yukon gold fields via the White and Chilkoot passes returned to Seattle on the steamships Rosalie and Willamette. They report a distressing state of affairs along the trails. Less than 1,000 of the 7,000 persons who sought to go over these routes have been successful. Among the Rosalie's passengers was Sylvester Score].’ He left his wife encamped at Like Lindeman. In a few days Mr. Scovel, who, with the assistance of a New York paper, has been assisting the miners to put the trail in better condition, will return to Skaguay and push on to Dawson City. His mission back, he says, is to confer with his paper relative to matters of a private nature. Mr. Scovel is of the opinion that ihe Skaguay trail can never be made a practicable route. It is now in such a condition that possibly 2,000 persons will get across, but not in advance of the freezeup of the Yukon. They will endeavor to pass the winter on the lakes, so as to make a rush for the Klondike district as early as po-sible in the spring. The heavier outfits are going over the White pass, the total cost of packing being about 00 cents a pound. Horses which were so valuable for packing purposes, the returning gold-seekers report, have come to be a drug on the market. Many are dying from starvation, their owners refusing to buy feed at the exorbitant prices. Seek Gold in Copper River. One of the most interesting expeditions that have yet gone to the gold fields of Alaska or the Northwest territory left Tort Townsend last week in a twentyton schooner called the Janus, headed direct for the Copper River country. The party is in charge of a man named George J. Rinnacks, who has spent all of five years in the Copper River country and has broughi/Siit large sums of money at differnt times, aggregating fully $200,000. The other members of the expedition are mostly Californians. The party is incorporated as the “Oakland Mining and Trading Company” and starts out under a copartnership agreement .that binds them to remain together for two years. Their schooner was purchased at a cost of $1,500, and they put on board $2,000 worth of provisions and supplies. In addition to this each man is supplied with two .repeating rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition; also two revolvers. The schooner Janus is headed direct for Port Hidalgo lagoon, which is a new route for entering Alaska, the Janus party being the first to go in this way. A landing will be made at a point called Turnigar, at the head of the lagoon, a place where no boat has yet landed, and which in reality has no official name. In order to reach this lagoon it is necessary to sail through the narrow passage between Seal rocks and Cape Hinchtimbrook—a dangerous undertaking, on account of the shoals and treacherous currents. This passage leads into Prince 'William sound, with open-sea sailing until Snug Corner cove is reached, when another narrow body of water must be sailed through, with Bligh's island on the left. Here the lagoon is entered and rhe journey to Turnigar is continued. This lagoon is a narrow neck of. water, at places very shallow, which makes it difficult of navigation. - The Janus party expects to reach Turnigar within thirty days. On the way north the schooner will call at Juneau and Sitka to take on board thirty dogs that will be used to transport the supplies overland from Tiirnigar to the Copper River, which will be reached at a point just above Beaver River. From this place the general direction of the river will be followed northward, and it will be crossed three times, the final destination of the expedition being Tonsina creek. Six members of the party will be left on Tonsina creek, where Rinnack’s partner, Michael O’Donnell, is now holding their claims and doing some work, and the others will be sent eastward to a tributary of the White River, where it is claimed that location can be made that will not only rival but surpass the famous Klondike. Copper River Indians. Van Burin, a second partner of Rinnacks’, says the Indians found near the mouth of Copper River are perfectly harmless, but those found a little farther up are quarrelsome and aggressive. He claims that the scheme to send an armed force of miners to the Copper River for the purpose of driving out the Indians is impracticable. The Indians, he says, are themselves well armed, to begin" with and are good shots,. They occupy such formdable positions in the deep gorges and ravines through which tfie Copper River runs that they could slay an army of white men, no matter how well armed, by rolling rocks arid bowlders down on their heads from above in any One of a half-dozen passes that must be gone through in going up the river. “The largest strikes made by my partner. O’Donnell, and myself, said Mr. R;nnacks, “were in placer diggings on Teikhell river, Alta ereek, Beaver river and Tonsina creek. The largest clean-up made in one day was at Tonsina crock, when $3,100 was washed out. One pan yielded $3lO. I do not care to state how much we have taken out of the Copper river country altogether. You can put it down at $200,000. I have with me here papers and receipts showing that it was at least that much.”