Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1901 — KLONDIKE PLOT IS BALKED. [ARTICLE]

KLONDIKE PLOT IS BALKED.

Alaskan Officials Foil Miners’ Plan to Form Republic. Of all the wild dreams of empire since the days of Louis Riel that concocted by a little band of plotters scattered mlong the valley of the Yukon from the upper lakes to Circle City is probably the most fantastic yet recorded. The story has been made public of the exposure of the conspiracy at Skaguay and of hurried measures that were taken by both Canadian and American officials to thwart the scheme of the plotters to make of the Yukon and Northwest territory a republic. The organizatoin was formed in December, 1900, at Dawson. Its headquarters for months last summer were at Skaguay. It was called the Order of the Midnight Sun. Its members, 1,500 in number, took a hair-rais-ing oath to reveal none of its secrets. Death was the penalty for violation of dlls oath. The plot might have succeeded temporarily as did Riel when he Invaded the Northwest territory with a band of halfbreeds. But the leaders of the conspiracy lacked the requisite nerve. Some one “leaked” and the organization, it is believed, will disappear quietly and completely