290 



FOEEST AND STREAM. 



[Mat 13, 1880. 



THE TRUE HISTORY OF ALASKA COLD 

 MINING. 



i - 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



D1PTUKI, riHJU UUWUHL, 1'Hli rtlUl f-.ctlt»« ttE VT. , - 



HON of Forests, aid the Inculcation jn Men an i> Womin ot 

 A HatT. TBT Inteeest D) Out-Door Recreation and Study : 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY13 , 1880. 



To Correspondents. 



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Notes.— Central Park has a new attraction, the tents 

 of the New York Archery Club. 



The description of bow shooting in Northern Minnesota, 

 published elsewhere, will be found entertaining to the 

 general reader, as well as to the archer. 



We shall soon lay before our readers the plan of a fall 

 campaign among the mountains of Virginia, which prom- 

 ises to be an admirable opportunty for sport and sight- 

 seeing combined. 



Northern Michigan will be one of the most popular sec- 

 tions of country visited by sportsmen this summer. "We 

 have again and again referred to its rare attractions for 

 the sportsman tourist, and we are glad to see that these 

 attractions are becoming better known. 



Among those who called at our office during the past 

 week were : Mr. John H. Kimball, Bath, Me., President 

 of the Oquossoc Angling Association ; Mr. George D. 

 Macdougal, of Montreal, Can.; Mr. EC. B. Roney, of East 

 Saginaw, Mich., Secretary of the Michigan State Sports- 

 men's Association ; Capt. C. E. McMurdo, of Elvington, 

 Va.; Mr. John Davidson, Monroe, Mich.; Mr. G. C. Rich- 

 ards, Chelsea, Mass.; Mr. S. T. Hammond, Springfield, 

 Mass. 



If we were to gather a convention of anglers we 

 should take particular pains to insure the attendance of a 

 goodly number of men with Bilvery hair. An angter is 

 always entertaining when discoursing on his favorite 

 pastime, and the older a man is, the richer store has he 

 of memories and reminiscences. If 3 r ou are a young man, 

 and want a companion for your fishing tranip, get the 

 company of some genial old gentleman; then you 

 are sure of having a pleasant time, whether you bring 

 any fish home or not. 



We are in receipt of a series of three articles descriptive 

 of Nepigon trout fishing, the first of which will be pub- 

 lished next week, and the same number will contain 

 also the first of a series of practical articles on black 

 bass fishing, prepared for this journal by Dr. J. A. Hen- 

 shall, who is facile prineeps as an instructor in this 

 branch of angling. With the trout and the black bass 

 we shall not forget King Salmon. In short, the coming 

 numbers of the FOREST AND STREAM will be .of special 

 interest to anglers. 



Sitka, Alaska, Feb. 33d. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



I promised you, in my last, an authentic history of 

 the discovery of gold-bearing ledges in this vicinity, 

 and of operations connected with them. To enable my- 

 self to carry out my promise, I have held interviews 

 with Messrs.. Helstead, Doyle, Mahoney, Haley, Sam. 

 and Alex. Milletich and A. G. Cozian, all of whom have 

 been more or less connected with the enterprise from its 

 inception. I have read and examined records, deeds, 

 contracts and letters, and believe that from the immense 

 mass of information I have obtained, I can, by leaving 

 out all history of disputes, be able to give you the history 

 of the enterprise in condensed form. Each of the above 

 men know more or less, but none know all of the story I 

 shall tell you. All are well-known in this country, and 

 their statements, many of which have been confirmed, 

 are worthy of credit. 



In the beginning, the Russian Fur Company had a con- 

 tract by which they controlled this country, the Russian 

 government retaining the right to take from them the. 

 control of any land in which mineral deposits wore 

 found. This will account for their hostility, if it did 

 exist, as is here asserted, to prospecting in search of 

 minerals, and to any enterprise which would tend to 

 lessen their power or revenues. 



From time to time reports were brought in from the 

 mountains by Indian fur hunters, of marble quarries, 

 and one such quarry was actually found and examined 

 in Nagnashonskay Bay (about fourteen miles from here 

 to the north and west). Very little attention was paid 

 to these rumors. In 1855, the Russian Government sent 

 an engineer officer named Darvehan to examine into the 

 mineralogical resources. He spent two years in Alaska, 

 visiting Kodiak, Cook's Inlet, Cross Sound, Peril Straits, 

 Whale Bay, and most of the Aleutian Islands. 



While in Sitka his time was principally employed, so 

 say my informants, and from my experience with what 

 is left of Sitka I can readily believe them, in the more 

 agreeable pastimes of dancing and feasting, and very 

 little was given up to prospecting. He never visited the 

 range of mountains on which are situated nearly all of 

 the ledges which have since been discovered. His report 

 on the mineralogical resources was unfavorable, and 

 from that date, 1858, to the date of transfer, 1868. noth- 

 ing was done. The Russian Governor kept strict disci- 

 pline, and no person was permitted to go into the interior. 

 Mr. Helstead, a Swedish engineer, who is now employed 

 running the Stuart mill, is my informant up to this point. 

 He says that the Russian engineer, while prospecting the 

 mouth of a creek which empties into a bay, which is now 

 known as " Silver Bay," found some pieces of detached 

 quartz known as " float," but did not prosecute the search 

 for their origin. 



In 1871 a soldier named Doyle discovered the first ledge 

 of quartz known to exist in this vicinity. Mr. Sam, 

 Milletich, a saloon-keeper, having heard the various 

 rumors as to the existence of marble mines in the moun- 

 tains, which, brought in by Indians, were more or less 

 prevalent among the Russians, and passed on to be camp 

 gossip among the soldiers, and knowing also of the indi- 

 cations found at head of Silver Bay, in the shape of 

 " float," employed Doyle, a discharged soldier, to go on a 

 prospecting trip. Doyle landed on the south side of Sil- 

 ver Bay, and on Round Mountain discovered a stringer 

 of quartz. Subsequently, in the same employ, Doyle 

 prospected Indian River, a creek about a mile to the 

 eastward of Sitka, and found on its east bank a stringer 

 of auriferous quartz, which Milletich undertook to de- 

 velop, but it proving very narrow, and not rich, very 

 little work was done, 



Early in the spring of 1873, Messrs. Doyle and Frank 

 Mahoney, both of whom are now here, and have fur- 

 nished me with the information, resolved to prospect the 

 creek which empties into Silver Bay. Fitted with pans 

 and otherwise for placer work, they did so. Following 

 up the creek to where it forked, about half a mile from 

 the bay, they took the western branch, and washed out 

 many pansful of the debris found in the crevices of 

 the bed rock, finding in nearly all of the pans a very 

 small quantity of free gold ; not enough to pay. Coin- 

 ing down the Btream, they discovered on the eastern 

 branch the outcropping of a quartz ledge, which is now 

 recorded as the "Haley and Milletich." They were unpro- 

 vided with tools to break into it to any extent, and con- 

 tented themselves with washing out " over a hundred 

 pansful" of the adjacent soil, finding no gold. The 

 ledge was composed of white and barren-looking quartz, 

 and they concluded that it was of no value. They pro- 

 cured, however, a few pieces of rock and returned with 

 them to Sitka. The rock was not assayed and they lost 

 track of it, but 1 have been able to trace its disposition. 

 This rock started Nicholas Haley. 



A history of the progress of mining'aff airs in this vicin- 

 ity becomes, to a certain extent, from this point an 

 autobiography of Nicholas Haley, the soldier, prospector 

 and min er, who lias done more than all others toward 

 developing the resources. In June, 1873, Haley, then a 



United States soldier, arrived at Sitka. Soon after ar- 

 rivalhesaw the rock brought in by Messrs. Doyle and 

 Mahony, which was lying in the saloon of Mr. Sam. Mille- 

 tich. He having had considerable experience in quartz 

 mining, detected at once certain indications in the ap- 

 parently barren white quartz which led him to believe 

 that the rook was gold-bearing. Here and there were 

 Specks of black sulphurets, which contained specks of 

 gold, so small, however, as to hardly attract attention. 

 The specimen marked No. 1 in the collection I send you 

 is of this character, and with a magnifier you will detect 

 the gold. 



Ascertaining from Doyle the approximate locality, he, 

 accompanied by two of the officers of the post and a 

 soldier named Ingard, started on a prospecting tout. The 

 two officers camped at the head of Silver Bay ; the two 

 soldiers went on up the mountains — no easy task without 

 a trail, as I judge by my own experience over what is 

 considered a good one, since built. On his way to the 

 " Haley & Milletich Ledge" he discovered, lower down the 

 ravine, another, now known as ''Bear Ledge," from an 

 adventure of his with a large bear in the vicinity, (lining 

 which, although he killed the bear, he got badly mauled. 

 After thoroughly examining the vein, then known as the 

 "Upper Ledge," he returned to the head of Silver Bay 

 next day, and reported that in his judgment it was valu- 

 able. The party returned to Sitka without further 

 work. 



In the foil owing December, Haley, with the same soldier 

 and a working party of Creoles, again visited the ledges, 

 having been fitted out by the officers, who thus acquired 

 what is termed in miners' parlance a " grub stake" in his 

 finds. Having a ten days' leave of absence, nine were 

 devoted to clearing away the trees and turf, and exposing 

 the surface of the lsdge, which proved to be "about 

 eleven feet wide, between well-defined slate walls, trend- 

 ing northwest and southeast, and having near its center 

 a seam of iron sulphurets about a foot wide." On the 

 ninth day the first blast ever made in Alaska quartz was 

 exploded, and from the rock thrown out and broken up 

 by it about sixty dollars' worth of free gold was ob- 

 tained. 



Returning to Sitka on the tenth day, the sight of the 

 gold convinced the officers that they had struck a good 

 thing, and two or three days after they, with Haley, went 

 to the ledge, and posted the necessary notices of cla lining. 

 On return to the post a company was at once organized, 

 composed of United States army officers and Halej-, and 

 the latter, with a working party, returned to the ledge to 

 develop it. 



On Christmas Day, 1872, Haley with a companion went 

 prospecting, and about a. quarter mile higher up the cation 

 discovered another quarte ledge. Haley having his name 

 on the ledge below, and not certain but that the newly 

 found one might be an extension, posted a notice in the 

 name of his companion, a soldier named Ingard, claiming 

 the ledge. 



In the spring of 1873, Ingard having gone East and 

 abandoned his claim, Haley assumed possession, and in- 

 formed Major Stewart of the find and its location, ami 

 with Haley's consent Major S. took the necessary steps 

 to claim the ledge in his own name, which it now bears, 

 and an extension was at the same time claimed by Messrs, 

 II. Clay Wood and Alexander Milletich, and the vat inns 

 claimants and parties interested, viz., Messrs. Stewart, 

 Haley, Milletich, Cozian, Mahoney aud Prince, organized 

 a company to develop the mine ; their copartnership deed 

 dated May, 1873. Thus, in 1873 two companies, own- 

 ing two mines, °xistod, both formed of citizens 

 of Sitka and army officers. And up to this date 

 it is very positive that no "attempts had been made to 

 float worthless stock." The owners, ail men in moderate 

 circumstances, put in what they could afford to examine 

 nto the value of their property. 



During 1873 the officers interested in the Lower Ledge 

 having gone East, and abandoned their claim, it was 

 left with Haley as sole owner, and Mr. Samuel Milletich 

 bought in a eociwnership with him. After various vicissi- 

 tudes this ledge was in 1877 sold to a San Francisco firm, 

 who organized a company called the "Barranofi" Island 

 Gold and Silver Mining Company. Capital, one million 

 dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each, " Haley 

 and Milletich receiving one-third of the stock. 



Undoubtedly the operations based upon this ledge are 

 those which have drawn forth the animadversions of 

 Prof .^Elliott. As usual, when I differ from him, it is only 

 in degree ; his assertions are well founded for about three- 

 quarters of their strength, but they are too sweeping. The 

 stock is not "worthless," for the ledge is undoubtedly 

 auriferous, and of considerable extent, no one knows how 

 great, and a shaft which is down sixty feet is in good ore 

 all the way, as I know from personal inspection; but I 

 shouldn't like to invest in the stock while the capital re- 

 tains its present dimensions, which are enormously dis- 

 proportionate to the present developments, I will say that 

 I think that at a more moderate price, and in the hands 

 of parties capable of developing and desirous to develop 

 the mine, it could be made to pay. It is easy of access, 

 and o situated that fuel and water are very plentiful and 

 c nvenient. 



