i 10 The National Geographic Magazine 



The Tanana Gold Fields 



Photo by Sidney Paige 



then Seattle and all that goes with it, 

 and broke in a short six months. 



The hospitality of the old Alaskan 

 pioneer is proverbial, and in the Fair- 

 banks camp there is many a proof of it. 

 When noontime and a stranger come 

 about the same time the result is a 

 stranger before a full table heaped with 

 all that money and a generous hand can 

 procure in that far-away land ; and even 

 if the miner's ground happens to fall 

 where the bed rock was smooth and the 

 pay had slipped to the claim below and 

 his shelf showed but few fresh cans of 

 "carnation cream," the same hearty 

 welcome would await the newcomer as 

 if the poke were full and hopes high — 

 a meal to share and a blanket in the 

 cabin on the floor. Strong, healthy, 



cheerful, mostly hopeful, seldom rich, but 

 always hospitable, defines the Alaskan 

 miner. 



Clear y, Fairbanks, and Pedro Creek 

 are yet the mainstay of the camp. One 

 claim on Cleary yielded $1,000 a day 

 from the solidly frozen gravel 20 feet 

 below the surface. Confidence is ex- 

 pressed by the fact that several claims 

 during the past summer changed hands 

 at as high a figure as $60,000. 



Underground mining, or drifting, as 

 it is termed, is probably the most eco- 

 nomic method of extraction on Cleary 

 and Fairbanks Creeks, for the deep, 

 barren overburden of muck and gravel 

 places open-air work out of the question. 



The primitive hand windlass is dis- 

 appearing, its place being taken by the 



