Russell A. Alger,
Secretary of War.
Fortunately for the new Chief Magistrate, who had been announced as the “advance agent of prosperity,” the year 1897 brought a revival of business. This was due in part to the end, at least for the time, of political suspense and agitation, in part to the confidence which capitalists felt in the new Administration.
The money stringency, too, now began to abate. The annual output of the world’s gold mines, which had for some years been increasing, appeared to have terminated the fall of general prices, prevalent almost incessantly since 1873. Moreover, continued increase seemed assured, not only by the invention of new processes, which made it lucrative to work tailings and worn-out mines, but also by the discovery of several rich auriferous tracts hitherto unknown.
James Wilson,
Secretary of Agriculture.
Postmaster-General Gary.
From a copyrighted photo by Clinedinst.
The valley of the Yukon, in Alaska and the adjacent British territory, had long been known to contain gold, but none suspected there a bonanza like the South African Rand. In the six months’ night of 1896-1897 an old squaw-man made an unprecedented strike upon the Klondike (Thron-Duick or Tondak) River, 2,000 miles up the Yukon. By spring all his neighbors had staked rich claims. Next July $2,000,000 worth of gold came south by one shipment, precipitating a rush to the inhospitable mining regions hardly second to the California migration of 1849.
Latter-day Argonauts, not dismayed by the untold dangers and hardships in store, toiled up the Yukon, or, swarming over the precipitous Chilcoot Pass, braved, too often at cost of life, the boiling rapids to be passed in descending the Upper Yukon to the gold fields. Later the easier and well-wooded White Pass was found, traversed, at length, by a railroad. In October, 1898, the Cape Nome coast, north of the Yukon mouth, uncovered its riches, whereupon treasure-seekers turned thither their attention, even from the Yukon.
Little lawlessness pestered the gold settlements. The Dominion promptly despatched to Dawson a body of her famous mounted police. Our Government, more tardily, made its authority felt from St. Michaels, near the Yukon mouth, all the way to the Canadian border. On June 6, 1900, Alaska was constituted a civil and judicial district, with a governor, whose functions were those of a territorial governor. When necessary the miners themselves formed tribunals and meted out a rough-and-ready justice.