About twelve miles up the Klondike is Bear Creek, which has several tributaries, and twelve miles farther up is Hunter Creek. About ten miles farther up the Klondike is Too Much Gold Creek. Bonanza and El Dorado creeks have produced the richest deposits of gold yet found, but all the creeks mentioned have some very rich deposits.
The knowledge of these gold fields in the far north is not new. From early in the days of the Russian occupation of this territory it has been known that there were vast deposits of the precious metal in Alaska. It is said that the existence of gold in quantities along the Yukon and its tributaries was known to the fur-trading companies a century and a half ago. These companies were not after minerals, and they were merely guarding the immense wealth which abounded in the fur industries when they did not give their knowledge to the world. Other fur companies have followed the example of the early traders and have kept the secret. They foresaw the effect of a rush of immigrants.
The aborigines of Alaska have been familiar with the precious yellow metal for a time that is old even in their legends. The earliest voyagers to the coasts of Alaska noticed the bits of shining gold here and there among the ornaments of the natives, and for these they traded knives, guns, and fancy trappings. Beyond the few ounces which they gained in this way, however, no gold was obtained from those regions. In 1741 the Russian explorer, Behring, after whom the great Alaskan Sea is named, found gold, but he found what seemed to him more attractive, fine furs. Upon the value of the furs he laid great stress in his report to his monarch, and the result was that the country was granted by the Emperor Paul for fur-gathering purposes alone to the Russo-American Fur Company, and thus it remained until the purchase by the United States in 1867.
That there were deposits of gold in those icy regions was hinted by the early explorers, and incomplete records show that more than one party put civilization behind for the purpose of investigating the country. In fact, enough men had left for that region to produce sufficient gold to cause the Director of the Mint to credit Alaska with three hundred thousand dollars in gold and two thousand dollars in silver in 1885. Most of this metal came from Douglas Island. In 1896 the total output of lode and placer mines in Alaska was put at four million six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in 1897 the gold output, it is estimated, will reach twelve million dollars.
There was a great gold craze in the extreme North-west in 1858. In the 60's there was a period when the annual production of the North-west Province reached three millions, seven hundred thousand dollars. The known deposits were exhausted, however, and by 1890 the product fell off to less than half a million dollars.
The Klondike Gold Discoveries
On page [190] of this volume Mr. Schwatka says, "The mouth of the D'Abbadie marks an important point on the Yukon River as being the place at which gold commenced to be found in placer deposits. From the D'Ab-badie almost to the very mouth of the great Yukon a panful of 'dirt' taken with any discretion from almost any bar or bank will, when washed, give several 'colors,' to use a miner's phrase."