The United States Government sent Professor J. S. Spurr, H. B. Goodrich and F. C. Schrader of the Geological Survey, into the Yukon District early in '96. Prof. Spurr, the chief of the Survey, has made the following preliminary statement:
"Much has been written of late concerning the possibilities of Alaska as a gold-producing country. As a matter of fact the productions of the present year may be roughly estimated at three million dollars. This amount, however, comes from a region of half a million square miles, or about one quarter as large as the United States. Of the mines which produce this gold some are in the bed rock, while others are placer diggings.
"The bed rock mines are few in number and situated on the south-east coast, which is the most accessible part of the territory. The chief one is the great Treadwell mine, near Juneau, and there are also important mines at Burner's Bay, at the Island of Unga, and other places.
"The latest strike is the Klondike. Most of these mines, however, are in low grade ore, and the production is only made profitable by careful management and operations on a very large scale. The placer mines are those which occupy the most prominent place in the popular mind, since they are remote from civilization and in a country about which little is known, and which is, on account of this uncertainty, dangerously attractive to the average man. This gold producing country of the interior is mostly in the vicinity of the Yukon River, or of some of its immediate tributaries."
The great Klondike strike was made in the early winter of 1896-97, but nothing was known of it in the United States until June 15th, 1897, when the "Excelsior" arrived in San Francisco laden with Klondike miners, who were in turn laden with gold. These miners had left the Klondike District, and gone down the Yukon River to St. Michael, carrying with them their loads of gold, which averaged $10,000 to the man. About a month later, on July 17th, 1897, the steamer "Portland" reached Seattle from St. Michael, Alaska, and brought the verified news of the great gold discoveries in the Upper Yukon region and also nearly a million and three-quarters in gold dust as freight, with the owners of the same. All of this gold had been taken from the placer mines of the Klondike within the year.
Such was the beginning of the great Klondike gold craze, which has seized thousands of miners and speculators, a great proportion of whom will be drawn into that region in the course of the year.
The great problem to be solved by those who contemplate going to the Klondike region is the method of getting there, and of sustaining life after they reach the country.
There are three principal ways of going to the Klondike gold fields. One is the route taken by Mr. Schwatka, as described by him in previous pages. This route is through the famous Chilkoot Pass, the dangers and hardships of which he has pointed out, but in no wise magnified. In fact, he made the journey under the most favorable circumstances. Another route is the all-water route from Seattle by way of the mouth of the Yukon. It is a fifteen days' voyage from Seattle to St. Michael, which is on the western coast of Alaska, north of the mouth of the Yukon River. In making this trip one passes through the chain of Aleutian Islands and past the Pribilof Islands, which is the great breeding ground of the fur seals.
From St. Michael the trip is made up the Yukon in a flat-bottom river steamer in from fifteen to twenty days. The distance from Seattle to Dawson City by way of St. Michael and the Yukon River is about 4,725 miles. The distance from Seattle by way of the Chilkoot Pass route, that which was followed by Mr. Schwatka, is estimated as about 1,600 miles.