The Land of Nome / A narrative sketch of the rush to our Bering Sea gold-fields, the country, its mines and its people, and the history of a great conspiracy (1900-1901)

by Lanier McKee

There had been organized in the city of New York, under the laws of Arizona, with a capital stock of fifteen million dollars, The Alaska Gold Mining Company, of which Alexander McKenzie, a man of political influence, well known in the Dakotas, was the chief promoter and the owner of a majority of the stock. He had placed a portion of the remainder where he believed it would stand him in good stead. The main assets of this company consisted of "jumpers'" claims to rich mining property near Nome, principally situated on Anvil Creek—claims which, having already been taken or "located," had been "jumped" or "relocated" by certain individuals on some of the pretexts suggested by the looseness of our mining laws, and which in a new country so frequently constitute a species of legal blackmail. These claims, for the most part, had been purchased from the original owners by the Wild Goose and the Pioneer Mining companies, large corporations which had been formed to operate them, and other claims, on a very large scale, and which, with immense equipment at hand for future operations, were already, in the early season of 1900, engaged in taking out the gold in great quantities.

In company and on the same vessel with McKenzie, Judge Noyes arrived at Nome on the nineteenth day of July, 1900, and (to use the language of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the McKenzie contempt cases) "on Monday, July 23, before the court was organized and before the filing of any paper of any character with the clerk of the court, [McKenzie] was appointed by Judge Noyes receiver of at least four of the richest claims in the district of Nome, upon complaints made by persons the interest therein of at least one of whom had theretofore been acquired by the receiver's corporation, the Alaska Gold Mining Company." And this, too, upon papers grossly inadequate, without notification to the parties in possession, or an opportunity for them to be heard, and, generally, in total disregard of the necessities of the situation and legal precedent. The orders appointing McKenzie receiver of these claims directed him to take immediate possession thereof; to manage and work the same; to preserve the gold and dispose of it subject to the further orders of the court; and expressly enjoined the persons then in possession from in any manner interfering with the mining of the claims by the receiver. By a subsequent order, and in the very teeth of the express prohibitory provision of the statute under which the court was created, Judge Noyes further ordered that the receiver take possession of, and that there be delivered to him, all personal property of every sort and description on one of these claims and in any way appertaining thereto. The receiver's bond in each case was fixed at only five thousand dollars, though at least one of these claims was then yielding about fifteen thousand dollars a day!

Thereupon, several of the parties thus held up by this highway procedure, upon proof and affidavits, moved the court to vacate these orders, which applications were denied, as were the petitions to the court for the allowance of an appeal from its orders granting the injunctions and appointing the receiver, the court holding that its orders were not appealable, and, in effect, that its jurisdiction in the matter was exclusive.

Upon the refusal of the court to allow an appeal, the Wild Goose and Pioneer Mining companies, which were represented by able counsel, secretly despatched to San Francisco, on a fast vessel, a special messenger bearing papers and affidavits disclosing the record of the court at Nome, upon which to base application to the appellate court, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for allowance of appeals and writs of supersedeas. This writ, which, in effect, nullifies the proceedings of the court below pending the determination of the appeal which it, the appellate court, has allowed, was granted in the Wild Goose cases by Judge Morrow, upon the giving of proper bonds.

Meanwhile the receiver business was in full swing, and McKenzie became known near and far as the "King of Receivers," or the "Big One." After a while, when the thing was becoming too notorious, the court evinced a certain delicacy of feeling by bestowing sundry receiverships upon selected friends of McKenzie, instead of handing them all over to the chief. Many mine-owners did not attempt to develop their ground, fearful lest, it proving rich, the receivership jurisdiction would be thereto extended. Charges and countercharges of bribery and corruption were rife, and the fight between the attorneys for the ousted parties and the "ring" became strenuous and embittered.

In the midst of the storm above referred to,—on the 14th of September,—an exciting rumor spread throughout the town that the writs from the appellate court had arrived; and this proved to be the fact. The Nome dailies (three of them) came out with such head-lines as "McKenzie Thrown out of His Job," "Death-blow to the New York Ring," and printed in full the writ commanding a stay of operations and a return of the property.

But McKenzie did not proceed to obey the mandates of the higher court, nor did Judge Noyes order him so to do, though they both had been served with all the requisite papers.

With the knowledge that the Circuit Court of Appeals was back of them, the Wild Goose people took possession of their mines. McKenzie, acting under the kind of legal advice that he wanted, maintained that the writs were irregular and void, and absolutely refused to deliver up the gold-dust which he had mined. Judge Noyes made an order merely staying all proceedings in his court, and refused to make orders compelling McKenzie to obey the writs and deliver the gold-dust to the appellants.

It became known that the receiver would attempt to withdraw gold-dust which had been deposited in the vaults of the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company; and when McKenzie, in company with one of his "friends," made the attempt, he found himself surrounded by a detachment of the military and a number of the parties interested, together with their attorneys. As he was about to walk out of the building, an attorney stepped forward and stopped him, causing that remarkable person for the first time to lose his head and nerve. It looked for a moment as if there might be some gun-play, but this, fortunately, was avoided. All this happened when the storm was at its height, the miserable streets of the hybrid "city" knee-deep in mud, and when, without the semblance of a harbor, and open to the clear sweep and fierce attack of the Arctic gale, entire sections of the place were under water, and houses and wreckage generally drifting about. It was an excellent background for a dramatic incident.