Yukon Valiev News
VOL. III.
RAMPART, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1007
No. 26
MARSH GIVES
HIS VIEWS
Commissioner .1. Lindley Green, of
Rampart, received a letter this week
from Commissioner S. J. Marsh, dated
Caro, Feb. 3. Among other things, the
letter said:
“l have obtained from the prospectors,
including Carter, the discoverer of the
district, all the information 1 could,and,
while l am very favorably impressed \
and am, as 1 always was, of the opinion
that a camp w ill he opened up here, I
still lack the practical details which you
should have before making the venture
of which you speak. I should very much
like to see you here, hut still 1 cannot
say come. ... I firmly believe that
this will also prove to be a quartz
country, hut it w ill lie slow of develop
ment, as few have supplies here at pres
ent and it will probably be late before
many get started.
“I Hiiall have my l!o tons «»i supplies
shipped t« Fort Yukon ami will get
them lip during the summer, and l ex
pert to do considerable work. I believe
this district to be the most likely one of
the undeveloped ones of Alaska, ami it
is my intention to stay with it.”
MASK BALL
FRIDAY NIGHT
Next Friday, Washington’s birthday,
is the time set for the masquerade ball
at A. B. hall.
Everybody is expecting to have a
great time.
MAIL MATTERS
PUZZLE OUTSIDERS
A K;irn|»art man's family, living in
tkit* State of Washington, an* perplexed
Ixi'aUM* neiglitiorn of theirs receive mail
fioin Fairbanks several week* quicker
than they get their* from Rampart.
The reason is that Fairbanks mail is
sent out over the Valdes trail, while
that from lturn}>urt must follow the
tortuous course of the Yukon. It may
not Is* generally known, hut it is a fact,
that the |s*stal regulations do not |*t*
not of l!iun|mrt mail Iwing sent l»v way
of Fairbanks and Vakles. However, at
least two weeks t* required between
here ami Fairbanks under the present
arrangement, and mail would therefore
he that much longer in m*» long the
outshle from here anyhow.
Taliana and all ri\er |»*int* la*low
that place are trr\ol over the Yaldei
route.
RAMPART MAN BACK FROM
THE CHANDLAR
Billy Mann arrived in town Monday
evening direet from the Chandlar. He
went into and came out of the diggings
with Jules Marion. Upon return to
Fort Yukon Mr. Marion proceeded to
Kagle.
Mr. Mann says the Chandlar trail is a
boulevard: men carrying in 800 pounds
with four dogs, without any trouble.
Caro is 120 miles from Fort Yukon and
it was only found necessary to camp out
one night.
Caro is located at the mouth
of Flat creek. Mr. Mann said there
are already seven or eight buildings in
the place. Commissioner Marsh has an
octagonal structure about 18 feet across.
Charley Stevens, of Circle, (easier iden
tified as the Crummy Kid) has a saloon
building up and has gone back to Circle
to wait for the camp to grow. Curly
Munroe, of Dawson, has a cabin under
way. There is no business house of any
kind in operation.
After about fifteen days spent on the
different creeks, Mr. Mann came away
very well pleased with the country, but
there has been nothing beyond a ft
prosjiects found since last fall. Jimmy
Funcheon, of Circle, has located eight
miles of a creek near Flat creek and
claims to have found a $.'! pan. The
claim is discredited, but Funehei n i;
preparing to stay with the creek.
Mr. Mann says that upper discovery,
Iiig creek, remains the banner find
the district. Upper discovery is high i
up—1 above reaches to the summit.
Newton and partner, discoverers, are
drawing wood by the back-of-the-neck
plan twelve miles over a high divide and
trying to determine the extent of their j
pay.
Lower discovery, is 10 miles below i
upper. It appears that llig creek is'
both deep and wet. Fine prospects are
found all along in tlie gravel, reaching
in one instance, it is claimed, as high as
10 cents in one pan.
Squaw, Grave and McClellan creeks
have prospected well.
There are not many men in the coun
try now. The Koyukukers have all
gone hack to Coldfoot for more grub.
Most of the work is being done on Big
creek. Decker and Van Bee her, the
mail launch men, will try to get down
on the bench at 46 below lower, where
Mann and Marion left them a boiler.
Men keep drifting into Fort Yukon,
some coming from the diggings hut more
going in.
Mr. Mann said about a dozen were
lying at Fort Yukon eating tlivir grub,
among them l>eing one or two Rampart
men.
Mr. Mann will not venture a predic
tion as to the future of the Chandlar.
lie says, however, that the country has
a pleasing shai>e, and one of its distir
guishmeuts is a large percentage of
quartz in the gravel.
NOME MAN KICKS AT MAIL CARRIERS
II. A. Pempaey, a Imainesa man from
('mineil recently arrived at Kairtunka,
according to the Northern Light manta
the lower Yukon mail earriera.
lie made the tri|i with eight doga and
aava that hut for the hoapiteHty of the
Indiana lie would have had a hard trip.
All the mail eahina la-tween Melozikakit
and Fort liihhon were ha'ked. The mail
earriera, aave with two rxeepliona, he
elaim*, treated him ua though they
were afraid he would ateal aomething.
and he aaya all the time he haa la-eii in
Alaaka he never met a more aurlv lot,
and tegret* the faet that the old-time
hoapttality of the amirdoiigh ia getting
to !»• a myth anitalde only for tletion
writer*.
Tin* "kirk" ia reprinted for what it ia
worth. Ill roiirae the Valley New* ia
not in a |anotion to pw*» jmlgment on
the merit* o| the rare It I* a patent
fact, however, that a musher anil eigh.
dogs, if unfortunately they themselves
should hap|a-n to la- in a surly mood,
might eoinmunieate their crankiness to
a mail carrier, likewise with a g<xsl
many dogs, when they all hap|>en at a
mail cabin hungry ut the sume time.
With his own supper ami breakfast to
cook as well as that for his dogs, it is
plain that things might la- made rather
disagreeable for even a mail carrier by
an inconsiderate sharer of a cabin. If
travelers would always leave the con
tents of mail cabins in as gi»al sba|a- as
they find them the cabins might never
la- ba ked.
It is a certainty that discourtev by a
carrier to a self-res|s-eting musher will
not l« tolerated on this part of the river.
That (act was made unmistakable by I lu
men at the liead of the mail service the
present winter.
FIRTH STORY
A JOKE
The story of Kinney McLeod having
made a strike on Firth river, sent from
Fort Yukon by Garnet Brown and
printed in this paper last week, seems
to have originated in a joke.
Young Ernest McLeod, on theChand
lar, received a letter. An inquisitive
individual evinced so much curiosity to
know what was in the letter, and asked
so many questions about it, that the
plausible story was passed to him and
received at its face value.
The curious man told Brown. Brown,
in good faith, wrote the tale to John \V.
Duncan. This paper considered itself
lucky to get to print it.
The story excited considerable inter
est in Rampart, because it is known
here that Kinney McLeod is a pretty
level headed prospector, has faith in the
Firth, and is now supjMjsed to be in that
region.
Billy Mann made known the origin of
the false story of the strike.
MR. AND MRS. BALLOU
IN THEIR NEW HOME
This week Mr. anil Mrs. W. B. Ballou
moved into the Judge Green residence,
which has become their own by pur
chase and will la? their permanent resi
dence. It is a cozy little home place.
The spacious garden and well-prepared
grounds will undoubtedly l>e appreciated
by Mrs. Ballou.
Mr. Ballou will lie sworn in as United
States commissioner March 1.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
Date Max. Min.
Feb. 12 — 0 —21
Feb. 13 —12 —20
Feb. 14 — 7 —28
Feb. 15 — 8 —25
Number of days:
cloudy, 0; cloudy, 4
Snowfall, 4 inches.
Frummick K. Raukr,
Voluntary Utwerver.
Date Max. Min.
Feb. 16 —20 —30
Feb. 17 —23 —27
Feb. 18 —20 —12
Clear, 3; partly
Messrs. Crunk A Wield came in Mon
day from a hunting trip to the Russian
creek divide. They went for both cari
bou and sheep—and got nothing.
LOST, 18 81 WHIP—Between Ram
part anti Little Minook. Leave at the
Miners Store and receive thank*.
Mr and Mr*. Jerry Ford anti Mr. 41.
W spiver came in with I Ice ter from
Ftirek.t today