Digital Bob Archive

DECEMBER 1, 1880-The stampede is on! Our new gold camp is growing by leaps and bounds, with more men arriving nearly every day. A Navy steam launch came in today from Sitka with several men, including Dick Harris, Joe Juneau and George Pilz. They report that the steamer Favorite, Captain Vanderbilt, is also on the way from Sitka with an even larger party of prospectors. She is expected here in a couple of days with at least 18 new residents for the camp. She will also bring the lumber for a house for George Pilz. The lumber, from the sawmill at Sitka, is said to be cut to proper dimensions for the house so that it needs only nailing together. This will be the first frame building in the new camp, although several log cabins are now under construction.

The steam launch is from the Navy ship Jamestown and is in charge of Lt. E. P. McClellan. The Jamestown is stationed at Sitka, in command of Captain Glass, but as she has no steam power but relies entirely on sails she remains at anchor Sitka. It will be remembered that according to Dick Harris?s mining record book, Lt. McClellan is one of the owners of the Kowee lode claim on Douglas Island, staked by Harris and Juneau. He is to return to Sitka with the steam launch in a few days but no doubt will be seen again in Harrisburgh.

George Pilz and Joe Juneau, upon landing from the steam launch, started immediately for Silver Bow Basin to look at the various mining claims staked in October by Harris and Juneau when they made the original discovery. Since there is now nearly two feet of snow up at the basin, they probably won?t see much of the claims but at least Pilz will have the satisfaction of knowing the lay of the land. Several of the Navy men attached to the steam launch also went up Gold Creek to try their luck at prospecting, but it will be blind luck if they find anything in all the snow.

A number of the men who have been here for the past couple of weeks were very happy to seek Dick Harris and his mining record book. They had staked claims along Gold Creek but there was no way to record them until Harris returned.

DECEMBER 4, 1880-The steamer Favorite, Captain Vanderbilt bringing the latest contingent of gold seekers from Sitka, did not come into Gastineau Channel due to strong winds blowing out of Taku Inlet. Instead, she anchored near the north end of Douglas Island and sent her people and cargo here in rowboats and canoes.

Among the new arrivals are many familiar faces and several of them will help to liven up the camp during the dark winter days that are ahead. One of the first ashore was Dick Willoughby, often known as ?the Professor.? Dick is a good yarn spinner and all around entertainer and is better than a rough hand at getting country music out of a fiddle. He was in both the Cariboo and Cassiar districts in years past, made a fortune in the former, then ?blowed it,? as the miners say, in a single winter at Victoria.

Another is Pat McGlinchy, another Cassiar man who spent last summer scratching around on the gravel bars of the Yukon River with the Edmund Bean party. None of them had much luck. Pat is widely known for his wit and his first words when he stepped ashore amidst the snow that was whirling off the trees and around the camp, were, ?Couldn?t Dick Harris have found a better spot than this for a gold mine??

George Kostrometinoff, who often serves as interpreter for government officials at Sitka, came over on the Favorite but also plans to go back there on her. ?I want to stake a claim to be sure I don?t miss out on anything,? he said, ?but I won?t be a permanent settler for while at least.?

Charles Wells, the blacksmith, is a welcome addition to the camp and says he will soon set up his forge. N. A. Fuller, the Sitka merchant who furnished a part of the original grubstake for Harris and Juneau, immediately started looking for a town lot. Another arrival is Edmund Bean, the oldtime California miner who last summer headed that first party of prospectors to go into the Yukon country by way of Chilkoot Pass. There is also John Olds, the Cornishman who has mined in Michigan, California and Cassiar.

There are at least a dozen others who came on the Favorite but they were too busy finding places to pitch their tents to take time for interviews at this time.