Digital Bob Archive

JULY 6, 1881-The Fourth of July celebration is over and most of the miners have returned to their tents and cabins in the Basin and to their sluice boxes and water ditches. It was a fine Fourth of July, with some oratory and some foot races. Charlie Wells, the blacksmith, fired an anvil the first thing in the morning as a salute, and the Navy boys up on the hill responded with a number of rounds from their Gatling gun. Probably the biggest event of the day, or at least the most important one, was a public meeting held at 9:30 in the morning.

Ever since the camp started a foremost topic of conversation has been the need for some form of government for Alaska and especially for some land and mining laws, together with the courts to enforce them. So far as the placer mines are concerned, ?local regulations,? as they are known and which have worked well from California to the Cassiar, seem adequate. Under these regulations, disputes between miners are settled by miners? meetings, with verdicts rendered by all who attend the meetings.

But in addition to the placers, many lode claims have been staked in this district and it is apparent to those who know about such things that lode mining is going to become important here, perhaps as important as it is in the Mother Lode country of California. And lode mining operations come under federal statutes, enacted by Congress and as interpreted by the courts in many decisions. Already there has been conflict between some of the placer men and the owners of lode claims. One question is who owns and has a right to the decomposed quartz that overlays many of the lodes.

Because of this, there is a growing demand among local miners for some form of government. The first step to bring this about was taken by H. N. Steele who circulated a petition and secured nearly thirty signatures to it. The petition called for a meeting on July 4 ?for the purpose of taking some action toward procurement of recognition and representation of this Territory by the United States Government in the next Congress of the United States.? The meeting was well attended and it was decided to call a political convention, to be held in Harrisburgh-Rockwell after the arrival of the August mail steamer. Delegates are to be elected from other towns of this part of Alaska. So far as can be learned here there has never been such an animal as a political convention in Alaska.