Digital Bob Archive

14 February 1980

MAY 5, 1883-The Harris District?s third mining season is now under way, with both placers and lodes in operation. Over on Douglas Island, John Treadwell?s Alaska Mill & Mining Co. is in operation with a crew of men. Treadwell is still contesting with the placer men over the decomposed quartz on top of his lodes, but his mill is running 12 hours each night, as per the agreement signed last year, and he is running as much of the loose quartz through as possible, with good recoveries. His crew is also drilling and blasting on the lode in places where it has been cleared and the ore is stockpiled at the mill. The main lode on the four claims owned by the company is reported to be over 400 feet wide and may prove to be one of the largest in the world.

Removal of the ore will create an open pit just where the four claims come together, the Paris and Mathews on the bay side with the Rattler and Bean behind. Just to the south are the Oro Fino I and II, on which Treadwell has an option. He is already talking about building a larger mill if the ore values hold up, and the company is said to have adequate capital behind it for the project. A bunkhouse and messhouse have been built on the Treadwell property for the crew and that, with the tents and cabins of the placer miners, has created a small community which is known as Coopersville, for J. M. Cooper, one of the placer men.

What could be another big development on the island is reported shaping up. George Nowell has purchased the Bear?s Nest lode claim, just north of the Paris, from Henry Borien, the original locator. The price was $1,000. George is one of our early settlers and is a member of a Boston family which is interested in getting into mining in Alaska and is said to have plenty of capital behind it.

On this side of the channel, up along Gold Creek, the placer miners are hard at work, some of them using hydraulic giants to wash down the hillsides. Some of the originally rich gulches are about worked out, however, and more and more miners are talking of trying the Yukon country. The Webster mill is running part time only because of lack of suitable ore and William Webster has started to develop his own Humboldt lode claim in the hope that it will keep the mill busy.