Digital Bob Archive

NOVEMBER 21, 1889-The Harris Mining District has received two very black marks in the eyes of the mining work and these could prove detrimental to local claim owners who are attempting to raise capital to develop mines. The first adverse happening was the failure of the Alaska Union Mining Company on Douglas Island, in which an estimated $350,000 was spent and only about $40 recovered. This fiasco was apparently due to poor judgment and lack of experience rather than bad faith.

The second, and worst, black mark is the Bear?s Nest operation, just north of the very successful Treadwell mines, and this has been labeled an outright swindle by the authoritative ?Engineering and Mining Journal.? In its issue of September 7, the magazine reviews the history of the property and its sale to an English syndicate by M. W. Murray, James Treadwell, N. A. Fuller, Captain James Carroll and F. O. Downing. It is charged that these men obtained $650,000 in cash and $300,000 or $350,000 in bonds from the English buyers after they had ?salted? the claim. They did this, it is said, by palming off Treadwell ores as having come from the Bear?s Nest and also by immersing actual drill cores from the Bear?s Nest in a chloride of gold solution, an abundance of which is available at the Treadwell mill. It is understood that the English group will bring suit against the former owners, but whether the action will be filed in Alaska court is unknown.

Alaska?s new District Judge is John S. Bugbee, who was appointed on October 15 to succeed Judge John H. Keatley. Judge Bugbee was born in New Brunswick in 1840 of American parents and graduated from a law school in Boston in 1862. He has been practicing law in San Francisco for many years and will arrive on the next trip of the Elder to take up his duties in Alaska.

NOVEMBER 28, 1889-The Mexican property, adjoining the Treadwell on the south, is undergoing tests at present. The surface ground was worked off and run through an arastra some years since and yielded good returns.

There will be a Thanksgiving ball this evening at the Opera House. Supper will be served at the Opera House Restaurant at the usual rates. Tickets for the ball are $1.50.