Dredging for gold on the Yukon and its tributaries

[Yukon Trading, Mining and Exploration Co.]· 1897 · Historical

Dredging for gold is a form of gold mining that is yearly attracting increased attention. In California and New Zealand the results are eminently

This 1897 document, Dredging for gold on the Yukon and its tributaries, is preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library for research and reference. Original source: archive.org.

A, dredger; B. scow; C, sluice; D, hoisting apparatus and scoop; L, hydraulic pump for forcing water through sluices.

You have, doubtless, seen many advertisements of companies who propose to operate mines in the Alaska and British America gold fields.

These companies are capitalized at from five to twenty-five millions of dollars, and propose to pay dividends on these vast stock issues, but none of them enter into detail as to their possible operations, nor do they give any logical reasons why the public should invest in their shares. This companj' propose to operate

5Team Shovels And Dredges On Thefr Mines.

Dredging for gold is a form of gold mining that is yearly attracting increased attention. In California and New Zealand the results are eminently satisfactory, and other sections are passing beyond the experimental'stage. Two years ago this paper had an illustrated account of the first dredger in Montana, operating in Grasshopper creek, r.ear Bannack. A few weeks aj,o a third dredger of greatly increased capacity was put in successful operation there. The Bannack Dredging Company is the owner of the "A. F. Graeter." The Bon Accord Company has placed an order for a fourth dredger in the same vicinity. With the "F. L. Graves" the Gold Dredging Company cleaned up $80,000 in a four months' run last season. The.se dredges take the place of the old rockers used in that vicinity for the past thirty years, and for thirteen miles below Bannack, Grasshopper creek is devoted to jjlacer mining with these effective appliances. The upper .Sacramento river, in this state, affords an example of similar profitable work, and a dredge is now building at Smartsville, Yuba •;^"nty, that is^expected to be of practical value.— Fro/n , S(.j^.JJ^jfJ^ Press, of Sun Francisco, Cal.

Our dredging macliines, operated on boats, can Avork every 3-ard of the low banks and river beds. The gravel is pumped or shovelled by steam shovels up to the deck of the boat and delivered to our gold saving sluices and machines arranged on the deck ; the tailings are washed off into the stream by the water that comes up with the gravel, the gold is deposited in the riffles and corrugations of the sluice boxes. On such ground as this our Company can take the claims that are worked out by individual effort and abandoned, work the ground that is so low the placer miner could not work it, and take out more money than the original owner realized from his efforts.

River dredging has proved a great success in Siberia and New Zealand, and we propose to take up on our first steamer in the Spring the most powerful and scientifical^r constructed dredger ever built for that purpose.

Concessions For Dredging.

Hon. Warren B. Hooker, one of our Directors, is Chairman of the National River and Harbor Committee,the most important committee in Congress at Washington with one exception. Alaska being a territory and under the control of Congress, all matters relating to transportation and concessions for dredging are passed upon by the River and Harbor Committee, and with the Chairman of that Committee one of our Directors, we are not likely to suffer in the general rush for Congressional favors as represented by way of exclusive rights and privileges.

The result of the operations of a company organized as is ours and with such paramount advantages as we possess, if honestly conducted, is beyond question much more certain to eventuate in Dividends to Shareholders than individual effort can possibl}' attain. Of the great number of persons who are going, and will go to Alaska, not more than one in five hundred of those who succeed in getting into the mines will make mone}^, the others will have spent at least one thousand dollars each and from one to two years time, and will have nothing to show for it, nothing to look back upon but a period of the greatest hardship of their lives — and all in vain.

Think of it! Is it not better for you to invest from $10.00 to $1,000.00 or $5,000.00 in shares of our company, and stay at home, than it is to undertake the hardships of a year in the frozen North, with all the chances of freezing, starving or losing your life by accident, and the assurance that should you escape all these perils, 3'ou have but one chance in twenty of coming out as well off as when you went in?

Such a compaujas The Yukon Trading, Mining & Exploration Co., Ltd.. with its great number ot agents, with its Representatives in the Gold District the past j-ear ; with its ample stores of ever}' conceivable necessity for trading and successfully prosecuting its work, with its valuable gold producing mines, has a hundred chances to the individual's one chance, and it is a conservative estimate to say that each $100.00 invested in its shares will return more profit to the investor than each $1,000 expended in individual effort in the Gold Fields of Alaska.

"The opportunity to do small things occurs every day, but the possibility of accomplishing great results comes seldom in a lifetime."

The histor}^ of man and his fortunes from decade to decade, generation to generation, demonstrates that he who rises to eminence in the Financial, Commercial or Political World must be endowed by nature with lofty aspirations, great self-confidence and boldness in grasping the fleeting opportunities of life that to the slower and more plodding nature seem visionary and chimerical. The confident and courageous man seizes the opportunity when it is presented, eliminates, so far as possible, the element of risk, and with success rides on the topmost wave to prosperity.

The opportunity to do small things occurs every day, but the possibility of accomplishing great restilts is offered to but few more than once. When it comes, the bright and daring man is quick to see it, and just as quick to take advantage of the situation, while the more timid is lost in a sea of doubt and uncertaint}' ; he hesitates, questions, consults his friends and, finally, when his mind is quite made up, awakens to a realization that it is too late ; the chance is passed, the opportunity of a lifetime, gone.

'Tis Said That History Repeats Itself.

Let tis look back but a few brief years in the history of this great cotmtry of ours and we behold the eyes of mankind turned with longing toward the new El Dorado at whose feet reposes in dazzling splendor the Golden Gate.

And Gold — Primeval Gold — is luring the brave, the courageous and the masterful men of every land and clime. As in a dream, we see them daring the long and dangerous journey across the great plains, beset by savage Indians, braving the perils of the unknown seas, congregating in mighty hosts, and all spurred on by the one great hope, the one o'erpowering ambition — WEALTH.

Another page is turned and we behold them in the mines, a vast and mighty army of the noblest men of all the earth, the choicest spirits of the old

world and the new, the educated and the ignorant, the sons of great families and the nobodies, but all selected by nature for their great work b}' that instinct which makes no mistakes.

We see them, in fancy, toiling — like the Genii in the fable — 'extracting the glittering metal so cunningljr stored away in Natixre's treasure chambers. They gave new \health and energy, not alone to this great land of ours, but to the world. Through all the arteries of commerce, of science and of art they poured the golden stream and quickened the pulsations of enterprise in every walk of life.

Search among the great names of to-day and you will be surprised at the vast number of those who began their journey to Wealth, to Power, and Greatness in the Mines and Mining Stock of California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Montana and Colorado.

The j^oiing men of this generation have had no such opportunity for the founding of fortunes as California presented to our fathers. No such chance for investment in stocks as had those hardy pioneers who wrested their wealth from the then unconquered West.

But to-day the Greatest, the Grandest and the Richest opportunity the world has ever known is presented to all who would follow in the foot-steps of those Royal Argonauts.

The few will grasp it and march unruffled to Prominence and Power. The many will hesitate, doubt, procrastinate. Their chance will vanish, leaving naught but vain regret.

To Which Class Do You Belong?

The doubting, timid, hesitating throng? If so we kindly ask you to hand this pamphlet to a friend. But, if 3'ou propose to cast your lot with the smaller but more courageous band. Subscribe for our stock now — if you are already a shareholder subscribe again as it is unquestionably the opportunity of a lifetime for money making. Price of shares 50 cents, par value $1.00. After December 15 no stock will be sold for less than 65 cents per share, and will be taken off from public sale entirely until spring. It is fiilly paid, non-assessable and subject to no futher call or liability whatever.

Yukon Trading, Minuig & Exploration Co., Ltd., 92 STATE STREET, BOSTON, MASS.

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