THE HOUSE OF BEEB BOTTLES
(Written by Jeff Nutt for the Den
ver Post).
It was a cold January morning in
Nome during the winter of 1900-1901
that the Ornery and Worthless Men
of the World were conceived by a
bunch of as fine a lot of prospectors
as ever was in any vanguard of a
mining camp boom. Shortly after the
hegira that swept down on the tun
dra bordering on Bering sea, in the
spring of 1900, Billy Mizener conce
ived the forming of this immortal club
and he nominated Pete Chambers, a
deputy United States marshal, for
president; Jeff Nutt for secretary, and
Mizener was elected walking delegate
of the order, with jurisdiction from
the Kuskoquim to Valdez, Alaska. A
constitution was promulgated and ev
ery Sourdough prospector should go in
to the uniformed ranks of the order,
while the Chechako prospector was
simply elected as a plain charter mem
ber. A Sourdough is one who has
spent one or more winters on the Yu
kon, while the Chechako is the prospec
tor who is a new comer to the terri
tory, but with a noodle full of string
ers, infiltration and contacts.
In July 1900, a stampede was on to
Candle creek, and. every tenderfoot in
Nome was bent on staking a prospec
tor. The grubstake lawyer was busy
night and day on these grubstake con
tracts. It was a custom for prospec
tors of the uniformed rank of our or
der to show placer gold and splendid
quartz specimens to the get-rich-quick
population that was strung along the
beach at Nome. Thousands of dollars
were dealt out by this population with
a lavish hand to the prospectors who
knew where there was a mountain of
gold covered with quartz, while ano
ther, just returned from a creek that
went three shovels to the pan, got
even bigger returns.
As secretary of the order I was
sought for advice by those who had
staked prospectors and the really fun
niest case was that of the colored por
ter in Joe Jordan’s saloon. This por
ter had one of those angel prospectors
out who had told him of the wonder
ful formation near Candle creek, that
the eruptive rocks had fused the coun
try rock and that secondary enrich
ment had set in as a result of the ero
sion, etc., until the porter could act
ually see pure gold falling out of the
rock-ribbed vein.
There is no use taking up the time
of the reader to explain that this por
ter promptly drew his salary two weeks
ahead and sent this prospector out to
the new Eldorado. There is a road
house on the Nome river about five
miles up the Bering sea from Nome on
the main sled rode to Candle creek.
Now, a road house is a caravansary
where booze, the Alacka brew of
whiskey, is sold to thirsty and tired
prospectors.
It is no use in this little story to
detail to the reader that the prospector
the porter sent out never got farther
than this caravansary on his road to
Candle Creek. In about the time it
would have taken a dog team to make
Candle creek and a letter eould be re
turned from the new diggings, the
prospector wrote an Aladdin story of
the richness of the claims he had just
discovered and that he had struck it
rich. Every pan of dirt went $20 in
gold. He had located six claims in
the richest places on the creek, he
wrote. The letter ended requesting the
porter to send $40 more. This letter
was given to an incoming dog team at
the road house above mentioned. The
porter visited my office wild eyed, his
hat awrry, and rushing to my desk, ask
ed me to read it quick. He asked for
my advice and that I write the answer.
I wrote as follows:
“Your letter just, received with the
splendid news of your rich discovery.
I will not send you the forty, but here
with give you permission to pan out
two pans and keep the $40, thus reliev
ing me from sending you the $40.”
This letter was sent back ■with the
dog team and reached the prospector
at the roadhouse where the hootch was
still flowing.
Nothing more was ever heard by the
porter of the rich strike of his grub
stake prospector.
There are many honest grubstake
prospectors. ^on’t get it that there is
not, but I have never had the pleasure
of running across a regiment of them
on the trail in Alas^cr. The kind I
talked with were hard rock miners in a
placer camp and placer miners in a
hard rock camp. I mean by this that in
Nome, which was a placer camp, I list
ened to the grubstake prospector as
follows:
“Give me a hard rock country; I
don’t know anything about this placer
diggings.”
In Juneau, which is a hard rock
country, you would hear him say: “I
know nothing of hard rock mining, but
give me a placer camp; there is where
I shine. ”
Here is a good one:
“Say, pard, I want to show you a
piece of rock. I was riding the range
the other day and I noticed a forma
SOURDOUGH HO. 11
tion that looked strange and aiu«*<>iii
from the ordinary formation
piece of rock lousy with gold is shown
and the prospector adds:
“My eyes are getting bad. It looks
as though it ought to carry free gold.”
Then the “Come on” at a glance
sees that it is full of free gold and
says:
“What do you want to dot”
“Well, I can ride right to the spot,
and if I had money to grubstake me
I would go there and do a little work
on the vein.”
Now, it is like getting candy by mail
for this prospector. He is sure in ear
ly red clover. The easy thing from
De Witt county, Iowa, and just fresh
from the green fields of that glorious
state, grubstakes this prospector, and
if he had gone out to the roadhouse but
a few miles from Nome he might have
heard the following conversation:
“I am out for Bill Stapleton, as fine
a man as I ever done business with.
What you goin’ to have?”
“Oh, I’ll take a little hootch. Who
you out forf”
“Sap, pard, what you going to
have f’ ’
“Oh, I’ll take a little of the same.”
“Talking about swell fellows, what
is the matter with Frank Briggs? He
knows rock and you can’t fool him.
I am out for him and, say, he knows
I know my business. I prospected for
him in the Gore range back in the
early ’80s. Don’t you know I found
the contact that led to the finding of
that volcanic formation in Cripple
Creek? What you going to have? I’ll
take a little of the same.”
Now, out of all that bunch of grub
stake prospectors that hit this road
house there was one lone prospector
who made a motion at our regular
monthly meeting of the Ornery and
Worthless Men of the World that a
monument should be erected to those
benevolent and charitable individuals
who had furnished the money to put
the roadhouse keeper on his feet. The
motion was carried unanimously.And
then it was further moved to erect a
house from the bottles drained by the
prospectors who had never got any
nearer Candle creek than this road
house. This carried with wild enthus
iasm and I have the honor of present
ing to the Post a photograph of the
Bottle House on Nome river, Alaska,
which contains 50,000 beer bottles, each
bottle representing $1 of coin of the
realm, which should have been spent on
Candle creek by grubstake prospectors.
STORMY WEATHER AHEAD
Observer Sharrick predicts stormy
weather soon, and the indications are
that our phenominal weather is not to
last long.
The following is the weather record
for the week:
Wednesday, (Sept. 6)—Maximum
temperature, 57; minimum, 50; «o pre
cipitation.
Friday—Maximum 58, minimum 50,
no precipitation.
Saturday—Maximum .59, minimum
52, no precipitation.
Sunday—Same temperature, with one
tenth of an inch rain fall.
Monday—Maximum 58, minimum 51
with no precipitation.
Tuesday—Maximum 59,, minimum 44,
one-tenth of an inch rail fall.
Wednesday: (Sept. 13) —Maximum
58, minimum 50, no rain fall.
flitter 6 Smith
CARRIES NYAI/S FAMILY REMEDIES
AND THE A. D. S. PREPARATIONS
PRESCRIPTIONS CAREFULLY
COMPOUNDED. YOUR
MONEY BACK IF
NOT SATISFIED
•
tlx front St.
Drag Store
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Douglas Alaska
to the wise Is sufficient—save money
while the sun shines
To leave a building unpainted, to
neglect a building when it needs paint,
is not essentially different from thorw
ing good money away. And this is
truer in this climate than any other.
This has been a splendid season for
PAINTING
and there is still plenty of time left to
paint that house of yours.
By the way, there is a whole lot of
difference in the quality of Paint—come
here for the best.
Julies
Jenson
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TOOLS, TIN WORK, PAINTS, ETC.
Corner of Second and D Streets