Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/189

Rh Creek, Eldorado, Hunker, Gold Bottom, Dominion, Sulphur, Gold Run, Quartz and other creeks, were found.

The richest of the Klondike placers were exhausted in a few years, the production began to fall and people predicted the end of mining there, especially as no very important gold-bearing veins had as yet been discovered; but in recent years, with the introduction of more modern and economical appliances, the immense areas of low-grade gravels are being successfully worked, and the Klondike will probably be an active gold producer for many years to come.

In 1898, at the height of the Klondike excitement, gold was found at Cape Nome on the Alaska Coast of Behring Sea, north of the mouth of the Yukon. The first discoveries were made on Anvil Creek, a few miles back from the beach, and during the following year in the beach sands themselves. Again a stampede started to the north, and though not so many people went there as to Dawson City, yet the number was considerable, and large quantities of gold were quickly produced by those who were fortunate enough to escape shipwreck and other disasters on the way.

The result of these far-north gold discoveries was the exploration of that country many years before it would otherwise have taken place, and in a very short time the region, up until then little known, except in spots, became familiar to all. The whole of it has since been overrun by the prospector, and many other gold districts than those mentioned have been found, but the chief producers to-day are the Klondike, Cape Nome and the Fairbanks regions, the last being on the Tanana River, a tributary of the Yukon in Alaska. The production of Alaska in 1910 was estimated at $16,987,990, while that of the Yukon territory of Canada, which includes the Klondike, was estimated at $4,550,000, a decrease from the maximum of $22,275,000 in the boom year of 1900.

The Goldfield. district in Esmeralda County, Nevada, was another discovery that followed after the fall in price of silver, and here from 1902 to 1904, and later, were found great deposits of gold-bearing quartz that have made the region one of the most important gold districts of the world. The Goldfield Consolidated Company to-day is the largest single gold-producer in the United States, its output in the year ending October 31, 1910, being $10,866,752. The region is not far from the Comstock lode, and many an old prospector of the latter region doubtless trod over it without realizing the value of what was to be discovered over forty years later. Other districts in Nevada, such as Silver Peak, Rawhide, Bullfrog, Round Mountain, Delamar and many other places, also became important gold-mining centers; and Nevada,