Kenai County AK Archives History - Letters .....El Dorado, Described By Mark A. Curran  1895
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Debra Crosby http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002467 November 1, 2021, 4:09 pm

         NEWS FROM COOKS INLET
A Former Junean Miner Shakes Up The Country
(Alaska News, Juneau City, June 20 )
   Mark A. Curran sends the following to Samuel Wendel,
dated at Turn Again Arm, and from its contents it is
easily seen that he is not favorably impresssed with 
the prospects. Other reports have been sent down
diametrically opposed to his version, so that the
reader is left in doubt. Mark is well known here, is
a good miner and has good judgment, so that his 
remarkes are worthy of consideration to all those
intending to go there. He went upon the first trip
of the Dora.
                     TURN AGAIN ARM, Cooks Inlet,
                                 May 25, 1895
   Dear Wendal:-- As you see by the heading I am here
in this new El Dorado--so called--but from what I have
seen and learned since my arrival I am inclined to 
believe it is a wild-cat. I have met many old-timers
here, some of them have been for the past five years;
with the exception of three or four all are in debt
from $300 to $500 each for supplies. This spring the
stores have refused further credit, to all.
   There is a little gold in every gulch. Bear creek
is the best found as yet, but the average of Bear
creek is about $2.50 per day to the man. The gulches 
are yet full of snow and the ground frozen it will be
the middle of June before work will begin to any
extent. The season here is agout the same as in the
Yukon country; the working season will not exceed 
three and one half months. When the wind and tide are
favorable we have two mails a year, but the wind is
rarely favorable, so one mail is the average. With 
the exception of two or three light showers of rain
the weather has been all smiles since my arrival,
about one month. The atmosphere is made up of three
component parts, samely, mosquitoes, gnats,a nd devii-
flies. All wear masks of wire netting, principally as
a protection from the atmosphere. We have four 
different kinds of timber, water birch, small cotton-
wood, elder and devil-slub, the latter greatly
predominating. The trip has costs, up to date, about
$300; this includes the ummer's [sic] supplies bought
from the A. C. company at Kodiak, the only supply 
depot for this part of the coast. The A. C. company
has a branch at Tionic, 250 miles from Kodiak and 
about 40 miles from Bear creek. The Tionic branch
furnishes most of the unfortunate miners here with
supplies at the following prices; salt-horse, 20 cent
per pound; sugar, 8 pounds for $1; Coffee, 50 cents
per-pound; baking powder, 65 cents per pound; apples,
poor quality, 25 cents per pound; rice, 8 pounds for
$1; smoking tobacco, $1 per pound; everything else in
proportion; these are cash prices. The A. C. company
is losing money but says it intends to keep right on
sacrificing in order to help the miners develop the
country, hoping to make up losses later on. If any of
the Juneau people contemplate a trip to this part of
the coast I would suggest that they buy their supplies
at Juneau and save more money than some of the first
class claims of Bear creek will produce this season.
   I shall remain here this summer and hope to find
something. My heart turns back to Juneau and old 
friends. Sincerely your friend. 
                              Mark A. Curran


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