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 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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Ten Thousand Scorpions
The Search for the Queen of Sheba's gold
Hardcover
By Larry Frolick
| Quote: | "Could it be," I postulated as we sat in the army canteen drinking warm Pepsi and closely following the evidently warmer bare belly of our statuesque hostess, she with the dour, unapoligetic eyes, "could it be that that's all there is at the bottom of religion? A screamer in a tutu?"
Now the bar-girl cleverly turned and stretched, so that we could see her bare navel. Our server had an impressive navel, indeed.
"Have you ever smelt the money?" Jason suddenly thrust a stinky one-birr note right in my face.
"Please, not while I'm dreaming."
"It's got a peculiar smell; oddly familiar and yet curiously ghastly."
"That could be my next book: Smelling the World's Currencies: The Definitive Guidebook."
We got back in the Toyota truck and barricaded ourselves behind our personal thoughts.
Finally Jason spoke out.
"So what's the answer then?"
I knew, of course, he was referring to our original conversation about the traveller's dilemma. Whether to go alone, or with somebody. And this, a metaphor for a whole life:
Which to bet? Black or red?
"Are we alone?" Jason said, fixing me with one opalescent eye.
"Perhaps there are no answers, only questions?" I volunteered after a moment.
"You mean everything?" he nodded.
"The whole nine yards. Maybe the answer is a question?"
"The world is a big question mark?"
"There's religion for you: Asking yourself big, hard questions, bigger and harder all the time."
"You think God might be a question, then?"
"The biggest," I replied.
"Could It Be?" He tugged his beard.
It was easy to talk like that. The brown mountains dwarfed the green hills and the blue Ethiopian sky dwarfedf everything. All of us were motes, passengers and drivers, all lost somewhere in the clouds of rad dust dancing aorund us, coating, coating everything, blinding us with the dust of centuries. (From Chapter 16, The Virtual Ethiopian, pgs. 197-198) |
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Timbuktu
The Sahara's Fabled City of Gold
Hardcover
By Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
| Quote: | From the very earliest times, they always knew something was there. They being outsiders generally, the people of the north and northeast, and there being the south, the other side of the Great Emptiness of the Sahara Desert. What that something was thought to be shifted and changed as empires' fortunes waxed and waned. Was it rods of gold sticking up from the earth, ripe for the plucking, a great city of brass shining like a beacon in the southern sun, a mountain of rubies? Or was it the existence of wealthy and wise kings, sitting on stools of gold, a benevolent presence there in the endless unknown? The stories tantalized everyone who heard them. ...
The earliest written reports date back to the Greco-Roman period, and a few hints are found in the classical literature. The great historian Herodotus, who was born in 484 BC, wrote extensively on Africa - his history of the Persians' invastion of Egypt and their defeat of the Ammonites in the Western Desert is a classic of historical writing - and he made several references to the penetration of the Sahara itself. One accound, admitted by Herodotus himself to have been thirdhand, was the story of "some wild young men" of Cyrenaica, "who drew lots to decide which of their number should explore the desert part of Libya, seeking to penetrate further than any had done before." (-- pgs. 6-7) |
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:17 am Post subject: |
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Mining Ventures: Raising Money
Materials prepared for the Continuing Legal Education seminar, Raising Money for Mining Ventures, held in Vancouver, B.C. on May 2, 1997.
Course Coordinator: Graham H. Scott, Scott, Bissett, Vancouver
| Quote: | Over the past years, the major producing companies have increasingly pushed out the activity of hunting down new mines to the merging junior exploration companies, which have been able to find the necessary financing for this activity in a relatively receptive marketplace. Shareholder successes such as those seen with Voisey's Bay and Arequipa have enabled junior exploration companmies to find a receptive ear at corporate finance houses and an open wallet in the hands of institutional fund managers.
If these sources of funding dry up, even temporarily, the juniors which have not already filled their treasuries may be forced to partner with the majors at a much earlier stage. Shareholders of these juniors are less likely to see the tremendous returns that have become more common over the past few years, since producing companies are not likely to pay high prices for an interest in these properties when they are at an earlier stage of exploration. The juniors just won't be able to provide huge returns to their shareholders if they need to rely on the major companies to fund exploration and that's likely to make it more difficult to get investors to take the initial gamble on these companies.
The people behind some junior exploration companies have chosen to bypass the Canadian markets, and to finance their activities by moving on to the NASDAQ in the US. ...
Under the new NASDAQ rules, companies will be required to have net tangible assets of US$4 million as determined under US GAAP. Since exploration costs are not normally considered to be "tangible assets" by the regulators, it is possible that many companies won't qualify for the NASDAQ quotation, even if they meet the new US$35 million public float or the new US$4.00 bid price requirements. ...
If you still have the will to proceed, because you have faith that the properties you hold will some day become a mine, you will need to be willing to persevere in order to achieve your financing goals. And you will need to follow some good common sense advice...
You should plan on doing a top down assessment of your management group[/b], of the information on your properties and their prospects, and of all facets of your company and its relationships. ... If you are to be successful, you will need to convince others that you are the best group to bet their money on.
Start with your management group, including your Board of Directors. The regulators have always required that companies have a management group which has experience in the mining business, and it will be even more important now to convince the rbokers and the analysts that this experience is appropriate in the circumstances. This may require you to search out new directors or management to fill any gaps in the expertise required by the company. ... a geologist with the right experience for your type of properties ... financial official with the ability to negotiate the appropriate financing ... corporate solicitor to help negotiate contracts and to monitor regulatory compliance in the capital markets and in the countries in which you do business. ...
You should move as a group to adopt the corporate governance policies set out in last year's TSE corporate governance study , if you haven't already.
With respect to your exploration properties, firstly, you better be damned sure that there is something of value to market and that you don't oversell the prospects before you go looking for money. ... Investors don't mind the risk associated with exploration activities. They just want to know that they at least have a chance to win.
Keep exceptional records as to the work you have carried out on your properties and provide a good trail to allow someone to audit every step you have taken to prove the resource exists. Use nothing but reputable consultants and reliable assay labs, even if they cost more than alternative suppliers. ...
Be prepared to have independent consultants verify your claims as to the mineral resource contained on your properties ...
Property title information, including opinions if necessary, will need to be as clear and concise as possible. Potential investors ... will want to know that you are knowledgeable about the risks associated with ownership in the country in which the properties are located and that you have taken appropriate steps to minimize these risks. ...
Your company will also be judged ... with respect to the information it publishes and releases. ...
In your quarterly reports, provide a good summary of the activities on your properties over the past three months and the results that have been produced. ...
Your annual report should be clear and complete as to the properties activity over the past year, and if possible should set out some of the plans for yhour activities in the coming year ...
When you visit the countries in which you are carrying out your activities, seek out the best professional consultants, including lawyers and accountants that can find. Many third world and developing countries have complex laws governing business activities...
These foreign professionals should work with your advisers in Canada to ensure that you can readily achieve the legal and regulatory requirements your company will need to live with in Canada and abroad. This will also help you to establish the best corporate structure from an ownership and tax point of view and will streamline the annual audit of your financial statements. (From Finding Exploration Funding by Lenard F. Boggio, Partner, Coopers & Lybrand, pgs. 1.1.6-1.1.12) |
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:47 am Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
Mining Ventures: Raising Money
Materials prepared for the Continuing Legal Education seminar, Raising Money for Mining Ventures, held in Vancouver, B.C. on May 2, 1997.
Course Coordinator: Graham H. Scott, Scott, Bissett, Vancouver
| Quote: | Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks
-- Herodotus (485-425 B.C.)
Summary
This paper highlights some of the issues relating to successfully financing the small ("junior or junior mining") company engaged in mineral exploration. To this end, a discussion is provided of the unique nature of mineral exploration and the environment within which this activity is conducted. The context within which financing of mineral exploration occurs is established by a review of equity market activity, investor behavior, and factors contributing to the recent high demand for mineral exploration stocks. Recent trends in financing of mineral exploration are illustrated with Vancouver Stock Exchange equity financing statistics. A brief discussion of the present environment for financing precedes an examination of some key company-related characteristics, which will likely be considered by industry corporate finance personnel, investors, and regulatory staff, when reviewing financing proposals. These key characteristics should be considered by those contemplating, or actively seeking, public financiang of mineral exploration ventures. |
| Quote: | | ... For the general case, the probability that an exploration project will result in the development of a mine is estimated to be one in one thousand (Wanless, 1983). The cost of mineral exploration has been estimated to be 4 to 5% of the value of expected production (Carrington). However, when exploration costs are adjusted for the cost of capital, they are estimated to range from 12-30% of mine derived revenue. (Mackenzie, 1995) (From Criteria to Consider When Seeking Public Financing by Ken Karchmar, P. Geo, of the Vancouver Stock Exchange, II The Mineral Exploration Environment, p. 4.1.02) |
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| Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: |
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The Economist
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The new gold rush
Miner '09er
A price of $900 an ounce is quite an incentive
June 6/08
| Quote: | STEVE HERSCHBACH has seen it all before. There is a number, he explains, at which greed overcomes fear, and rationality goes out the window. “Last year the price of gold hit $700 an ounce and I thought it was going to take off, but it really didn't happen,” says Mr Herschbach, an amateur prospector for more than 30 years and owner of the Alaska Mining and Diving shop in Anchorage. But when it broke $1,000 earlier this year, “Well, we're in the middle of it now. Everyone hoping to make a buck has suddenly come out of the woodwork.” The price has fallen back a bit, but is still over $900.
Mr Herschbach's annual order of prospecting gear—shovels, dredges, gold pans, sluiceboxes, metal detectors and the like—sold out in March, months before the season generally gets under way, and he has since put in a second order. His equipment suppliers, however, are running a three-month backlog.
Most of his customers are doomed to disappointment. The game has not changed that much since the 1850s, Mr Herschbach reckons. “If you think digging ditches in pouring down rain while being eaten alive by bugs is fun, well you're gonna love gold mining.” Not only is prospecting hard, physical work, but “you really gotta know your stuff.” Experience, he explains, really does count. “You can have the best equipment and a great location, but if you don't know what you're doing it's going to be pretty tough.” If it was easy, he adds, gold wouldn't cost as much as it does.
Yet, for those willing to give it a try, there are dozens of websites and forums willing to dole out advice or sell you something. Membership in gold-prospecting clubs and associations has surged. The 45,000-member Gold Prospectors Association of America reported that renewals at the close of 2007 had doubled over the previous year. In addition to a bi-monthly magazine and an online forum where members can exchange stories and tips, the GPAA hosts a number of events where members congregate at sites to dig for gold and meet other members.
Alaska, because of its size, remoteness and relatively relaxed regulatory climate, tends to draw the most, and most serious, prospectors. With vast tracts of land accessible only by air or boat, there is still a lot of gold left to be discovered.
However, most sites of any potential will have some sort of claim on them. For those who don't want to hassle with the paperwork, there are numerous “pay-to-mine” operations which, for a fixed fee, will provide the site, the equipment, some basic guidance and then let the novice try his or her hand at prospecting. A lucky few may find enough gold to help pay their expenses (which can run up to $2,500 per week plus another $500 in airfares from Anchorage), but most will go home with just a sore back and a story or two to tell. The odds are better in Las Vegas. (-- p. 37) |
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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This England
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Literary Landscapes of England
The 'beloved Bucks' of Benjamin Disraeli
Autumn, 2007
| Quote: | Educated at Miss Roper's school in Islington and then Higham Hall School, Walthamstow, Disraeli left education at the age of 16 or 17 and, for a short time, was articled to a firm of solicitors. In the autumn of 1824 he had begun to speculate in South American mining shares but when the bubble burst barely a year later the young man was left with crippling debts that burdened him until late middle age. ...
Luckily, his first novel, Vivian Grey was published not long afterwards and earned him 200 pounds. It was an extravagant piece of writing, relating the whole story of the Representative and lampooning Murray's involvement in the disaster. It was not an action designed to win Disraeli any friends and the resulting recriminations alienated several influential people in the literary and political worlds, John Murray included. ...
His preference for dandified clothes, including lace shirts, green velvet trousers and showy jewellery, combined with his affected speech and mannerisms to create a raffish and exotic impression. He had also become notorious for conducting a scandalous affair with a married woman, Lady Henrietta Sykes, the original of his novel Henrietta Temple.
All these factors marked Disraeli out for ridicule amongst his peers, hence that catastrophic failure of his maiden speech. To his credit he learned from this experience and toned down his appearance and speaking style for his subsequent orations. In time Disraeli developed a talent for coining striking phrases, such as "I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole," "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics," and "Experience is the child of Thought."
In August 1839 Disraeli married Mary Anne Wyndham, a wealthy widow 12 years his senior. Gossipmongers at the time implied that he had married for money alone, but the couple were clearly devoted to each other and Mary Anne once remarked, "Dizzy married me for my money but if he had the chance again he would marry me for love." (-- pgs. 22-24) |
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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BC Business
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Deep Freeze
Joanne "Joey" Freeze is a wife, a mother and a geologist. As
president and CEO of a local mioning company, she also happens to be sitting on a promising deposit of copper in northern Peru.
By Susan Hollis
February, 2008
| Quote: | ... Freeze’s curiosity for the workings of the earth’s crust was a given from the start. “My dad was in the oil business, so I understood the exploration mentality and pioneering and such,” she says, adding that when she entered the mineral-exploration field, women were not a common entity. “I was very lucky that when I started, it was just the right time when people were realizing that women can do it too. The women who were a little bit older than me definitely had a harder time getting jobs. What surprises me is how few women have come into the end of the business that I’m in, as an executive or running a company… In university we were 25 to 30 per cent women, but it’s not 25 to 30 per cent women in the business end now.”
Graduating from the University of Western Ontario in 1978 with a BA in geography and from UBC in 1981 with a BSc in geology, Freeze cut her teeth in mineral exploration across Northern B.C. and Chile before moving to Peru with her family in 1994. Employed as consultants, she and her husband soon had a keen understanding of the geological bounty to be discovered in the area. ... It was during this period that Freeze met Candente co-founder Fredy Huanqui, who at the time was well known in Peru as the “Inca with a Midas touch.” While working with Freeze for Arequipa Resources Ltd in Peru, Huanqui was a key player in the discovery of a large gold deposit. The find, dubbed Pierina after Huanqui’s daughter, sold to Barrick Gold Corp. for about $1 billion in 1996.
“It was one of those phenomenal discoveries of the day; everybody in the industry was talking about it,” says Freeze. “That kind of ties into one of the misunderstandings of the industry. A lot of people seem to think we go to South America because it’s cheaper to mine there, but we go there because it’s very rich in minerals, and most of the ground hasn’t been walked, so there is still a lot to be discovered.” Roused by the momentum of the Pierina find, Huanqui and Freeze formed Candente in 1997, just in time for mineral prices to plummet. It was during this period that Candente acquired rights for the Cañariaco Norte Copper Deposit in northern Peru. Seven years, 26,000 metres of rock and 82 drill holes later, Candente’s preliminary explorations suggest a significant amount of copper. With improved mineral market prices, the company is now looking at developing the mine single-handedly. Projected costs vary, depending on how the company extracts the copper. It would cost around $142 million to extract the copper through leaching, which has an associated recovery rate of 60 per cent. Milling, which has a recovery rate of 90 per cent, would double the cost. Freeze says they’ll start raising the money through banks and Peruvian pension funds as soon as a feasibility study is wrapped up next year. (-- pgs. 88-95) |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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The Beaver
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Getaway
Mining Tourist Gold
Katherine McIntyre travels to Dawson City, where the streets echo with memories of fast times. and the rush for riches.
October/November, 2007
| Quote: | It was once a First Nations fishing village located on a piece of swampy permafrost at the edge of the Yukon River. But then came the gold rush, and Dawson City became, for a while, the "Paris of the North."
The transformation began in August 1896, when local prospectors George Carmack, Dawson Charlie and Skookum Jim Mason found gold in nearby Rabbit Creek (now named Bonanza Creek). When news of the discovery spread across the world, thousands of stampeders answered the siren call, heading north to make their fortune scrabbling for gold.
At the same time, slick enterpreneurs discovered an easier way to strike it rich. They opened sawmills and built casinos, dance halls, hotels, saloons, restaurants and houses for the successful. By 1898, Dawson City had swollen into a ramshackle conglomeration of more than 40,000 miners and hangers-on, become the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg.
But as miners found fewer and flecks of gold in their pans, Dawson experienced a mass exodus. In 1899 alone, eight thousand people left Dawson City to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Within a few years, Dawson City reverted into a Subarctic community of about two thousand residents, many haunted by memories of long-gone dancing girls and fast living. By 1960, Dawson claimed a mere three hundred and fifty residents.
With its wild and turbulent history behind it, Dawson City today mines for touris gold. The city of about two thousand people draws close to 60,000 tourists each year ... (-- p. 54) |
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:39 am Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
British Columbia
Magazine Subscription
Our history in pictures
From the gold-rush frenzy of 1858 to our growing Olympic fever in 2008, photographers have been there to capture a visual record of the making of British Columbia. Join us for a phtographic journey through the past 150 years.
By Jane Nahirnny
Summer, 2008
| Quote: | Cariboo Wagon Road
This iconic photograph of travellers on the Cariboo Wagon Road is synonymous with our province's pioneering history. Gold strikes along the Fraser River brought thousands of enterprising California prospectors northward in the spring of 1858 - so many that the British government hastily founded the colony of British Columbia that fall to establish its claim on the region.
From the Fraser, nugget hunters moved north to even greater riches in the Cariboo. Roadhouses, saloons, and whole towns popped up overnight, and the freshly minted colony invested more than $1-million to construct a good road between Yale, on the south Fraser, and the Cariboo gold fields.
(The original route, judge Matthew Baillie Begbie decreed, was "... utterly impassable for any animal except a man, a goat or dog.") Here, freight wagons on the Cariboo Wagon Road make the perilous descent down "Eight Mile Bluff" near Spences Bridge, circa 1867. (Photo caption, p. 35) |
| Quote: | James Douglas
right: History books call him "the father of British Columbia." As governor of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, James Douglas defused the threat of American annexation, maintained law and order in the gold fields, built towns in the Interior and ordered the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road. But few know the humble beginnings of the former fur trader and Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor. Born to a Scottish plantation owner and a "free colored" woman in British Guiana (now Guyana), Douglas was shipped off to Canada at 16 to work in the Hudson's Bay Company. His wife, Amelia, was also of mixed blood, with an Irish-Canadian father and Cree mother. To end up as a knight and lady of the British Empire was an usual reward, observed historian and author John Adams in Old Square Toes and His Lady. (Photo caption, p. 36)
Old Square Toes and His Lady
Hardcover
By John D. Adams
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| Quote: | Saloons aplenty
left: Hotels and saloons, such as Nelson's Royal Hotel shown here in 1898, gave prospectors and pioneers a warm place to congregate over a glass of beer or whiskey. At the height of the gold rush in 1862, Victoria listed 60 saloons among its many business establishments. During its heyday in the mid 1890s, the mining town of Sandon, about 100 kilometres north of Nelson, offered its 4,000 to 5,000 residents 29 hotels, 28 saloons, an opera house, and one of Canada's largest red-light districts. By 1897, nearby Rossland had 7,000 people and 42 saloons. (Photo caption, p. 43) |
| Quote: | Far, far from home, we miners roam,
We feel its joys no more,
These we have sold for yellow gold,
On Fraser River's shore.
(Far From Home, a folk song from 1858, p. 58) |
| Quote: | Fraser River War
How British Columbia became a colony
The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 attracted some 30,000 miners from America into the British-controlled region of New Caledonia. Propelled by liquor and gold fever, they overwhelmed the Fraser Canyon's Nlaka'pamux people, who had been collecting gold on the river's banks for years. Friction turned to anger, and anger to bloodshed. Accounts from the time allude to hundreds of deaths.
When word of the violence reached James Douglas, then governor of the British colony of Vancouver Island, he was gravely concerned. Already he knew a strong lobbgy of Americans citing 'manifest destiny' sought to annex New Caledonia. The killing of U.S. citizens in the Fraser Canyon would only fuel their fervor and could prompt the 1,500 American troops stationed across the border to charge north to protect their compatriots.
To keep any of this news from reaching London, Douglas suppressed official accounts of the Fraser River War, and hurried to the mainland to meet with frightened miners who were demanding protection.
By the time he arrived, the worst was over. Chief Spintlum had successfully advocated peace to his fellow Nlaka'pamux chiefs and, in meetings with militia leader Henry Snyder, had negotiated an end ot the violence. Douglas helped to cement the truce by allocating land along the river to the native people in verbal agreements - generous settlements that were ignored by susequent government officials.
To ward off further threats from the Americans, Douglas worked with British officials to create the Crown colony of British Columbia in November, 1858, and served as its governor for five and a half years. (-- p. 59) |
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| Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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Smithsonian
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Where East Met (Wild) West
Excavations in a legendary gold rush town uncover the unsung labors of Chinese immigrants on the frontier
By Raffi Khatchadourian
March, 2005
| Quote: | The fortunes of Deadwood's Chinatown grew along with the town. Locals soon took to calling the Black Hills "the richest 100 square miles on earth." The boom eventually generated a billion dollars in gold. But by 1918, with the town's major gold deposits tapped out, Deadwood's economy went into a sharp decline. The Chinese left for other parts of America or returned to China; by 1935 none remained.
Barely any serious attention was given to the history of Deadwood's Chinese community until recently, says Rose Estep Fosha, director of the excavation. At the Rapid City lab, she spreads out an old insurance map across her cluttered desk. "We've got here an emporium, a gaming house, three homes, a boarding house, a bakery, hay barns and a laundry," she says. "The gaming houses and emporium are the only buildings still standing."
...So far, the archaelogists' tentative findings underscore the influence of Western culture on Deadwood's Chinese: French cleavers are buried beside Asian-style spoons, beer bottles beside porcelain jugs for rice wine, gambling dice beside mahjong tiles...(-- p. 26) |
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| Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Classic western
DVD
| Quote: | Mexican kid: State lottery, senor?
Fred C. Dobbs (played by the inimitable Bogart): Beat it! I ain't buying no lottery tickets!
Kid: 4,000 pesos is the big prize.
F: Get away from me, you little bugger!
Kid: The whole ticket is only 4 pesos. It's a sure winner.
F: I ain't GOT 4 pesos.
Kid: Buy a quarter of a ticket for 1 peso silver.
F: If you don't get away from me, I'll throw this water right in your face!
Kid: Then 1/10th of a ticket, senor, for 40 --- (Dobbsy throws a glass of water in the kid's face). -- (undaunted) Senor, buy 1/20th. 1/20th costs you only 20 centavos. Look, senor, add the figures up. You get 13. What better number could you buy? It's a sure winner.
F: Yeah? How soon's the drawing?
Kid: Only three weeks off.
F: Alright, give me a twentieth so I don't have to look at your ugly face.
Kid: Gracias. Come again next time. |
Thus is ol' Dobbsy able to stake himself and a partner for a chance at the mother lode - and they'll get one, too - if only they can stay square with the man leading them to the magic mountain, a spry, goat-footed Walter Huston, who cannot help stealing the show. Even girls like this western.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:04 am Post subject: |
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Divisadero
Hardcover
By Frostback Wonder Michael Ondaatje
| Quote: | More than a century before us, in August 1849, a group of men set up camp in a valley more than a hundred miles north of Petaluma. They built cabins at a place they called Badger Hill and began to search for gold. There were twenty of them panning the streams, standing knee-deep in the icy rivers, and they almost surrendered to the winter storms that overtook them. But within six months gold-laced quartz was unearthed in the place that would eventually be called Grass Valley. A hundred ramshackle hotels went up, and bizarre names for mines began to speckle the constantly repreinted maps - Slumgullion, Delerium Tremens, Bogus Thunder, Hell's Delight, Graveyard, Lone Jack, Rich Hell, Ne Plus Ultra, Silver Fork, Rocking Horse, Sultana. Men would be stranded in the mountains with no supplies and become hunters out of necessity, killing grouse, cattle, bears, with shotguns and pistols. Butcher shops sprang up. Steamboats travelled inland to the furthest point of navigation - as far as the Feather River. And a many-headed civilization arrived. Gamblers, water entrepreneurs, professional shootists, prostitutes, diarists, coffee drinkers, whisky merchants, poets, heroic dogs, mail-order brides, women falling in love with boys who walked within the realm of luck, old men swallowing gold to conceal it on their return journeys to the coast, balloonists, mystics, Lola Montez, opera singers - good ones, bad ones, those who fornicated their way across the territory. Dynamiters blasted steep grades and the land under your feet. There were seventeen miles of tunnels beneath the town of Iowa Hill. Sonora burned. Weaverwille burned. Shasta and Columbia burned. Were rebuilt and burned again and rebuilt again. Sacramento flooded.
A hundered years later, at the time of Coop's obsession, there would still be five thousand full-time gold miners along the banks of the Yuba and Russian rivers. They scouted out the old towns in the Sierras named after lovers and dogs and characters in novels - names that were a time capsule of hunger and desire for a new life. Ne Plus Ultra! At each filament-like dot on the country maps, something had happened. On this riverbank two brothers killed each other arguing about which direction to travel. At this clearing a woman was traded for a site. It was as if there were a novella by Balzac round every bend.
Prospectors now drove up in Airstreams, pulling gas-fuelled dredges to suck up whatever remained on the river bottoms. A century of flooding and storms had knocked loose the gold from the prehistoric beds, sluicing it down into the rivers. Miners in wetsuits were 'sniping' the streams, and swam in the underwater darkness holding giant cauldrons of light. (From Part One, Anna, Claire and Coop, pgs. 12-13) |
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Last edited by editor on Sun Sep 27, 2009 4:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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editor
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Joined: 09 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:49 am Post subject: |
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From Hosers, eh?
Gamblers and Dreamers
Women, Men and The Community in the Klondike
Paperback
By Charlene Porsild
| Quote: | | Editor's Note: Reading a book by a history professor is usually about as much fun as a snapped garter in an ice storm, but there must be something in the long, rolling Nebraska priairie, home to our favorite author, Willa Cather, that inspires greatness because this one is probably the greatest collection of photos and stories about the Klondike ever. |
About the author:
| Quote: | | Charlene Porsild was born in the Yukon and raised in northern Alberta. She teaches in the Department of History at the University of Nebraska and is the editor of the Great Plains Quarterly. Her grandparents were also pioneers of the Yukon. (From the back cover). |
| Quote: | Of course, just as the NWMP (North West Mounted Police) (more about Soapy Smith and Sam Steele) had predicted, outlawing prostitution within city limits only moved it underground and soon there were complaints that prostitutes were back in Dawson, operating brothels disguised as cigar stores and laundries. When only a few of these were prosecuted others moved back from Lousetown and business continued as usual until complaints forced another flamboyant show of enforcement. This had the effect of temporarily quieting the moral opposition, but it seemed to do little to discourage the operators or their clientele.
The Mounties took the same approach with public drunkenness, vagrancy, and dishonest gaming. Even though it was well known that gambling was illegal in Canada, most of Dawson's larger saloons freely operated gaming tables and wheels. In a community where wealth was easily gained and easily disposed of, gambling was simply accepted as a fact of life. The NWMP were reluctant to ban open gambling, in fact, for fear of driving it underground. Superintendent Constantine's position was that the community was best served not only by allowing the gambling to continue but by allowing it to do so in the open, where it was more likely to be run honestly: 'All of the gambling in Dawson is done in the gambling halls, openly and subject ot the observation of anyone and everyone; consequently what the miners call a square is generally played. It was felt that if open gambling was suppressed, the gamblers would resort to secret methods.' This graduated system of accommodation and control worked well in a community in constant flux, especially when the local authorities were willing to tolerate vice within certain limits. Conflict between local authorities and the demi-monde was minimized in this way, and the best interests of the community remained at the centre of law enforcement policy.
It was dissent from the South over the operation of the dance halls and gambling houses that shattered the system, undermining both local authority and the mutual respect achieved over time. The Laurier government in Ottawa came increasingly under fire in 1900, in southern [u]Canada, at least, for allowing an immoral and profligate atmosphere to prevail in the Yukon. ... (-- p. 105) |
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