Evening Journal

Stories of a New El Dorado Read Like Fairy Tales.

GOLD SAID TO ASSAY $10,000 A TON.

This New Miners' Paradise Exists Near Mount Baker, Wash., and Access to It Is Reported to Be Very Difficult.

SEATTLE, Wash., Sept. 27.-The first authentic news concerning Washington's new El Dorado near Mount Baker and how to get there is brought to Seattle by E. W. Saportas, president of the information and registry bureau, who, with Frank Crydo and Gus Wagner, experienced miners of Dawson City, went to the scene of the latest excitement a week ago last Saturday. According to Mr. Saportas, the route is passable and not very difficult until within five miles of the find. The last five miles present obstacles that would forever discourage any one not an experienced prospector and mountaineer.

There is in Mount Baker and its surrounding heights enough gold, says Mr. Saportas, to keep prospectors busy for the next ten years.

In samples of ore that were brought back by the informant Mr. Bogardus, the assayer, by a cursory inspection declared that free gold existed in exceedingly good quantities.

"I have met many men," said Mr. Saportas, "who came from Mount Tomohoy (Tomboy), and they all reiterated stories concerning a great strike of $10,000 to the ton made in Bear mountain, in Tomohoy, and several others have found ore equal to the discovery in Bear mountain."

A special correspondent of The Evening Times sends word from Sumas as follows:

"The gold discoveries in the mountains of Whatcom county are beyond any doubt the richest in the annals of the Pacific coast or even in Alaska. So say the most experienced prospectors whom I have accompanied to the scene of the recent finds."

The recent find is in Bald mountain, situated in the northeast portion of Whatcom county, northeast of Baker mountain. The mineral range runs northwest and southeast and today is located for 30 miles. There is no telling how much farther it extends.

The vein is in five claims, Lone Jack, Jennie, Sidney, Lulu and Whist, and it varies from 3 to 5 feet in thickness. It runs under a layer of porphyry ledge in a serpentine manner, and auriferous shale appears in the ledge. It is free milling quartz of sugar and rose color, carrying copper and silver. The vein can be traced half a mile. The cropping is under solid porphyry.

The gold is known as "wire gold" and can be seen with the naked eye and picked out with the fingers. That great quantities of it exist there is no doubt.

The formation of the range in which the find is located does not look to be very rich in minerals. If there is any placer mining, it has not as yet been demonstrated to be a paying proposition.