Document 77: Excerpts from Diary of Tom Boldrick
Klondike Miners, VFMS, Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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Stewart River
Fourth of July
Monday July 4 1898. at midnight last night our party being American citizens saluted by firing their pistols and being so many it seemed like a battle between the Spaniards and American
it sounded grand in the stillness of this vast solitude and awakened memories of home & the grand times the folks in old Denison would have on the morrow But we trudged on cold wet tired & hungry yet hopeful
I start Monday with the rest to sink a hole to see if we have anything that glitters like gold We dig about 18 inches when we strike frozen ground we gather wood build a fire in the hole which has thawed about 4 inches eagerly pan a pan of dirt & get lots of glittering stuff in the pan but alas it is mica we repeat the same thing for the whole day with the same results there is gold here someplace got to our blankets to sleep but the mosquitoes O Lord & so we celebrate the fourth of July