“Flour Gold” Prospector From Yakataga

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31032, 12 April 1966, Page 20

“Flour Gold” Prospector From Yakataga

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter— Copyright) ANCHORAGE, (Alaska).

A broken leg has forced 74-year-old George Nelson out of his cabin in the wilderness for his first view of Anchorage since 1926. The grizzled trapper-pro-spector was injured while trying to fell a tree for winter firewood in Yakataga, a remote area on the bleak shores of the Gulf of Alaska. He says he is in Anchorage for “a retread” and hopes to return shortly to his cabin. Nelson says a good part of his income comes from “flour gold”—dust so fine it will float on water. He runs the water through a small sluice box to recover the gold. The grey-bearded man, who calls himself a “mossback,”

has traped, guided and prospected in Alaska for 41 years, most of them living alone. He settled in Yakataga because he always like the coast and the boats as did his father before him.

In past years, Nelson took pride in setting a good table in his wilderness home. He preserved wild strawberries, blueberries and rhubarb from his own “garden patch.” He caught and smoked his own salmon, shot ducks and geese and varied the diet with goats from the nearby mountains and an occasional bear. He rendered down the bear and goat fat for shortening. He was still making his own bread when the accident took place. In the last couple of years, however, he has not tried for goats because the “hills have gotten steeper, sowehow.”