ODDS’N’SODS — The ongoing need for funds

(Editor’s Note: Raising funds for exploration and development can be difficult at the best of times, and in any century, as is evident from the following correspondence concerning The Alaskan Bonanza Mining, Trading and Transportation Company which had big plans for a gold project in the Yukon in the late 1890s.)

— From an August, 1898, letter to bondholders by Chicago fiscal agent Klondike Promotion Company:

“Dear Friend: We enclose a copy of a telegram received from the Alaskan Bonanza Mining, Trading & Transportation Company’s Yukon Expedition, which indicates that the Bark Hunter arrived at St. Michael’s July 23rd and that the expedition are cents sic] probably now up the Yukon at the gold fields. It is not intended to make a dividend to the bond holders until the Hunter had returned and then make one dividend large enough to take up the entire earnings of her voyage up and down; but as it had been substantially promised to the bond holders that a dividend would be paid in August, it has been decided to commence the monthly dividend of two per cent. This is to be continued as long as there are sufficient earnings to pay the same. We send you herewith a notice of the amount due you. Another dividend will probably be paid in September, and it is hoped to continue the monthly dividends at that rate, as it is believed that the handsome profit of twenty-four per cent per annum can be made out of the conservative enterprises of the company — that is to say, transportation, trading, lumbering, with such other business as it may undertake to carry on, without depending at all upon the product of the mines.

“The Yukon Expedition will probably be at work in the gold fields before this letter reaches you, but as it is a long distance up to that country, and as it takes a long time to get back, it is probable that large mining dividends will not be made for some months yet.

“It is with pleasure, however, that we announce that the company is beginning to pay dividends, which, if continued, will amount anyway to twenty-four per cent per annum, which is about eight times what government bonds pay and five or six times what municipal, state and corporate bonds pay.

“P.S. Remember this dividend is paid from the earnings from freight and passengers, and that large or speculative dividends can only come when the gold is taken out and comes down from the mines. Remember that two per cent a month, however, is a big thing; try to get us an agent to push sales in your vicinity, if you have not already done so. An elegant souvenir is in course of preparation”

— From a Sept. 30, 1899, letter to bondholders from Klondike Promotion Company:

“Dear friend: We take pleasure in sending you herewith notice of the September dividend of the Alaskan Bonanza Mining, Trading and Transportation Company. It is a matter of congratulation that the company’s manager at Cape Nome has been able to send down considerable money from there from time to time and to assure you that there seems no doubt of a continuation of monthly dividends . . .”

— From a Jan. 16, 1904, letter to stockholders by the General Manager of The Consolidated Alaskan Co., 84 Adams Street, Chicago, Ill.: “. . . Please read Mr. Krause’s letter. Does it not express your views also? Just think what five thousand stockholders could do if they would each adopt Mr. Krause’s suggestion and send in $5. Would you not like to be one to do at least that much? If so, DO IT NOW. As Mr. Krause says, let every one line up this time and it will be easy for all. I do not believe we have a single stockholder who could not do that much if they would. Five dollars will buy 10 shares during the next thirty days, and from the stock held in trust for the owners of stock in the old company, we will give as many shares free (total 20 shares). If $25,000 is raised in thirty days, no more free shares will be given, and the stock will be sharply advanced . . .”