ALASKA’S MINERALS
(Cortnued from Pago 1.)
adjacent regions some gold has been
obtained from the lodes at Nuka Bay
and south of Hope. The mines in the
Willow Creek district have continued
to be productive, and the greatest in
crease was made at the Peru mine, on
Archangel creek. In the Fairbanks
region the Mohawk mine, on Ester
dome, and the Crites-Feldman prop
erty, on a tributary of Fairbanks
creek, yielded the greatest amount of
gold, but interest in prospecting for
- lodes in.several other places has been
stimulated. A small mill was com
pleted at the Wyoming mine, on Bed
rock creek.
In addition to the silver-lead prop
erties in the Hyder and Kantishna
districts, silver lode prospects, have
been -reported in.the vicinity of'Skag
way, near (the international boundary,
and development work has continued
on the silver-lead vein east of Wran
gell. Considerable silver is also re
enomre.d. from, the -■'copper ores—in
fact, these ores still continue to be
the largest source -of silver produced
Gold Placers.
There was a decided falling raff in
the amount of gold recovered'.' from;
the Alaska placers during '1825. . The
only cimps. where marked increases
' were reported are the. Ytmtna district;
i the Circle, Tolovana, ahd Koyuliuk
i districts, int the* Yukoh-Xanana re
fgiim;. ahd the Fair haven district, in
‘ -Se-wakd Peninsula. Some of the de
• icrease is- attributable to dry. weather
n in'thee early par tof the season and
floods in the fall. The decrease in the
T~Faivbanks and Nome districts, how
f every, was in phrtidue tothe fact that
i large- companies’ which .'had recently
r acquired extensive tracts ih both'these
districts were busy with preparatory
work and were not ready to produce.
This was especially due’irtrtfu.’(Fair
McGrath
Pool Hall
5
.Cigars \
s
.Tobaccos
I v Candies
| . Fruits
\ 'Soft Drinks
S'A Place to Meet
Your'Friends
\
Geo. Miltchlei1
Proprietor
Quicksilver
For Sale
:
At
$90 Flask
Parks Mine
Your Order Solicited
banks district, where the Fairbanks
Exploration Company, which had ac
quired large tracts that had been for
merly worked by a number of smal
operators, spent most of the season ir
stripping a large part of the vallej
of Goldstream creek, building ditches
and test-drilling large tracts so-that
subsequent mining could be baser
upon sound information and thus con
ducted with high efficiency and at low
cost. In the Nome district extensive
experimentation in the thawing of
frozen ground in advance of dredging
tied up two of the large dredges, sc
that it was late in th eseason before
they were operating to capacity.
According to preliminary estimates
the 24 dredges in operation in Alaska
in 1925 produced gold valued at abouf
$1,470,000, or about $100,000 less
than in 1024. The largest decrease ir
output from dredges was in the Nome
district, and the principal increase
was in the Yentna, Fairbanks anc
Circle districts. The new dredge of
the Tanana Valley Gold redging Com
pany, on Fish creek, in the Fairbanks
district, was not completed in time
to be in active operation during the
Copper.
In 1925, as in other years, the out
put .of copper. was, largely made b>
the Kennecott,. Mother Lode, anc
Green Butte mines, in the Coppei
river region, and the Beatson mine, oi
Latouche Island. The total prodttc
tion from .these properties in 1925 was
slightly larger than, in .1924. but mosi
of. the increase indicated in the fore
goinjc estimate is largely.attributable
to ' the higher price, .'of: copper. ii
Southeastern Alaska some productioi
of iopper wasureportSeChfrom thtrmiri
■ of.,the Alaska Palladium Company, oi
Kassan Peninsula, Prince of Wale:
Island, hut the most;valitable produc
from this mine was'palladium/ one o
the group‘of platinum metals.’ Pros
pecting for copper lodes in the Coppei
river region, hthef than in the vicin
ity of Kennecott,' and in the Prims
William Sound region, other than a
Latouche, was practically at a stand
I still, though in' both ' these region:
! copper mining and prospecting'' tia<
1 beerr active in'the past.
(Vial.
The production of coal showed i
I considerable decrease' for the year
! The outlook, however," tor an in
j creased production in 1926, if suitabf
, markets are' found, is exceedingl;
I good. In the Matanuska field th
.Evan Jones mine, the largest pro
! dncer, was completely closed down fo
j three months to make necessar;
changes and alterations, and after i
was reopened in August operation
were not at once resumed on as larg
a scale as formerly. Furthermore
i one of the former producers in th
I Moose creek field became involved ii
i certain legal difficulties, and as a re
I suit its output was reduced. Seriou
! floods in September interrupted traf
fic on the Moose creek spur and de
| layed the completion of an extensioi
of the railroad to the mines farthe
up the creek, which had been well un
der way earlier in the summer.
In the Healy River field much o
! the open season wras spent at the Sun
I-- -
Ladies’
Novelties Store
Met; rath
Stop and Think!
Where can I get a nice present
to send my friends?
Go to Miss E. 'Marsh's Little
Cash Store, where things are nice
and new.
Silk Dresses
Sweaters
All kinds of Silks
Hose
Hair Nets
Ladies’ Wear
Pretty Dolls
Suitcases and Trunks
Miss E. Marsh
Proprietor
trana mine in building a new tipple
and arranging the necessary yard and
tracks to permit the handling of 200
tons of coal a day. These improve
ments will add greatly to the facility
with which the coal can be handled,
and should improve the cleaning, siz
ing and sorting of the product. The
completion during th year of a steel
bridge across Tanana river will afford
a reliable connection for the branch
line that connects the mine with the
j main track of the Alaska Railroad.
Interest in the Bering River coal
i field was revived during the year, but
1 no productive mining was in progress.
Applications for coal prospecting per
mits were filed covering areas south
of Riley creek, near the Alaska Rail
road, and a short distance north of
Tanana. A little coal mining was car
ried on at the Chicagi creek mine, in
Seward Peninsula, and a small amount
of coal was dug by natives for local
use from the coal beds exposed near
Wainwright, in Northern -.Alaska.
Petroleum
All the petroleum produced in
Alaska continued to come from the
wells of the Ohilkat Oii t ompany.
This company’s property is near Ka
talla, where in addition to the oil
wells it operates a small refinery. The
gasoline and distillate produced by the
company are much in demand in the
local market, as they are said to be
of better grade than the usual com
mercial brands.
Exploration for petroleum contin
ued to be conducted, actively at sev
eral places in the Territory. On the
Alaska Peninsula, drilling at the test
well of the Standard Oil Company of
California on the Pearl creek dome
was continued throughout the year,
and, according to r.he latest reports
available, had been carried to the
depth "of about 5,000 feit, without,
however, tapping a commercial sup
ply of oil. Drilling b> the Associated
Oil Company in a near-by area is re
ported to have heen carried to a
depth of about 3,200 feet. The Geo
'ogical Survey, in a press bulletin pre
pared by W. K. Smith, has stated that
the ' Salmon ereek-Bear creek anti
cline, north of Jute Bay, and the
Wide Bay anticline are favorable
structural features to prospect and
that wells drilled-on either of these
anticlines would start at a geologic
horizon estimated at not less than
4,000 feet lower stratigraphically than
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Tokotna
Cigar Store
Tobaccos
' Cigars
Soft Drinks
Fred Dubois
Proprietor
(
(
CHARLIE’S
LAUNDRY
McGrath. Alaska
A Bath in a Real
Bath Tub
Shoe Repairing:
Sign Writing
Paper Hanging
Charles Rebhun
The Handy Man
the beds forming the upper part of
the Pearl creek dome.
Plans for the thorough testing of
the structure near the known pe
troleum seepages on Johnson creek,
in the Yakataga region, have been
fected by the General Petroleum Com
pany. A camp was established there,
and the necessary supplies and equip
ment were safely brought to the
property. 'Storms during the fall de
layed getting drilling under way as
earl yas had been hoped, but accord
ing to the latest information much of
the machinery had been set up and
will be operated throoughout the win
ter.
Hope of finding petroleum near the
Chickaloon coal ni ne, in the Upper
Matanuska val’
being taki
seems ui
many an
condition
able for t.)
! to a Star drill
ction. It
v' w of the
where geologic
be more favor
y of petroleum,
that drilling for oil in the Upper
Matanuska valley is attempted at this
time.
Examination of Naval Petroleum
Reserve No. 4, in Northern Alaska,
was continued by W. R. Smith, who
was a member of the Geological. Sur
vey party that went overiand during
the writer and spent all of the sum
mer in field work in this area. The
area traversed was mainly the high
lands of the Brooks- range and the
plateau and lowlands of Colville river,
to t he north. Although no new
seepages or other definite indications
of petroleum were found in the. area,
Mr. Smith noted many places north
of the Colville where excellent struc
tural conditions would afford good
collecting places for oil if it occurs in
the adjacent rocks.
Other Minerals.
Alaska during 192b produced lean
marble, gypsum, tin, platinum, quick
silver, and garnet. Lead showed a
considerable increase in quantity and,
owing to the higher price per unit, a
more than proportional increase ii
value over the output in 1924. Most
of the lead was recovered in the treat
rnent of ores whose principal value
was their gold or silver content. The
lead-bearing gold ores came almost
entirely trom the Alaska Juneau mine
in Southeastern Alaska, and the lead
bearing silver ores came princijS*!!?"
. from the Hyder district, in Southeast
ern Alaska, and the Kantishna die
| trict, north of Mount McKinley. The
output of marble came entirely from
t.he quarries of the Vermont Marble
I Company at Tokeen, on Prince of
| Wales Island, Southeastern Alaska.
; All the gypsum was produced by the
at Gypsum, southeast of Juneau, on
l Standard Gypsum Company, located
the east coast of Chicagof Island. The
tin ore, or cassiterite, was derived
from placers near York, in Seward
Peninsula, and from the Hot Springs
district, in the Yukon-Tanana region.
Some of the platinum metals were
won from placers in the vicinity of
Dime creek, Seward Peninsula, but
the larger part was palladium, re
covered from a copper lode on Kassan
Peninsula, Southeastern Alaska. A
little quicksilver was produced from
lodes in the Kuskokwim basin, some
distance northwest of Georgetown. A
prospecting party with a considerable
outfit went into this same general re
gion during 1025 to continue the ex
amination of the (juicksilver lodes. To
judge from the specimens sent out,
deposits of rich quicksilver ore have
been found and according to reports
will he developed as rapidly as cir
cumstances permit. The schists rn
the vicinity of Wrangell were the
1 source of the small output of garnet
that was reported from Southeastern
’ Alaska.
FOR SALE.
Large tank heater. Inquire at
Kusko Times.
PROFESSIONAL
Mrs. Jean McLean
Notary Public
Tokotna, Alaska
Laundry
Front Street, Tokotna
f
Mrs. Fred Dubois - Prop.
I
I
Rough and Dressed Lum
ber of All Kinds i
A Dredging or Hydraulicing
f p osition, Yankee Creek
About 7 mil< s long, extending from No. 1 below discovery t»
the mouth of the creek.
Pay located all along for a distance of about three mile* from
upper end, and pretty well prospected and cross-cut.
Average depth of ground is from 7 to 20 feet. Top is all black
muck,that can be scraped freely. No rock bigger than one’s fist.
Ground will go from 15 cents to $1 per square foot of bedrock.
Ditch on the ground, 3 miles long, together -with water rights.
Ground is pretty well cleared. There is also a drain, 3 miles long.
Also a water right on Ready Bullion creek, from- which water can
be brought to Yankee creek .with a, ditch less ' than a tnLe long
<4,000 feet), with,a pressure of 120 feet, feeing 1600 feet to the
work from the ditch.
After doing away with muck there will be from < to 6 feet
dirt to handle.
Only about $1!,000 has been taken out.
Prospecting wohk during the past winter has resulted in finding
values that run up to |1 per Square foot of bedrock.
1 will either shil the ground or give a lease on it. If the prospect
is satisfactory to the buyer, a cash payment will be-expected.
For further information, terms, etc., call on ground, or write -or,
telegraph me.
ED NOI.LETTE,
Tokotna, Alafek*
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