THE KUSKO TIMES
j JL X. Grant, Publisher, Sole
Owner and Editor.
Published Every Saturday
$1 Per Month
Advertising Rates.
Reading- matter, per line, pea
issue ..$ .28
lLegul advurtiaeiueuts, per line,
issue...... JO
^Transient display, per inch, per
issue (minimum charge $1).... .50
Entered as sect-skj-class matter Au
tgust 29th, 1928, at the postoffies at
r!Fokotna, Alaska, under the Act of
ilftarcb 8. 1879.
'Takotna, Alaska, December 12, 1931.
1B10LOG1CAL SURVEY MAKES
.PRELIMINARY REPORT ON
THE ALASKA RAILROAD BELT
(Continued from Last Issue.)
So little development work has
Ibeen done that a calculation of the
ttonnage of assured mineral is not yet
jpossible, and what might be termed
(Qre depends upon what the cost of
.mining, transportation, and reduction
.may prove to be—facts which at pres
ent are unknown. The siLver content
.of the galena is reported to be consid
terable, hut the results of assay sam
ples are not yet available. In gen
eral, however, it may be said that
•.there is probably a large quantity,
iperhaps to be measured in hundreds
.of thousands of tons, of zinc, lead,
.and possibly silver-bearing material
<of fair tenor thal: could be proved by
.careful and extensive pros. It has
mat yet been demonstrated that this
unaterial can mined, transported,
.and smelted at a profit.
Valdez Creek District
•C. B. Ross, who has examined the
llode prospects of the Valdez Creek
.district, reports that they comprise
dfinses of quartz in sheared and al
tered diorite or in slate. The veins
irange from a few inches to 3 l'eet in
width, and the shear zones are as
itauch as 7 feet wide. Some veins
ihave been traced for several hundred
feet along the outcrop, and some
.samples assayed for the prospectors
ihave been found to contain $80 or
naore in gold to the ton. The assay
J»turn8 from the samples collected
(during this investigation have not yet
.been received. No lode mine in this
(district is now producing.
West Fork of Chulitna District. ..
The area west of the Chulitna
tfiver, including the basins of Ohio
(Creek and the west fork of the Chu
:litma and the intervening country,
was also examined by C. P. Ross.
.•Several groups of lode claims are
ibdld in this area. The lodes are all
.quartz veins, accompanied by altered
And sheared rock. In most of the
•veins the principal value is in gold,
Ibut some contain considerable copper,
<ane contains notable amounts of lead,
.and all carry much arsenic. In gen
ial the lodes are 2 to 5 feet wide
And carry moderate amounts of gold.
Some have been traced for several
hundred feet, but some are known to
he short. Locally wide areas of coun
try rock carry disseminated sulphides
FIRE INSURANCE
You should carry a liberal amount of fire insurance,
for the sake of your credit and your peace of mind.
Needless to say this insurance should be of the verv
highest quality.
Thet’n the Kind Written By
Alaska Insurance Agency
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
r»qprhn at Enrico Times.
^_
and stringers of sulphide-bearing
quartz. Gold is associated with the
sulphides in varying amounts. The
Golden Zone group of claims covers a
well-mineralized area in which, be
sides numerous stringers, there are
fuartz veins of some length. A tunnel
is no wbeing extended to cut one of
the mofe promising veins at a depth
of about 100 feet.
Only a part of the assay retuns
from samples taken during the pres
the investigation have yet been re
ceived, but these and other data indi
cate that the better ore contains from
half an ounce to more than 2 ounces
of gold to the ton. Although this dis
trict does not appear to contains
high-grade ore in large quantities,
some of the lodes are of considerable
size, and under favorable conditions
and efficient management several may
eventually be worked at a profit.
Willow Creek District.
The gold lode mines of the Willow
Creek district have been studied in
detail by J. C. Ray. During the sum
mer five mine shave been actively
milling ore, and some high high-grade
ore has been mined from several
other properties. The largest lode
mine in the railroad belt, the Lucky
Shot, has installed a new 35-ton mill,
and its owners pla nto continue min
ing and milling on a 12-month basis.
Between 8 Oand 100 men were em
ployed at this mine during the sum
mer. All other operations in the dis
trict are on a much mailer scale.
In some of the veins mined there
are two and in places three genera
tions of quartz, of which the earliest
contains the least sulphides and gold,
and the latest contains the most. The
early quartz is represented by brec
cias cemented by later quartz and by
segments of veins that do not con
form to the trend of the later quartz.
The persistent hanging walls that are
followed in mining are later than the
latest quartz in the veins, and there
arc numerous postmineral faults,
'which, however^ have not proved a
serious handicap in mining. There is
little ‘evidence of notable enrichment,
and the close analogy between these
veins and those in certain California
districts, where mining has been car
ried on to depths of several thousand
feet, gives great reason for hope that
the gold ore in the Willow Creek dis
trict extends to depths far below any
that have so far been reached. There
is also reason for believing that the
district contains many other valuable
veins that have not so far been dis
covered.
Girdwood and Moose Pass Districts.
Although the lode prospects of the
Girdwood and Moose Pass districts
are scattered along a north-south belt
for a distance of^ome 40 miles, the
character of the veins and the gen
eral conditions under which they oc
cur are so similar that the two areas
may be considered together. Ralph
Tuck has made a special study of the
ore deposits in the Moose Pass area,
and Charles Park of those in the
Girdwood area. Is this district as a
whole there are many gold lode pros
pects, and in times past several prop
erties have produced, though at pres
ent only a few are yielding ore. Al
though the veins are small none
have yet been demonstrated to be
continuous for many hundred* of feet,
either along the strike or in depth,
nevertheless they are characterized
by the presence of free gold, and
some exceedingly rich ore has been
extracted. Apparently there has been
some enrichment of the shaDoe per*
tions of the veins, but their general
character and the mineralogie asso
ciation indicate that primary gold is
present and should continue to consid
erable depths below any that ham so
tar been reached by mining. However*
the general thinness of the veins, the
apparently moderate extnt both hori
zontally and vrtically of any single
vein, the large variations in strike
within short distances, and the pres
ence of numerous forks and offshoots
indicate that great caution should be
exercised in planning extensive de
velopments, and that the wise course
In both prospecting and mining will
be to follow the shoots closely.
Assays of samples taken from some
of the dikes in the Moose Pass dis
trice show the presence of gold in en
! couraging amounts, and it is possible
that portions of some of these dikes
may be rich enough to justify min
ing.
Nonmetal lie Resources.
A study of nonmetallic resources
other than coal in the railroad belt
and an examination of miscellaneous -
metallic prospects that did not lie
within the districts already described
were assigned to G. A. Waring. He
examined a large number of pros
pects, including those containing
limestone, manganese, and clays of
various types, as well as several
metal-bearing lodes. None of these
I are now producing, but s sat any
time there may be a demand for some
of these materials, it was desirable
to learn the facts concerning their
distribution and qualities.
Anthracite Field of Upper
Valley.
One of the prime purposes of the
special appropriation'for the study of
the mineral resources of the railroad
belt was to determine the quality and
the amount of (tunable anthracite in
the upper Matanuska valley. It was
realized that thenatural exposures of
the coal formation are not sufficiently
good to furnish as complete informa
tion as was desired, and that eventu
ally some drill in gmight be necessary.
However, a detailed surface examina
tion was essential to determine
whether the heavy expense of core
drilling would be justified. Accord
ingly a field party was organized,
with R. W. Richards in charge of the
geologic studies.. G. A. Waring was
associated with Mr. Richards during
the latter part of the summer. A
large-srale topographil map of the
more promising portion of the an
thracite field was made, and a force
of laborers-was employed to open up
the coal exposures.
As a result of structural.
beds have been traced on Anthracite
Ridge proper that indicate a tonnage
of some half million tons of anthra
cite, but the coal occurs under such
structural conditions and in such a
topographic situation that in itself it
does not constitute a commercially
feasible coal field. From geologic ev
idence, however, there is a high de
gree of probability that related beds
extend southward from Anthracite
I Ridge beneath the gentler slopes that
| lie between the ridge and the
| nuska river. In that area the coal
| formation is in large part covered hy
| glacial deposits, but sufficient strac
1 tural observations on the coal fartua
i tion were made to indicate the proba
bility that the area contains reserves
of coal that may run into mapy'mil
lions of tons.
Although the surface showings-of
commercially important anthracite
were found in the southern axes, and
although some of the field observa
tions there directly warrant Hieas
sumption that such coal as actors is
of anthracite grade, nevertheless, as
already stated, the thick anthracite
beds of the northern part of the may
extend southward. Whether «r net
this is so can best be proved by can
drilling, and s drilling program to
determine the thickness, attitude,
quality, and depth of the usd Mow
the surface at the innnt fsusi fllii Is
calities therefore ^aeems- warranted.
>- Moosehidc Mittrand Boots
Fore- Boughtand Sold r Clothing
j&XLJLukds of Nice Freeh-Groceries and Fruits }
CM «Gooda«f. AlLKindfi
Beds. and. Bod4ni^
TakotnaPooLMMl
FbofJi Fruits ^ Candies ' Solfiifi&aki
Tobaccos ^ Cigars <■ Giganets
Apples ft Oranges
Downey
pp>p
Best of Meals and Rooms
I*H«n»tik* and
' * Vm4k (Mitlfy VdwaW
»=***■ KHmu* ttt)VBK '' MTR6
Miners’, Prospectafs^miid
Trappers’ Supplies