and Blvira (No. 402) leases. The Johnson and Ryan were the
first leases staked on Wheaton Creek. Later, Wheaton staked
the ground now known as the Elvira lease. These three cover
the lower canyon-section of the creek where the shallow depth
of bed-rock gravel and 4.9 per cent. creek-grade allow the
gravel to be easily worked by ground-sluicing or booming.

The first gold recovered from Wheaton Creek was mined by
Carl Johnson just above the falls on lease No. 302. Wheaton,
after he had bought the Johnson and Ryan leases, started work
in the same place. He built a booming-dam about 500 feet south
of the falls and cleaned a strip of bed-rock in the bottom of,
and below the level of the creek. Later he built a two-gate
booming-dam about 1,200 feet down-stream from the final post
of the Elvira lease. In the summer of 1939 he was working a
strip of creek-bottom which extends for about 550 feet down-
stream from the dam. The creek-bottom between the confining
canyon walls reaches a width of about 75 feet. Bed-rock below
creek-level is covered with 8 feet of cleanly-washed gravel.
Most of the gold lies on bed-rock, but some may be scattered
through the overlying gravel. Apparently the gold was de-
posited during post-glacial creek cutting. F

During the late summer of 1939 three men, under a lay-
agreement with J. Wheaton, worked a short stretch of creek-
bottom about 200 feet south of the old dam on lease No. 302.
Two other men were working on the east side of Wheaton Creek
opposite Wheaton's camp. They started an open-cut at the
north end of a buried channel at the point where it joins the
canyon of the creek. Gold was recovered in paying quantities
from the surface gravel in the floor of the filled channel.
Bed-rock had not been reached in the open-cut which was being
advanced southward.

Peacock, Amanda and Philippon Leases. Boulder Creek
Mines Ltd., a private company, with offices at 1010 Hall

Building, Vancouver, was incorporated in December 1938. The
Peacock (No. 345), Amanda (No. 346) and Philippon (No. 361)
leases were optioned in the autumn of 1938 by S. C. Barring-
ton on behalf of the company which was formed later. A camp
was established on the Peacock lease in the spring of 1939.

S. C. Barrington was at the camp on Wheaton Creek and J. Walsh
was superintendent in charge of operations.

The first work done by P. Peacock on lease No. 345 was
to build a booming-dam across Wheaton Creek about 1,200 feet
south from the present Barrington camp (see Fig. 4). ‘The
creek-grade is low and the depth to bed-rock so great that the
attempt to reach bed-rock by ground-sluicing was abandoned.

= 40.2

Ash tia lat SCRE ahi Ne ee RES Se a

gu

Sgt css We on i secret)

ie ar igs ene:

Feed