Last Chance Creek produced gold at least to the value of $250,000 in the lower half-
mile. Undoubtedly a very large amount of gold was produced between 1861 and 1874,
of which no records are available.

Table IV tabulates the production of Lightning Creek and its various tributaries
from 1874 to 1945. Before 1925 the production recorded was the Gold Commissioner’s
estimate in dollars. Production since 1925 has been derived from information
obtained from the placer operators combined with the Gold Commissioner’s estimate.
The estimate since 1925 has generally been as ounces of crude gold produced.
In compiling Table IV the conversion of dollars to ounces of crude gold or vice versa is
made using a conversion factor of dollars per ounce that is based on the fineness of the
gold and is not necessarily the amount paid by gold-buyers for the gold. Since 1932 the
value of crude gold is calculated using a factor derived from the value of fine gold as
published in Table II of the Annual Reports of the Minister of Mines. The table
represents the best production information available but cannot be taken as the exact
or whole production.

Placer gold was mined from bedrock workings on Lightning Creek between the
mouths of Anderson and Houseman Creeks. The extraordinarily rich ground, however,
extended down-stream from the mouth of Van Winkle Creek through the Van Winkle,
Victoria, and Vancouver workings almost to Stanley. That stretch of about 8,000 feet
yielded a very large proportion of the total gold, and ground running as high as 50 and
78% oz. per 8-foot set was mined.* The gold was coarse, ranging up to nuggets of 6 oz.
weight. The largest nugget found in the Cariboo,+ weighing 30% 0z.,t was found on
Butcher Bench, about 3,000 feet up-stream from the mouth of Van Winkle Creek.

Down-stream from this stretch the gold content of the bedrock gravel became
progressively less and the gold became smaller in size.

Last Chance and Van Winkle Creeks, tributaries on the south-west side of Light-
ning Creek, were the two most productive tributary creeks. The other creeks were
mined and yielded varying amounts of gold, but were not of the same degree of richness
as Last Chance and Van Winkle. Amador Creek, through some unusual set of cireum-
stances, was not gold-bearing and was not mined, except at its very mouth.

Since 1874 the recorded placer-gold production of the Slough Creek section (see
Table V) is valued at $1,282,176 from 61,100 oz. of crude gold. The greater proportion
of this has come from the Slough Creek benches, between Nelson and Burns Creeks,
where the gold was first discovered by Chinese miners in 1881.8

There are no records of production before 1874, but during that early period,
starting in 1861, a considerable amount of gold was produced from Nelson and Burns
Creeks. It is recorded|| that “Nelson Creek is claimed to have produced over
$3,000,000; this is probably a high estimate, but the amount was certainly very large.”
Nothing is known of the early production from Burns Creek, except that mining started
in the early sixties and that drifting for a short stretch along the lower part of the
channel was in ground running up to 25 oz. to the set. Later, hydraulicking along the
channel was continued for many years.

It is possible that the total production of the Slough Creek section is in excess of
$3,000,000.

Table V tabulates the recorded placer-gold production of Slough Creek and its
tributaries from 1874 to 1945. The sources of information are similar to those of
Table IV. It is incomplete and subject to error, but represents the best information
available.

* Minister of Mines, B.C., Ann. Rept., 1902, p. 68.

j F. J. Tregillus, of Barkerville, says that the father of W. M. Hong, of Barkerville, told him that a Chinese
miner found a 41-oz. nugget on the left fork of Jawbone Creek. The nugget was never shown locally because the
finder shortly left for China.

t Letter, dated June 18th, 1864, of P. O’Reilly, Gold Commissioner at Richfield, to the Colonial Secretary, in
Provincial Archives.

§ Minister of Mines, B.C., Ann. Rept., 1881, p. 393.

|| Minister of Mines, B.C., Ann. Rept., 1902, p. 96.

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