96
French Creek

French creek (Figure 14) heads in a broad, deeply drift-filled depression
connecting the valley of the creek with that of the upper part of Conklin
gulch and flows north into Pleasant Valley creek. The valley of the lower
part of the creek is so broad and so filled with morainic drift deposits, and
there are so few rock exposures, that it is not evident where the main
bedrock channel lies. In the upper part above where a small tributary
joins it on the east side there is a marked increase in the grade of the creek
and the creek flows in a broad, amphitheatre-like basin. High up on the
sides of this basin the rock rims are exposed, but in the bottom the drift
deposits are very thick. The grade of the creek is markedly uneven
throughout its course. For 2,000 feet up from the junction with Pleasant
Valley creek the grade is 6 per cent. For the next 3,000 feet it is only 4 per
cent, above which there is another sharp rise followed by another flat.
The total fall in the creek from where it crosses the Barkerville-Grouse
Creek road to the junction with Pleasant Valley creek, a distance in a direct
line of 9,500 feet, is 700 feet. As the depth to bedrock in the deep channel
in the lower part is not known, the grade of the bedrock channel cannot be
determined. In the dry season there is practically no water in the creek
above the junction of the small tributary creek, and the flow at the mouth
of the creek is very small. The average flow during the dry season prob-
ably does not exceed 10 miner’s inches.

Mining on French creek was carried on mainly in the seventies and
several long tunnels were run. Practically no work has been done on the
creek in recent years. A pay-streak on the upper part of Conklin gulch
was traced a short distance towards, but not up to, the divide at the head
of French creek, and it was held that it might extend down French creek.
Several shafts were sunk near the summit and a long tunnel known as the
Cosmopolitan was run in search of it. The tunnel starts at the level of the
creek near the mouth of the main tributary stream and is said to end just
above the road at the head of the creek. If so, the tunnel is nearly 2,700
feet long and at its upper end is about 250 feet under ground. The tunnel
is said not to have reached bedrock except for some distance along a bench
on the west side about 500 feet in from the mouth, and the gold recovered
is said to have amounted to only about $2,000. Twenty-two hundred
feet lower down on the creek there are two tunnels known as the American
and the Revard. On the west side, opposite the mouths of the tunnels,
there is an old shaft sunk by James Cummings in which pay was first struck
on the creek. The American tunnel was run about 1871 and is said to have
struck bedrock in the deep channel at about 1,300 feet upstream. Some
gold, as much as 20 ounces to the set, but probably totalling not over
$5,000, was found on rock benches along the sides, but there was apparently
little or nothing in the deep channel. The Revard tunnel was run in the
early nineties in search of rich ground which it was reported had been
found but which could not be mined from the American tunnel. It is
said to be 800 or 900 feet long and to lie partly in bedrock. It probably
did not reach the deep channel and no good pay was found. The next
tunnel lower down is the most recent one and was run by William Brown
of Jack of Clubs creek. It is only about 300 feet long and bedrock occurs