Currently there are small hydraulic operations on Houseman Creek and Grub Gulch,
a large hydraulic on the bench east of the mouth of Amador Creek, a shaft being sunk
on a bench east of the Last Chance hydraulic pit, from which a remnant of the channel
of lower Last Chance Creek will be mined, and a ground sluice-pit at Dry Gulch east
of Stanley.

Nelson and Burns Creeks on Slough Creek drainage were probably the first creeks
discovered and worked in that section. It is said that Nelson Creek was extremely rich
and fairly shallow. Gravel on Burns, Devils Lake, Nelson, and Coulter Creeks was
drifted in the very earliest days, and subsequently hydraulic plants were put in on
Burns Creek and upper Coulter Creek.

The discovery of placer gold on the benches on the south side of Slough Creek
between Devils Lake Creek and Nelson Creek was made by Chinese miners in 1881.
The entire stretch now has been hydraulicked and, since the discovery, has been worked
entirely by Chinese companies. The Ketch hydraulic mine, east of Devils Lake Creek,
is on a continuation of these benches.

Currently, hydraulicking continues at the Ketch and on the Slough Creek benches
largely as scavenging operations, while one small hydraulic on Coulter Creek and two
on Deviis Lake Creek are still operated.

In the past, lode-mining interest has centred principally on the Burns Mountain
quartz veins and the Foster Ledges on Oregon Gulch. The veins evidently were found
early in the 1870’s, for by 1878 J. C. Beedy had done some work on the Burns Mountain
veins and in that year at Van Winkle built a quartz mill said to be the equivalent of a
five-stamp mill. This mill was operated during 1879 and until Beedy’s death in Janu-
ary, 1880, treating quartz ore hauled from the Beedy, later called Perkins, veins near
the top of Burns Mountain. The claims were then bought by James Reid, who drove
a crosscut adit in from the west side to intersect the veins at a depth of about 75 feet.
In the early 1880’s the ground was acquired by Edwin Perkins, who mined the veins to
a depth of about 50 feet and crushed the ore in a man-power arrastre, the remains of
which may still be seen near his cabin. After his death in 1919 the ground was acquired
by C. Fuller and D. Hawes, who in turn sold it to the Burns Mountain Gold Quartz
Mining Company, Limited, in 1932. This company drove a long crosscut adit to inter-
sect the Perkins veins at a depth of about 180 feet below the Reid adit. The claims
subsequently were relocated and acquired by Cariboo Rainbow Gold Mines, Limited.

Other veins at the summit of Burns Mountain, about 4,000 feet north-east of the
Perkins veins, were explored between 1881 and 1886 by a shaft and by a long crosscut
driven by the Burns Mountain Quartz Mining Company.

The Foster Ledges, near the west branch of Oregon Gulch, were found about the
Same time as the veins on Burns Mountain. They are narrow veins, from which
extremely high gold assays prompted a small amount of surface work and the sinking
of a shallow shaft in 1877. Subsequently, the shaft was deepened to a depth of about
56 feet and an adit was driven about 230 feet to intersect the several closely spaced
veins at shallow depth. Later, about 1920, the claims were acquired by C. Fuller and
D. Hawes, who in turn sold them in 1983 to Foster Ledge Gold Mines, Limited. Two
short adits have been driven on veins farther down Oregon Gulch.

In 1933 and the subsequent few years, exploratory work was done by Cariboo
Amalgamated Gold Mines, Limited, mainly on the Eldorado claim (Lot 11350) north of
the Public Works camp on Devils Lake Creek; by B.C. Cariboo Gold Fields, Limited,
on veins on upper Burns Creek and between Burns and Devils Lake Creek; by Cariboo
Ledge Mines Company, Limited, on the Dominion claims east of the mouth of Anderson
Creek; and by Bridge Island Gold, Limited, on a large vein near the head of Coulter
Creek.

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