78

The Bear hydraulic mine (Figure 10) is located on the right limit of
Cunningham valley half a mile below the junction, and was operated on
a fairly large scale for several years. The valley bottom at this point is
about 800 feet wide, but immediately below it narrows, and the stream
has a high gradient, rapids and falls extending downstream for about 4
miles. In the hydraulic pit near the lower end there is a small bedrock
basin into which a channel was cut in order to bring the sluice boxes up
on bedrock. The right bank of the pit consists of glacial gravels, silt,
and clay about 100 feet thick. Near the head of the pit the bedrock rises
rapidly and forms part of the right bank. On the valley flat near the cabins
and for some distance upstream on the right side the bedrock is nearly at the
surface. The left bank is composed mostly of glacial drift, but at one
place bedrock outcrops in the bed of the present stream. There is no direct
evidence of a buried rock channel lower than that of the present stream.

The first hydraulicking on the Bear claim was done about 1897 by
the Menominee and Marinette Company who, after hydraulicking a part
of one season with a small water supply from Cunningham creek, and not
being able to make the work pay dividends from the start, as had been
anticipated by the shareholders, discontinued operations'. In 1902 the
property was purchased from Messrs. Fry and Johnston by B. A. Lasell
and Joseph Wendle, and the ground was prospected by means of a small
hydraulic plant. In the spring of 1903 a moderately large hydraulic plant
was installed and a ditch dug from Antler creek down Cunningham pass.
The ditch extends along the left side of the valley and at the lower end
opposite the claim is 200 feet above the bottom of the pit. Hydraulicking
started on August 15 and continued until October 12. Work was continued
in 1904 and 1905. A bedrock cut about 700 feet long, said to have cost
$14,000, was made into a rock depression which proved to be a pot-hole or
irregular depression in the old channel and to contain little gold. The
ditch from Antler was enlarged to a capacity of 3,000 miner’s inches and a
dam started near the lower end of Cunningham pass 1 mile above the
junction. The dam was constructed by hydraulicking the material from
the bank to make a fill, water being supplied by a ditch from Ninemile
creek. A ditch from Cunningham was also in use to supply water for a
ground-sluice. Mr. Wendle, the manager, states that in the first season’s
work the comparatively small amount of material worked averaged about
35 cents a yard, in the second season about 40,000 yards were handled,
which averaged between 16 and 17 cents a yard; in the third season slide
rock was encountered over the gravel and so much barren overburden had
to be handled that there was no profit. About $30,000 was spent in develop-
ment and equipment. The gold occurred in the gravels, especially in the
lower part immediately above the bedrock and on the bedrock, and was
mostly fairly fine ‘‘flaxseed” gold. In 1906 the dam was completed, pros-
pect shafts were sunk, and the bedrock cut, which was nearly 20 feet deep
in the deepest part, extended farther upstream into the bedrock depression,
but little actual mining was done. In the spring of 1907 the dam burst
and the company was forced to shut down. The dam, however, was
repaired and hydraulicking resumed in the spring of 1908, but the results

Ann. Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1903, p. 59.