75

Cunningham’s claim) containing 600 ounces of gold was found. The
Anderson and McDougal companies mined the shallow ground below the
Discovery claim in 1862 and the Standish Company in 1862-65 hydraulicked
the shallow ground just below the bend. The benches on the right side
above the Standish ground were later hydraulicked chiefly by Chinese,
and operations have continued nearly every season to the present time.
Above Discovery claim hydraulic mining was carried on in 1876 by Palmer
and Porter. Coarse gold is said to have been found mainly above Dis-
covery claim and fine gold below. Some gold was also found at the Pierce
diggings above the falls near the headwaters of the creek at an elevation
of about 5,000 feet. There is no record of the amounts of gold obtained
in these workings in the early days. The richest parts of the creek were
the shallow ground near the Discovery and Kentucky (Sharp’s) claims
and a short stretch above Palmer’s hydraulic one-half mile higher up.
Between the two places there is a depression in the bedrock and the channel
is deeper than above or below. It was not mined in the early days or
was found to contain insufficient gold to pay. The most impertant work
on the upper part of the creek since the early days was an attempt to
mine this deep part. The work was carried on from 1901 to 1905 by
Messrs. McGregor, Thompson, and Ross. The bedrock which outcrops
on the discovery claim, in the bottom of the valley on the left side, dips
downward upstream and under the creek towards the right bank. The
ground was prospected by a shaft 20 feet deep and one drift of 115 feet
with an incline down to the west for 75 feet and another to the east for
35 feet, but the deepest part of the channel, which was supposed to be
under the hill on the east side, was not reached. From this work $2,500
in gold was obtained.t A bedrock cut 1,100 feet long and having a gradient
of only 2 inches in 12 feet was then made below the deep ground, with a
view to obtaining an outlet low enough to enable the ground to be worked
by hydraulicking. It was later found to be necessary to extend the rock
cut 125 feet in order to reach the basin. Water was finally turned on in
May, 1905, and a month’s run obtained. It was then seen that the ground
was too deep to be bottomed by the cut. A shaft 17 feet deep was sunk
in the pit and three drives run, which showed the ground to have a maxi-
mum depth of 32 feet. The gravel taken out in the drives was measured
and was found to carry values of $2.18 a cubic yard. Values on bedrock
were ‘“‘spotted”’ and were estimated to be about the same as in the bedrock
gravels.” It was then proposed to install an hydraulic elevator, but no
further work was done and since that time the upper part of the creek
has been practically abandoned.

The lower deep part of the creek from the bend down to the junction
with Cunningham Pass creek is of interest at the present time chiefly
because borings have been made recently to determine the dredging possi-
bilities of the ground and because of the hydraulic mining being carried on,
on the benches along the right bank. The deep ground has been mined by
drifting only at one place, near the lower end on the Victoria Company’s
ground (Figure 10). The Victoria shaft is said to have been 120 feet

1Ann. Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1902, p. 94.
*Ann. Rept., Minister of Mines, B.C., 1905, p. 57.

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