130

Shepherd Creek

Shepherd creek (Figure 20) flows northeast into Pine creek and in the
dry season has a flow at the junction of only 6 or 7 miner’s inches. In the
part east of the Eightmile Lake road it flows in a narrow, deep, V-shaped
rock valley. Near the road the valley is wide and there is a cross-channel,
partly drift-filled, extending at right angles to the stream. The cross-
channel extends south for 1,200 feet to where the ground slopes rapidly to
the valley of Downey Pass creek. It extends north for at least 1,200 feet

and possibly to the Thistle pit at Kightmile lake. The grade of the channel

is towards Shepherd creek, although a cut at the lower end, 40 feet deep
from the surface, would drain the deepest part of the channel of Shepherd
creek at the intersection. The flat on Shepherd creek above the road is
nearly at the same level as the wide part below the road and can also be
drained down one of the branches at the head of Downey Pass creek by a
shallow cut. The creek in the upper part above the flat has a steep gradient.
There is thus a series of old stream channels that have been partly cut away
by more recent streams and have been modified by glacial erosion and
deposition. The channels are partly drained at the present time by
Shepherd creek flowing to the east in a rock valley, the banks of which are
much higher than the ground to the west along the cross-channel. The
rock canyon of Shepherd creek was, judging by its narrow, steep-sided
character, formed more recently than the upper, broad channels. Its
cutting by headward erosion, by a branch of Pine creek, probably caused
capture of the upper part of the creek and of the cross-channel, which may
have formerly drained partly towards Eightmile lake and partly down
Downey Pass valley. The canyon is not postglacial in age, for there is
some glacial drift in places in the bottom of it, but it has probably been
deepened somewhat in postglacial time. It may be glacial (Pleistocene)
or interglacial in age, but its youthful character practically precludes its
being preglacial.

Placer gold was discovered on Shepherd creek, near the junction of the
cross-channel, in 1892, by E. C. Shepherd. Several shafts were sunk about
22 feet to bedrock in the channel and much of the shallow ground on the
rock benches along the southwest side of the ground was mined. In 1900
the Discovery Company of which E. Odlum, Vancouver, B.C., was manag-
ing director, tested the ground and constructed a new ditch for hydraulick-
ing. Since 1914 the property has been owned by R.D. Rees, who has
been able to hydraulick on only a smail scale because of the deficient water
supply and of difficulty in disposing of the tailings. A No. 2 monitor is
used and a good supply of water is available for a few weeks during the
early part of the season and occasionally for a short time in the autumn,
but practically none during the dry season. During the past few years a
pit has been opened in the channel extending north from the creek and east
of the road. The deposits overlying the bedrock are only 5 to 15 or 20 feet
thick and consist of swamp muck at the surface underlain by glacial gravels
cemented in a few places, and boulder clay. There is a narrow, deeper
channel on the west side of the pit which cannot be reached by hydraulick-
ing. An old shaft 600 feet up the channel from the head of the pit is 53 feet
deep and unless it is sunk partly in bedrock, which does not seem probable,