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R. Byron Johnson, in his book “Very Far West Indeed,” tells of the
belief of the early miners in the possibilities of Jack of Clubs creek and of
the first attempts to sink shafts in the bed of the creek. The deepest of
these, however, reached a depth of only 60 feet. Adam Prentice is said to
have sunk a shaft, in 1863, near the site of the Discovery shaft, to a depth
of 130 feet, but not to bedrock. In 1869 the Discovery Company sank a
shaft 150 fect to bedrock and drifted out into the channel, which proved
to be 10 feet lower. In 1870 pay gravels were struck on the Discovery
ground but they were interrupted by stretches of barren ground and by
patches of hard, cemented gravels. About 300 feet of the channel upstream
and a short distance downstream were mined, the total returns being
about $26,000. Work was discontinued in August, 1873. In 1879 mining
was begun on the Sisters group of claims, 1,600 feet long, below the Dis-
covery. The upper Sisters shaft was 150 feet deep, 25 feet at the bottom
being in bedrock and the drift from the bottom out to the channel being
25 fect in bedrock. The lower Sisters shaft was 190 feet deep, 100 feet in
bedrock, and the drift out to the channel 160 feet. On the Brothers group
of claims below the Sisters several shafts were put down, but were lost
because of the wet, caving nature of the ground. Mining of part of the
channel was eventually done from one shaft, shown on Figure 17. Brown’s
cabin on the left bank of Pinkerton creek is a short distance below it. The
shaft was 170 or 180 feet deep. It passed through 50 feet of surface gravels
and 50 feet of clay to bedrock. When the drive was made out to the
channel it was found that the deepest part was at least 20 feet below the
bottom of the shaft. However, an incline was constructed and the channel
mined for about 300 feet downstream and for some distance upstream,
probably to the ground worked from the lower Sisters shaft. The Sisters
ground was later reworked by Joseph Shaw and the bedrock cleaned. In
all, about 2,200 feet of the channel from the Discovery ground down to the
Brothers was mined and produced, according to Brown’s estimate, between
$9,000 and $10,000 to the 100 feet of channel. As the companies were
composed, for the most part, of local miners who did the work, the mining
as a whole was probably done at a profit, although the ground was difficult
to mine and the methods of mining expensive. In 1880 mining of the
deep channel at a point 2,500 feet above the Discovery shaft was begun
by the Central Company, and was carried on for about two years. The
shaft was 97 feet deep, only a few feet at the bottom being in bedrock. A
tunnel 340 feet long was driven to the channel and drifts 40 feet wide in
places were carried upstream and downstream for about 150 feet. Some
pay gravels were found near where the channel was entered, but when the
drifts were extended upstream the pay gave out. Only about $5,000 is
reported to have been obtained. McDougall holds, however, that all the
gold was not accounted for. Small drives and raises along the bedrock at
various places both upstream and downstream from the tunnel were made,
but apparently nothing of value was found and the work was abandoned.
In 1918 a shaft, located 500 feet above the Central shaft, was put down by
John McDougall and F. Reed for the purpose of mining the deep channel
above the Central ground. McDougall held that the gold values in the
Central ground were higher than as reported and believed that the ground
above would pay to mine. The shaft is 96 feet deep from the collar to the