The company began hydraulicking in 1926 and worked the ground for several
years. Since then hydraulicking has been continued on a smaller scale. In recent years
the amount of gravel mined annually has been small and the gold production low. The
head of the pit is about 500 feet beyond the end of the old drift workings and about
1,700 feet from Lightning Creek. The bank is about 100 feet high.

| Reference: Minister of Mines, B.C., Ann. Rept., 1926, p. 169; 1927, p. 167; 1931,
p. 86. ]

One placer lease at the mouth of Lost Chance Creek, opposite Stanley,
Brown Lease is held by Alf. Brown, of Stanley. The old channel of Last Chance
(46). Creek near its junction with Lightning Creek is buried to a depth of
from 70 to 100 feet. In its lower stretch the buried channel does not
follow the course of the creek or of the lower part of the hydraulic pit, but lies beneath
a gravel bench on the east side. Part of the old channel was drifted during the 1870’s
up-grade from the Vulcan shaft workings on Lightning Creek and down-grade from a
Shaft on Last Chance Creek. A segment of unworked gravel, either in the channel or
on a bedrock bench on the east side, was found and tested by a number of drill-holes
put down by Alf. Brown. On a gravel bench 75 feet or so above Lightning Creek and
near the north-east corner of Lot 11418, Brown has sunk a vertical shaft to a depth of
90 feet. Bedrock was encountered at 73 feet depth. He intends to mine the bedrock
gravel from the shaft.
Seven leases on Amador Creek and on Lightning Creek at the mouth
Bowman of Amador are held by Bowman Mines, Limited, 402 Pender Street
Mines, Ltd. West, Vancouver. Water for hydraulicking is obtained from upper
(40). Lightning Creek through several miles of ditch and flume built by
the Lightning Creek Hydraulic Mining Company, Limited, in 1910.
A prominent terrace about 300 feet above the level of Lightning Creek lies on the north
side of the creek, east of the mouth of Amador Creek. About 250 feet of gravel,
boulder-clay, and stratified clay and silts rest on bedrock which is about 50 feet above
creek-level and about the same elevation as Butcher Bench. To the north-east, on the
bank side, the bedrock decreases in level and a bedrock depression appears to run
beneath the high bank.

In 1940 and 1941 R. E. MacDougall, of Wells, held an option on the property and
hydraulicked half a million or more yards of gravel in an attempt to test the bedrock
gold values in the gutter beneath the high bank. In 1947 Interior Development
Company was hydraulicking the bank in a renewed attempt to reach bedrock. The gold
content of the overburden is not known, but evidently is very low.

SLOUGH CREEK SECTION.

Hydraulic operations at the west end of the Ketch pit were begun in

Ketch Placer 1921 by the Houser brothers. Since then hydraulicking has been car-

Ge ried on each year, and in recent years operations have been managed

by R. E. MacDougall, of Wells. Water for hydraulicking is obtained

from Burns Creek, and also from Oregon Gulch and the head of Devils Lake Creek by

ditch and flume along the east side of Devils Canyon. The hydraulic pit has been

advanced eastward along bedrock benches almost to China Gulch, a length of about

1,100 feet and with a width of about 250 feet. Tailings from the operations are flumed

across the highway. The position of the highway interferes with the working of

ground lying to the north of the present pit. During the last several years, work has
been limited mainly to cleaning up the old Ketch pit.

The benches lie about 50 feet above Slough Creek and are comparable to those

extending between Devils Lake Creek and Nelson Creek. Production of placer gold is

given in Table V.

59