132

mile from its head. Mining in the creek bed a short distance above the
rock canyon at the mouth has been carried on by ground-sluicing for a
number of years and has about paid wages.

Pine Creek

Pine creek (Figure 20), of which Shepherd creek is the main branch,
flows north and joins Summit creek. This is a larger stream which comes
from the southeast, and which below its junction with the creek from Eight-
mile lake, flows east in a deep valley cut through a mountain ridge trending
northwest. Pine creek, from near Shepherd creek to Summit creek, and
the part of Summit creek down to the junction of Hight mile creek, flow in
broad, flat-bottomed valleys, except near the junction of Pine and Summit
where there are two rock “islands” between which Summit creek flows
and falls 2 or 3 feet over rock. There are, apparently, buried channels of
the streams on both sides of the islands. Rock outcrops occur in places
along both sides of Pine and Summit Creek valleys and show that the
streams flow in definite rock valleys partly filled with glacial drift and
Recent alluvium. In the wide, lower part the stream has a very low grade
and there is probably a considerable filling of glacial silt and swamp
deposits. The valley-filling in the part above the rock islands consists of
a few feet of coarse gravels and swamp muck at the surface underlain by
glacial silt, which is again underlain by gravels. There is said to be no
boulder clay except in places along the sides of the valley. Along the east
side, in the lower part, there are extensive deposits of glacial gravels in the
form of benches. Glacial gravels in the form of esker-like ridges occur
along the west side of the upper part of Pine creek. The west branch of
the creek, a half mile above the junction of Shepherd creek, has cut through
one of these ridges which continues upstream where it is again partly cut
through by another branch. The flats along Pine and Summit creeks have
attracted attention as possible dredging ground, and some drilling to test
the ground has been done. The discovery a few years ago of a pay-streak
considerably above the level of the creek near where it cuts through the
gravel ridge in the upper part of the creek has also attracted the attention
of prospectors. The flats on Pine creek, including the low benches along the
sides, average about 500 feet in width; those on Summit creek down to the
mouth of Eightmile creek, where a narrow canyon begins, average nearly
1,000 feet. The total length of the flats is about 1 mile.

Gold was discovered on Pine creek in 1894 by John Duffy and John
Shepherd and a number of claims in the stream flat and along the benches
were mined by open-cut work, drifting, and ground-sluicing for a number
of years. The gold was mostly in the surface gravels, which extend to
bedrock only at a few places along the sides. In the valley bottom they
are underlain by glacial silt and gravels. Pay-gravels were found on the
creek from the road-crossing up to where the west branch, a half-mile
above the junction of Shepherd creek, cuts through a gravel ridge and where
a ridge of hard bedrock crosses the stream and causes a slight fall. A
cross-section of eleven bore-holes 1,000 feet above the road-crossing
(Figure 20) was made in 1910 for L. A. Bonner, to determine the depth of
the ground, but not to determine the gold values in the ground. The