PLACER GOLD MINING IN ALASKA IN 1902. 
By Alfred H. Brooks. 
GENERAL STATEMENT. 
The great impetus given to prospecting for gold in Alaska, incident 
to the discovery of the rich Klondike fields, has resulted in the find- 
ing of a number of new and in the further development of several old 
placer districts. The gold output has shown a correspondent increase, 
rising from two and one-half millions in 1897 to about eight millions 
in 1902. While the development of quartz mining in the Pacific 
coast province of Alaska has steadily progressed during this time, 
more especially in the last two years, this development has not as yet 
affected the increase of output to any appreciable extent, for the pro- 
duction of the lode mines has remained practically the same. In 
southeastern Alaska plans have been formulated for extensive min- 
|| ing developments, and in many localities these plans are nearing com- 
pletion; but as yet, outside of the older mines, such as the Tread well, 
i there are few which are actually producing. The increase of 
$5,500,000 during the last five years has, therefore, been chiefly from 
the placer mines. It is to be expected, however, that the quartz 
| mines of southern Alaska, which are being opened up, will within 
the next two years add material^ to the mineral production of the 
Territory. 
Of the $6,000,000 or more a produced from the placer mines of 
Alaska in 1902, about $5,500,000 has come from the Seward Peninsula 
gold fields. The new diggings in the Copper River region have prob- 
ably produced $225,000, and the Cook Inlet region and Porcupine dis- 
trict have probably produced $100,000, while the remainder is from 
the Yukon Basin, chiefly from the new diggings on Glenn Creek. 
DISTRIBUTION AND SOURCE OF PLACER GOLD. 
Placer gold has a wide distribution in Alaska. It has been found 
near the southern boundary of the Territory, and at various localities 
northward as far as the sixty-eighth parallel of latitude and west- 
ward as far as Bering Strait. Broadly speaking, the producing placer 
a The exact production is not yet known, but is not less than five aud one-half and possibly 
may be six and a half millions. 
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