prindlb.] BIRCH OREEK REGION. 59 
been obtained between Chicken and Lost Chicken creeks. Aboul 300 
men were working in the region during L903, and the production was 
about $175,000. 
BIRCH CREEK REGION. 
GENERAL STATEMENT. 
The discovery of gold on the bars of Birch Creek attracted miners 
from the Fortymile, and the later discoveries in the gravels of the 
gulches established the importance of the region and led to its rapid 
development. 
The ramifying headwaters of Crooked Creek occupy a fan-shaped 
area within the edge of the hills to the south of its broad flat valley 
(PI. XIII). On its meandering way eastward to Birch Creek it 
receives also two tributaries, the Boulder and the Deadwood, which 
head a dozen miles or more to the southward and flow northeasterly 
to the main stream in parallel courses about 3 miles apart. The 
south side of the divide in which these streams head is drained by 
North Fork of Birch Creek. 
The creeks of economic importance on the north side of the divide 
are Deadwood, Mammoth, Mastodon, Independence, and Miller; on 
the south side they are the Eagle and its tributary, Mastodon Fork. 
These creeks were all visited by a survey party in 1896, and descrip- 
tions of them by Spurr, Goodrich, and Schrader are to be found in 
the report of the expedition." 
CREEKS. 
Deadwood Greek. — This creek, which is about 20 miles long, heads 
at an altitude of about 3,000 feet, and has a fall of over 2,000 feet 
from source to mouth. It is divided into two portions, an upper one 
about 12 miles long, where the stream flows through a rather narrow 
valley bounded by gradually sloping spurs about 1,200 feet above it, 
and a lower one about 8 miles long, where the individuality of the 
valley is abruptly lost in that of Crooked Creek. The fall in the 
valley portion is about 150 feet to the mile. The stream flat, which 
attains a width of several hundred feet, is bounded on the east by 
a rather steep slope, near which the stream flows through most of 
its course. The west side of the valley shows a more, or less well- 
defined bench, which rises gradually from a level about 20 feet above 
the stream toward a ridge which separates Deadwood and Boulder 
creeks. Switch Creek, which is the most important tributary, is 
about 3 miles in length, flows in a narrow V -shaped valley and 
joins the main creek about 3 miles above its emergence from the hills. 
• , 
° Spurr, J. E., Geology of the Yukon gold district, Alaska : Eighteenth Ann. Rept. 
U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 3, 1898, pp. 342-355. 
