MINOOK CREEK GROUP. 35 
bright, and even in size, looking like golden bran when seen in quantity. There is 
a very small amount of rough gold, probably of local origin, but the larger partis 
probably reconcentrated from the old bench gravels of Minook Creek. The gold of 
the creeks cutting this bench is said to assay over $19 per ounce. This would make 
it of about the same value per ounce as the Koyukuk gold. The gold is taken in 
trade by the stores at $18 per ounce. 8ome small nuggets of copper and a small 
amount of silver have been found with the gold. 
Mining. — Most of the claims are worked by drifting in the winter, though the three 
lower ones are worked during the summer by open cuts. On the latter the muck 
and gravel are first ground-sluiced off within 1 or 2 feet of bed rock by means of a 
dam and automatic gate (PI. V, A, p. 32), and the remaining gravels are then 
shoveled into the sluice boxes. The drifted pay gravels have often been "coyoted" 
or "gophered;" that is, holes have been sunk here and there without system until, 
although there is probably much pay still left, the ground is frequently almost 
unworkable on account of the ice in the old holes which floods the new workings 
when thawed by a steam point, When workings are filled with water, the mass is 
said to freeze on the top, sides, and bottom, while the central part remains unfrozen 
through several years. Much of the ground is worked on "lays" or leases, the 
lessees paying from 25 to 55 per cent of the gross output, an amount that is apt to 
leave the worker little for his labor if things do not run very smoothly. Freight 
rates are 2 cents per pound in winter and 4 cents per pound in summer. 
The remaining gold in Little Minook Creek would seem to be best recovered by 
working the claims in cooperation as one company, for it is certain that some of the 
richer claims can no longer be profitably worked by drifting. The quickest, but an 
initially expensive, mode of working would be to hydraulic the gravels by bringing 
water from Minook Creek. A ditch 10 miles in length above the mouth of Little 
Minook Creek would probably give a head of over 100 feet and plenty of water at the 
upper limit of the pay gravels. A way requiring less capital, but much slower, and 
the one that will likely be carried out in the end, is the ground-sluicing of the claims, 
successively, from the mouth of the creek upward, by means of dams and automatic 
gates, but as the claims belong to different parties, some of whom are unwilling to 
sell, there will probably be only a small amount of work carried on along the creek 
for a number of years to come. 
LITTLE MINOOK JUNIOR CREEK. 
General description. — Little Minook Junior Creek, between Little Minook and 
Hoosier creeks, is about 2\ miles long. Its valley lies wholly within the high bench 
of Minook Creek. It is a weak stream, generally dry during the summer, and rarely 
carries a sluice head of water. With a valley of hard rocks it has not been able to 
cut its bed down to the depth reached by the larger tributaries of Minook Creek. 
In the lower half the grade of the creek is torrential and the valley is narrow with 
steep sides. In the upper half the grade is much easier and the valley is wider with 
gentler slopes, especially on the north side. The rocks of the valley are the same as 
along Little Minook Creek. The lower part is entirely in diabase. 
The total output of the creek was estimated by Mr. Donald McLean at about 
$150,000, and the output for the year 1904 at about $17,000. 
The steep grade of the lower part of the creek has allowed little accumulation of 
alluvium, but in the upper part the deposits have reached a depth of 12 to 30 feet, i >l 
which gravel forms the lower 4 or 6 feet. The gravels are angular and largely com- 
posed of diabase with well-washed quartzite bowlders from the bench gravels through 
which the stream has cut. 
In the gravels are many bones of bison, musk ox, mammoth, and horse. A very 
line specimen of the skull of Bison alleni, with the shell still upon the horns, was 
taken out of Mr. Donald McLean's claim, No. 25, near the head of the creek, by Mr. 
