BAKER CREEK GROUP. 41 
On the gentle slope of the northwest side there are perceptibly flatter places or 
benches, but only one of these is persistent. This bench is traceable along Pioneer 
Creek for over 4 miles. Its northeast end is but little above the present level of the 
creek while its southwest end is about 250 feet above the creek. Over this bench 
and covering much of the slope below is a deposit of auriferous gravel left by the 
creek as it moved to the southeast. The different diggings upon it are known as 
"bars." 
Five small tributaries, Doric, Boothby, Seattle Junior, Skookum, and Joe Bush, 
flow across this bench at right angles to the course of Pioneer Creek. Near the 
upper end of the bench at Joe Bush Creek prospect holes showed a well-defined old 
stream channel. Upstream the bench rises so that a ditch supplying water to What 
Cheer Bar is below the workings at Seattle Bar, but crosses the bench and is on the 
upper side when it reaches What Cheer Bar. There can be no doubt that the bench 
is of stream origin. 
Like many other Alaskan creeks Pioneer Creek was staked and then each man 
waited for his neighbor to do the hard work necessary to locate the pay streak, if 
there were one. Meanwhile the claims lapsed and were then restaked by other 
parties, and pay was discovered on What Cheer Bar in 1902. After this discovery 
pay was found on Doric Creek and at several other points along the bench. 
The production of Pioneer Creek Valley to the end of the summer of 1904 was 
about 135,800. 
The bed rock is the same as on Eureka Creek, schistose-arkose, with interbedded 
slates and thin beds of quartzite. The arkoses sometimes become very graphitic, 
particularly on Doric Creek. The general strike of the rocks is N. 70° or 75° E., 
with a steep northerly dip. There is some quartz in small veins and stringers, and 
on Doric Creek at places there is considerable pyrite distributed through the rocks. 
The pyrite is often oxidized, so that only small holes lined with iron rust indicate 
its former presence. On Doric Creek inclusions of a carbonaceous substance the size 
of a walnut occur with small quartz seams. Little is known of the alluvial deposits 
along the creek bed. The deposits on the gentle slope already referred to are 3 to 12 
feet thick. They consist of the usual muck and gravel, and extend over 2,000 feet 
back from the creek. 
What Cheer Bar. — What Cheer Bar is located in the lower part of Pioneer Creek 
Valley, about a mile from Eureka Creek, 2,000 feet from Pioneer Creek, and 250 feet 
above the latter. The season of 1903 was spent in putting in about 4 miles of ditch, 
with the necessary flumes. This ditch carries about three sluice heads of water to the 
upper edge of the workings. The ground is excellent for ditching, compared with 
other Alaska localities, for there is little ground ice and the soil is tenacious enough 
to make good banks. The bed rock is much jointed and broken and exhibits fine 
examples of creep, the rock leaning downhill and gradually blending with the gravels. 
The average depth to bed rock is about 12 feet. The overlying material is com- 
posed of 1 to 1J feet of muck, 3 feet of rather fine flat wash, 5 feet of medium-sized 
yellowish gravel, and 3 to 4 feet of rather heavy wash, including some bowlders of 
vein quartz 2 feet or more in diameter. There are some bowlders of conglomerate 
similar to that found in Quail Creek, in Troublesome Valley, and it is probable that 
beds of it outcrop on the headwaters of Pioneer Creek. Most of the gold is found in 
the lower part of the gravels and the upper 1 or 2 feet of bed rock. It is well worn 
and bright (PL VI, i, p. 38), and probably comes from the bed rock in the vicinity. 
The largest nugget found weighed somewhat less than 2 ounces and was worth $28. 
It contained considerable quartz. The gold is taken in trade at $15.50 per ounce. 
The muck and upper gravel are ground sluiced and the lower gravel and upper bed 
rock shoveled in. The water could not be used until August 15, and only fifteen 
days were available for washing. Fifteen men were employed. 
