44 GOLD PLACERS OF RAMPART REGION. 
is cut through the gold-bearing gravels covering the extension of What Cheer Bar. 
The creek was staked in the spring of 1899 and the first work was done during the 
winter of 1900-1901. There are six claims, each 500 or 1,000 feet in length, upon the 
creek, but only the lower four have so far been producers. The total production 
during the winter of 1903-4, as reported by the miners, was about $16,000, not 
including the output of one claim, which was probably small. The production of 
former years is estimated at about $9,000. 
The bed rock of the lower part of the creek is a graphitic schistose arkose, which 
in places becomes slaty. The rather well-rounded gravels are of slate, quartz- 
ite, and grit, 16 to 18 feet deep, with a covering of about 2 feet of muck. The creek 
is difficult to work on account of the live water in the gravels. Through part of 
their length the gravels are frozen on the bottom and thawed for several feet above, 
so that drifts must be timbered throughout. The pay frequently goes down into the 
bed rock 3 or 4 feet. 
The gold is generally bright, tine, and somewhat worn. One nugget weighing 
nearly 4 ounces has been taken out. When poured out of a sack" or pan part of it 
rolls almost like shot, owing to its rounded form. This characteristic is common to 
a large part of the gold of the Rampart region, but particularly so of this area, and is 
due to its crystalline form. The crystal faces are often observable on the pieces. 
The placers of the creek are probably derived largely from reconcentration of the 
gold from the gravels of the bench through which the creek has cut its course, and 
in part from the local bed rock. The creek is probably more than half worked out. 
RHODE ISLAND CREEK. 
Rhode Island Creek is somewhat larger than Gold Run and heads nearer the top 
of the ridge. Its general conditions of bed rock, gravel, etc., are similar to those of 
( rold Run, below the mouth of which Rhode Island Creek flows close against a bluff 
on its w r estern side, while its eastern side rises more gently. 
Considerable work has been done on the creek, but during the summer of 1904 no 
claims were worked. The output is unknown. Miners on other creeks are of the 
opinion that the gravels would pay for working if water for hydraulicking could be 
obtained. 
SEATTLE CREEK. 
Seattle Creek, although the longer stream, is called a tributary of the Rhode 
Island. It probably carries less than a sluice head of water during an ordinary sea- 
son. The bed rock in the lower part is graphitic schistose arkose. The gravels 
contain bed-rock fragments, quartzite, vein quartz, and graphitic slate, and are 
rather tine. They are said to be 8 to 30 feet thick and covered with 1 to 3 feet of 
muck. They are well frozen and have no live water. About $100 was taken out in 
the course of prospecting during the winter of 1903-4. The gold is said to be bright, 
fine, and shotty. Prospecting was to be continued during the winter of 1904-5. 
BENCH WEST OF RHODE ISLAND CREEK. 
A spur on the west side of Rhode Island Creek, similar to the one on the west side 
of Eureka Creek, has a well-defined bench cut upon it, extending about one-half 
mile to Omega Creek Valley. The bench is about 300 feet above the bed of Rhode 
Island Creek and is covered with subangular gravel, through which gold is said to 
be found. It is about on a level with Shirley Bar. 
OMEGA CREEK. 
General description. — Omega Creek, another small stream, heads in a ridge about 2 
miles southwest of the head of Minook Creek and about one-half mile west of Seattle 
a Known among miners as a " poke." 
