BAKER CREEK GROUP. 45 
Creek, flows almost south for one-half mile or more, and then swings gradually to 
the west. As soon as it takes a westerly course the shape of its valley becomes 
similar to that of Eureka Creek, having a steep hill on the south, against which the 
stream flows, and on the north side a gentle slope to the ridge above, rising more 
steeply in its upper portion. 
Gold was discovered in Omega Creek in 1899, but the first pay was found in 1901. 
The creek has been worked in only a small way, and the production has been 
small. The bed rock is a black, fissile, much-broken slate, and a yellowish, some- 
what schistose arkose. It has a strike of N. 70° E., with a high northerly dip. The 
gravel is about 7 feet deep, very angular and fine, and is made up of the country 
rock with a small amount of quartzite. There is little or no muck over the gravel, 
but there is a sticky clay through it which probably carries off some of the fine <:<>M. 
Values and mining. — The pay is known to extend for about 1 mile down the creek 
from a point due west of the mouth of Seattle Creek. The width of the pay is 
unknown. One cut 30 feet wide has been taken out, and it is known that the pay 
extends to both sides, rising on a low bench on the right (northwest). This cut is 
at the upper end of the pay streak. The gold is distributed through the gravel 
both top and bottom. It is " shotty " and coarse, and much of it is very rough. 
Many pieces show crystal faces, and all the larger pieces and many of the smaller 
pieces contain quartz. In color the gold is more brassy than most of the gold of 
the region. A great many small crystals of j)yrites occur in the concentrates with 
the gold. So far the claim has been worked only by an open cut, but some of the 
gravel was thought to be deep enough to be workable by drifting and this method 
was to be tried during the winter of 1904-5. The water supply is small and a dam 
has been put in to collect the water so that sluicing can be carried on about half the 
time during an ordinary season. 
CHICAGO CREEK. 
Chicago Creek is a small rivulet flowing down the northern slope to Omega Creek 
about 2? miles west of the mouth of Seattle Creek. Pay was reported to have been 
discovered near its mouth during the summer of 1904, and it was the intention to 
work it during the winter. 
THANKSGIVING CREEK. 
Thanksgiving Creek is a small tributary of Omega Creek, between 4£ and 5 miles 
west of Eureka Creek. It occupies a shallow, open depression in the southern slope 
of the ridge, on the north side of Baker Flats, and can hardly be said to have a valley 
in its lower part. It is almost dry in the summer and fall. Gold was discovered on it 
in February, 1903. The combined output of Omega and Thanksgiving creeks has 
been about $18,200. 
The bed rock is exposed only in the diggings, but where seen was a yellowish, 
somewhat schistose arkose. The gravel varies in depth from 6 to 18 feet where the 
creek is worked, though it is said to be deeper farther downstream. It is composed 
of subangular pieces of quartzite, schistose arkose, vein quartz, slate, and a small 
amount of monzonitic rock. The overlying muck is 1 to 4 feet in thickness. 
The gravel is peculiarly mixed with a sticky yellow clay, which in places seems 
to be half ice. In some of the deeper holes there is 10 feet of this mixed clay and 
ice. It can not be worked with wood fires, for when melted it runs down upon the 
fires and quenches them. In open cuts the sides when melted move together like a 
mass of yellow tar. In some of the holes the section is said to show 10 to 12 feet of 
finely mixed yellow clay and ice, of which 5 feet is fully half ice and below this there 
is 6 feet of subangular gravel. The pay streak varies in width from 25 to 45 feet, 
and is 1\ to 9 feet thick. Gold is sometimes distributed through the yellow clay 
and colors always occur through the mixture of clay and ice. At one place where 
