YUKON PLACER FIELDS. 125 
It was not staked until the middle of May, 1905. The greatest part of the labor during the 
summer had necessarily been expended in providing shelter and supplies, and consequently 
when the stream was visited during the last week m August but little development work 
had been accomplished. Only three holes had been sunk to bed rock, but they disclosed a 
thickness of 24 to 26 feet of deposits which consisted of about 6 feet of muck and 18 to 20 
feet of gravel. The gravels comprise several varieties of schist, gneiss, granite, greenstone, 
and vein quartz. Live water was encountered in some of the ground. Prospects were 
reported, but insufficient work had been done to determine whether a pay streak is present. 
Caribou Creek, adjacent on the east, is about 7 miles long and carries less water than 
Butte Creek. The valley is narrow and deep. The position of the stream is close to the 
base of the high, steep ridge which forms the eastern limit of the valley. On the west side 
of the stream is a flat, in places a few hundred feet in width. The stage of development was 
found to be about the same as on Butte Creek, and many of the men who had been working 
there during the summer had just left for Fairbanks to get supplies for the winter. So far 
as could be learned gold was discovered in April, 1905. A few holes only had been sunk to 
bed rock. The thickness of deposits so far as developed ranges from 24 to 36 feet. The 
layer of muck was found generally to be but a few feet in thickness. Pay dirt has been 
reported and nuggets valued as high as $4.75. All that can be said regarding the future 
of the creek is that it is well worth prospecting. The creeks north of the Butte are also 
being prospected, and probably from 100 to 200 miners are working in this district during 
the present winter (1905-6). 
BONNERFIELD AND KANTISHNA REGIONS. 
The country south of the Tanana, in the foothills of the Alaska Range, 50 miles or more 
southeast and south of Fairbanks, has been somewhat prospected. A rush of considerable 
proportions took place in the early spring to the valley of Little Delta River, and work has 
been continued in the Bonnerfield region, but thus far with no large results. 
The latest reports of placers in this field locate them in the vicinity of Mount McKinley. Several 
parties of prospectors ascended, Kan tishna River, a southwestern tributary of the Tanana about 100 
miles from the Yukon. These men report the presence of auriferous placers in the Kantishna basin, 
near the foot of the mountains. The writer, who traversed this region hi the summer of 1902, is unable 
to substantiate this report. Of the streams which flow into the Kuskokwim from the Alaska Range 
few, if any, carried even colors. In some of the streams of the Kantishna drainage system, however, 
some colors were found, and there was other evidence of mineralization. It seems at least possible that 
this field may yet produce placer gold.a 
Kantishna River is a large tributary of the Tanana from the south about 160 miles below 
Fairbanks. (See map, fig. 8.) Toklat and Bearpaw rivers and McKinley Fork are tribu- 
taries of the Kantishna from the east. Moose Creek is said to flow into the Bearpaw from 
the west about 60 miles above the mouth. Gold has been found on the small headwater 
tributaries of Moose. Creek and of Bearpaw River, streams 4 to 8 miles in length. Most of 
the steamers leave their supplies at the mouth of the Bearpaw, whence they are packed 
overland about 20 miles to the diggings, but a few have reached the mouth of Moose Creek. 
The rates for freight were $50 per ton; for passengers, $40 each; and the time required for 
the round trip from Fairbanks about two weeks. The reports indicate that the bed rock 
consists in part of schist, porphyry, and limestone ; that the gravels, so far as worked are 
shallow, and that in some places, at least, they carry high values. 
FORTYMILE REGION. 
The information here given regarding the Fortymile region is in part based on data gath- 
ered for the Survey by Mr. C. B. McDowell, of Chicken Creek, and in part on that gathered 
by the writer. The region has held its own with a production of approximately $200 000, 
most of which has come from Wade, Chicken, and Lost Chicken creeks. There were in the 
neighborhood of 400 people in the region, about half of whom were working on these three 
a Brooks, A. H., Placer mining in Alaska in 1903: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 225, 1901, p. 18. 
