RECONNAISSANCE FROM CIRCLE TO FORT HAMLIN. 
By Ralph W. Stone 
GENERAL STATEMENT. 
Circle is al the upper end and Fori Hamlin al the lower end of Yukon Flats. (See map 
PI. 1 1.) The distance between them is about 150 miles in an air-line, or 270 miles by river. 
In the summer of 190.") a topographic party under D. C. Witherspoon, accompanied by the 
writer as geologist, made a trip with a pack train between these two points, carrying topi 
graphic and geologic work as far west as the head of Hess ('reek. The party entered thf 
Crazy Mountains south of Circle late in .lime, I raveled wesl across Preacher ('reek to Beavei 
Creek, which was crossed at t he mouth of Willow Creek, and t hence north beyond Victoria 
Creek to Yukon Flats From Mount Schwatka work was carried south into the White 
Mountains in the loo]) of Beaver Creek. Here earlj in September continuous snowstorms 
compelled the abandonment of both topographic and geologic surveys. 
A ("nited States Army expedition, led by First Lieut. Hjalmar Erickson, Seventh Infantry. 
explored this region in 1901 . looking for a route for a proposed military road. A map of the 
drainage was prepared by William Yanert, who accompanied the expedition as topographs 
In I '.to I \j. M. Prindle and Frank L Hess,a of the United States ( reological Survey, went 
from Fairbanks northward across the head of Victoria Creek to Yukon Flats and thence 
down Hess Creek to Rampart. 
GEOGRAPHIC SKETCH. 
The region described in this paper is an upland country lying west of the Fairbanks-Circle 
trail, bounded on the north l>\ the Yukon Flats, on the west by the lower Ramparts of the 
Yukon, and on the south by the Yukon-Tanana divide. It is mountainous and ranges in 
elevation from about 700 to 5,000 feet. The Crazy Mountains, which lie at the east end of 
the area between Birch and Preacher creeks, trend northwest and have rounded rather than 
peaked summits, the highest of which is 3,690 feet in elevation. Between Preacher and 
Beaver creeks, and particularly in the great loop of Beavei Creek, the mountains are high and 
sharp crested. Elevations over 1.000 feet are common and the ridges are in places so steep 
and narrow that it is impossihle to take horses along them. The White Mountains, around 
which BeaverCreek makes its big bend, are particularly rough and jagged. Between Beaver 
and Victoria creeks is a high ridge composed largely of limestone and granite and t tending 
northeast parallel with the mountains on the south side of Beaver Creek. North of Victoria 
Creek a belt of limestone mountains having a northeast trend terminates abruptly at the 
Yukon Flats, falling off 2, 500 feet Broad areas of comparatively level tundra count iv are 
found around the heads of Victoria and I less creeks, and from that locality westward to Fort 
1 lamlin the relief is moderately st rong, the main streams being 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 feet below the 
ridges, which are for the mosl part gently rounded at the top, though the sides may in places 
he very steep 
a Ramparl gold placer region: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 280. 
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