KOUGAROK REGION. 171 
ship's side at Port Clarence to Davidson Landing, so thai at least one 
handling of freight is avoided. 
In 1906 the Seward Peninsula Railway was extended northward to 
the head of Nome River and then down the Kruzgamepa to Lanes 
Landing. Surveys have been made looking to a further extension of 
this line up the Kougarok Valley. This railway will bring the dist rid 
into close touch with Nome and will do much to accelerate its devel- 
opment. The recording office now at Igloo, 7 miles below Lanes 
Landing, will in all probability be moved to a more accessible point on 
the railway. 
Mining operations in 1906 may be summarized as follows: One 
hydraulic plant was operated for a part of the season on a bench 
claim on Dahl Creek and two on the main Kougarok River above the 
mouth of Taylor Creek. The two latter utilized the plant to remove 
the overburden and part of the pay streak, bed rock being cleaned by 
hand. In both cases Irvdraulic lifts were operated. Considerable 
work was done on the lower four claims on Dahl Creek by shoveling 
into sluice boxes. Ground sluicing was done by a number of operators, 
notably on Windy Creek and on Solomon Creek, a tributary of Taylor 
Creek. Several claims were worked in a small way on Coffee Creek 
and on some of the tributaries of the Kougarok. 
A dozen outfits were engaged in mining the river gravels and some 
of the tributary gulches of the Kougarok above Macklin Creek, but 
were handicapped during the earlier part of the season by lack of 
water and later by excess of water, which flooded them out. Below 
Taylor Creek, on the main Kougarok, attempts were made to exploit 
the bench gravels either by sinking shafts and drifting or by the aid of 
small hydraulic plants, but in most places the equipment was insuffi- 
cient to produce anything more than meager results. Probably the 
most successful of these operations was the drifting on some benches 
on the west side of the Kougarok near the mouth of Taylor Creek. 
Harris, Garfield, and other creeks received some attention. Chiefly 
owing to the inadequacy of the water supply it is unlikely that there 
were, all told, over 150 or 200 men engaged in productive mining in 
this region. 
It is thought that the amount expended in ditches and purchase of 
claims during the last two years (1905-6) probably exceeds a million 
dollars. Such an expenditure hardly seems justified by the placer 
ground actually proved. The total gold output, including that of 
1905, is estimated at $585,000, distributed probably about as follows: 
Gold production of Kougarok district, 1U00-1905. 
1900 150,000 
1901 35,000 
1902 50, 000 
190:5. 100,000 
1904 $150, 000 
1 905 200. 000 
585, 000 
