THE CIRCLE PRECINCT. 
By Alfred H. Brooks. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The gold-bearing area tributary to Birch Creek, in the central 
lYukon region, is usually known as the Birch Creek districts Birch 
Creek lies, for the most part, in the so-called " Circle precinct," which 
embraces the Birch Creek and Preacher Creek basins, as well as Wood- 
chopper and other small gold-bearing streams. This whole region 
as tributary to the town of Circle, which is located on the west bank 
of the Yukon and contains several hundred inhabitants. 
Means of communication are very inadequate throughout this 
[region. Freight is delivered at Circle or other points by steamer in 
the summer and during the winter months is hauled to the various 
placer mines, distances varying from 10 to 50 miles, at a cost of 3 to 
|6 cents a pound. Wagon roads are almost entirely lacking, and 
during the wet weather of the summer the horse trails become well- 
nigh impassable. A system of wagon roads is the first need of this 
region. The difficulties of communication are also rendered greater 
here than in some of the other inland placer districts by the entire 
absence of telegraph or telephone lines. 
In spite of the adverse conditions, the Birch Creek district stands 
to-day as one of the few placer camps which have been developed 
entirely without the aid of outside capital. Since the discovery, in 
1894, step by step, through the efforts of the miners who have taken 
their capital out of the ground, advances have been made. Though 
this is one of the last of the Alaskan mining fields to be invaded by 
capital, this change is now in progress, for during 1906 several groups 
of claims passed into the hands of strong companies. This will even- 
tually revolutionize mining methods and bring about a great increase 
of production. As the installation of mining plants will require 
several years, however, the production meanwhile will decrease. 
The following notes are based largely on the writer's own observa- 
tions during a journey in 1906 along the Yukon and through the 
Birch Creek district, which occupied about a month, but free use has 
a "District" has no legal significance as a territorial subdivision, for the units are officially known 
as precincts. 
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