26 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1904. [bull. 259. 
to the Alaskan mining public. Though this gold was taken from only 
a few creeks, there are twelve more on which encouraging prospects 
have been found. a These drain an area of approximately 500 square 
miles, which can be regarded as the gold-bearing district, as defined by 
present knowledge. What part of this area carries commercial values 
must be determined by more careful prospecting than has yet been done. 
All of the creeks are within 25 miles of steamboat navigation on the 
Tanana, and the construction of the railway now under way will make 
this camp more accessible than any other of the Yukon region. Mr. 
Prindle's studies have shown that where excavations have been made 
the gravels are generally deep and often covered by a heavy over- 
burden of muck. The water supply is not abundant, and hydraulic 
operations may find in this a serious obstacle. Low stream gradients 
also offer the usual difficulties in the disposal of tailings. These con- 
ditions, as far as they are understood, indicate that mechanical means 
of handling the gravels will find preference over hydraulic methods, 
unless further surveys should discover sources of water not now 
known. Much of the gold mined thus far has been taken out by drift- 
ing. Last fall scores of boilers were shipped to Fairbanks, and prob- 
ably many of these are now in use taking out winter dumps. 
The heavy growth of spruce along the larger valley floors yields an 
ample fuel supply for the present, and the local sawmills have supplied 
the necessary lumber. In spite of this, lumber was sold on the creeks 
last year as high as $200 per thousand feet, and the supply will soon 
become exhausted unless efficient measures are adopted for protecting 
it against the present reckless waste. 
Last summer the Fairbanks district probabl} 7 contained a population 
of 4,000 to 5,000, which is far in excess of what the present discover- 
ies and developments could support. Three thousand people, mostly 
in the town of Fairbanks, are said to have remained through the 
winter. This town, the headquarters of the precinct, is on a slough of 
the Tanana, navigable for large steamers only during favorable stages 
of water. Chena, a rival but much smaller settlement, lies on the 
main river, nearly 10 miles below. Fairbanks is connected with the 
producing creeks by telephone and with the outside world by military 
telegraph. From about the middle of June to the middle of Septem- 
ber it can be reached by steamer from Dawson in about seven days. 
The journey from St. Michael by steamer up the Yukon is a little 
longer, and the entire route is not open until after July 1. Summer 
freight rates to the creeks last season were from 10 to 20 cents per 
pound, while the winter rates were about a quarter of this sum. The 
following notes were furnished by Mr. Prindle: 
The gold-producing creeks in 1903 were Pedro, Cleary, and Fairbanks, together 
with some of their tributaries. The three main creeks are all small streams, carrying 
a Prindle, L. M., The gold placers of Fortymile, Birch Creek, and Fairbanks regions, Alaska: Bull. 
U. S. Geol. Survey No. 251, p. 85. 
