The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-02-17

been found, but 1t is too loot to pre-
be.
Seward peninsular also had it's Ia
Dor troubles during the past summer.
Though they were not so serious as
those at Fairbanks, yet them conside-
rably hampered mine operations, and
as a consequence it will probably be
less han that of last season. Theold
beach lines continue to be the center
Of mining activity, though much of
their extent has been mined out. The
second beach line has been mined out
east of Nome City to Cunningham and
HASTINGS creeks. The third beach
line has been traced to Hastings and
has been found west of Snake river
at Sunset creek. The can be no doubt
that the discovery of these rich beach
placers has retarded the development
of more extensive but less valuable
creek and tundrt placers. These an
cient sea beaches have proven so rich
that mine operators are disinclined to
spend their activities to work at a
lower grade and other forms of good
placers. AS a consequence, there has
been but very little creek mining dur
ing the past two years in the Seward
peninsular especially nj the vicinity
of Nome.
In the northeastern part of the
p~enincular, two long bitches, one at
Candle creek. and one discharging on
the Keewalke, were completed. Con-
siderable mining was done on this part
of the penincular. particularly on Can
die creek. The Taylor ditch and some
smaller bitches in the Kugruk dis
trict, were also completed, and were
in part in operation.
The dredge on Solomon river has
been in operation throughout the sum
mer, as has also one near teh mouth
of Ophir creek. A small dredger has
been operating on West creek, and
a large dredger was constructed for
work on the Bourbon creek. near
Nome. Gold dredging will undoubted-
ly become important on the penincular
and plans are under way for using wat
err power and reduce the cost of operat-
ing the dredges.
Additional attention has been given
to lode prospecting during the past
summer. especially in the Nome dis
tElNt. 1ODpti ltdu DiSI1utnf dhtiiiOhy
and gold ores have been found, but
it is too soon to predict a future for
lode mining.
In the Cook inlet region the most
notable developments were in the
Yentna district, discovered nj 1905.
Here the operators are for the most
part, small operators, but in the ag-
gregate much gold was produced.
Work continues in the placers of
the Sunrise district, but there were
no noteworthy developments. Inter
est was aroused by the discovery of
a mineral bearing lode in the Kenai
pe~nincula, and the islands and the
mainland to the southwest. Whether
any of these are of commercial i'm
%portance remains to be seen
The mining of copper ore was con
tinued in several of the Prince Will
liam Sound district. and considerable
prospecting for copper was done. There
was great activity in the Copper riv
err district, esnecially in the Chitina
river belt. This region has been rem
dered more accessible by placing a
steam boat on the Copper river. above
the rapids. The operations in this
copper belt has been confined chiefly
to the making of surveys for patents
and doing assessment work. Tt will
be impossible to carry on a great
amount of mining until the region is
made more accessible nv the building
of a railroad.
The railroad situation in this part
of Alaska has been the facal point of
public interest throughout the summer
Construction work has been actively
pushed by w companies building
from K~atella, the immediate destina-
ton being the coal deposit lying about
twenty-five miles inland. In mid-sum-
mer, construction work was begun on
a railroad from Valdez. All three
of these roads claim to be building
into the copper belt of the Chitina re-
gion.
Little has been done in the Alaska
coal fields except to make surveys
with a view Of obtaining title to coal
lands. The Controller bay field will
be opened up as soon as railroad
transportation can be established, and
the same NAV be said of the Mat