The Alaska citizen. (Fairbanks, Alaska) 1910-1917, 1911-09-04
Prospectors' Optimism Fully INDICATED

~ WAS about three years ago that the Fair
Il banks district attained the zenith of its
~ fame. when the neighborng creeks enriched
the worlds treasury the extent
of than ten million dollars as
the result of one brief summers cleanup At
that time, because the placer workings of the
Tanana valley offered much easier road to
wealth. hardly any attention had been paid to the
question whether not quartz in paying
quantities still existed in the hills. Most of the
miners were content to assist in the garnering of
the harvest easily exposed bedrock and
quite willing accept the theory commonly
advanced that Natures stamp mill had not aban-
doned work until all of the yellow metal had been
eroded from the hills and sluiced into the creek
channels.
Could bird's-eye view have been taken from
balloon soaring over the Cleary dome in the
fall Of 1908. the neighboring creeks-Ceary, Chat
ham. Wolf, Fairbanks and Little Eldorado-would
have appeared swarming from end to end with
busy workers. all engaged in stripping the bedrock
of its long-stored wealth. 1t would have taken,
however. powerful feldgass discover even
the beginnings of the quartz operations which
appear destined to make the Tanana Valley
famous the world than during the palmiest
days of placer mining.
Over Bedrock hill Tony Goessman might have
been certain would be uncovered on the
slope which now. in his honor, has come to be
known Goessman hill and possibly Lou Rhoads
might have come into focus as little further
down the hill toward Cleary he finding the
first indications of the mine which now threat
to make him millionaire. Skirmishing around
in the neighborhood of Skoogey Gulch the glass
perhaps would have picked up Herschberger,
Phipps, Buell. and Skoogey Pete, but unless Angus
McDougall had been in view there would have been
trace of quartz prospector found over the
Fairbanks creek side.
Today from just such eminence the glass
would expose a very different view. On Cleary,
Fairbanks and Little Eldorado there would still
be plenty of busy placer workers. although
not nearly many three years ago. The
full observer would, however, note the beginning of
the new era in placer operations when the glass
was trained on Fairbanks creek and the first Of
the giant dredgers was seen in course of instaa-
ton giving promise that most of the creeks of the
district to be revoked in the future by
scientific and less wasteful methods But it
would be the hsides that the principal diff
ference in the bird's-eye view would be noted, for
there instead Of occasional prospectors tent
would be several quartz mines in operation
and of tunnels and shafts that give
cellent promise of becoming such when further de-
velopment is attained.
On the crest of the saddle between Little Eldor-
ado and Cleary the numerous buildings of the
Newsboy Mining company would first come into
view and it would be hard for the behind the
glass to believe that considerably less than year
ago this property" no more extensive than
any other of the hundreds of prospect holes he
could every hand. Just the ridge, in
a straight line, could be the mills of the Tolo-
Mining company, Willow creek, and of the
Rhoads & Hall mine Bedrock creek, smoke
belching from the stacks and the stamps raising
the echoes in the hills. In the intermediate vista
between the Newsboy and the Rhoads mine would
be observed the Scheuyemere, Goessman and
other properties not quite so far advanced besides