Valdez daily prospector., 1913-10-15
STORY 0F THE
 NELCH|NA CAMP Prospector Writes Of Experience : In Finding Pay--0ivos De-
 scription of Disginss.

In a letter brought to Valdez by. Judge Lee Van Slyke, written by one of the original lOcators and discoverers of the Nelchina country, much information of in- Etercst to prospectors is contain- cd, and the letter, being very long. we are publishing only the most interesting facts gleaned from it.
 In July, last year, a party of prospectors became interested in Alfred Creek and after a flow weeks prospecting in that sec- tion they were compelled to leave for lack of grub, but the indi- cations received and the pros poets found were so good that they determined to return this spring with larger outfits and continue the work of prospecting the ground. On March 2ith they arrived on the ground and staked a number of claims on Alfred Creek and by the 30th of April they had confined themselves of the value of the ground and located tn ebalance of the creek.
 The next few days were spent in hauling wood and saving lum- Der. At this time the party con- sisted of MesSrs. Olson, Gitchel and. Duncan McCormac in one party and Kemp and Anderson in another party.
 The letter then states:
 "I then started in to du as sessment work after locating fraction on the west end of No. 1 above; then 1 began the work on No. 3 below, starting cut in the center of the claim where the ground was partly thawed and for the first sixty feet got fair pan nings, until I noticed change in the gravel, the cut filling with blue-greenish sand. clay and frozen muck. So l moved to No. , above. where I banned, getting five and six cents to the pan on the surface and I ran a cut for i5O feet, but ,hc frost and blue clay allowed me to go down onl' three feet. was inclined to give it up. continued for another 15o feet and was rewarded by rereiv- ing pans of from twenty to thirty cents. The gold was partly fine. but some of it was coarse.
 ,"If time had permitted me l." continue the work this summer am sure 1 would have gotten into the good pay, but the season was nearly over w~len was get ting the experience and knew what to look for. In the mean- time Olson and Giichel were talk ing out good pay. I was also compelled tn stop prospecting in order to do the required amount of assessment work necessary under the law to hold the claims.
 "After finishing the assessment work, ran ditch up the creek and thence across toward where Olson and Gitchel were working, and at the depth of nine feet and four inches struck the top of tn four inches l struck the top of the pay. The pay was frozen and the ditch was narrow and l could make but little progress. Later I sank a hole on the other side of the creek and found good pay. l am convinced the paystrcak is wide and runs the full length of the creek, at least as far as No. : above enough work had been done to demonstrate that fact: Because of the short season l was compelled to do the work in such places as the ground was thawed, therefore the work was not as thorough as l would have liked it.
 "On Dick Creek the ground was all frozen. It is a yellow, green and black mud or clay, with small streaks of gravel We did not work on this creek, but expect it will show up all right, as pam ming showed good eolors.
 Albert Creek is cast and west, Crooked Creek running due north: | Albert Creek enters Crooked about seven miles from it's source and about nine miles from it's mouth. Crooked Creek has a valley of approximately t,e00 feet; Albert Creek has valley of approximately zoo feet at lower end with grade of about four