The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1913-10-16
ALASKA GOLD DREOGE MEN LOOK OVER
EXTENSIVE NORTH SIDE PLACER GROUND
"slMPLY scouTINc," SAID oNE-THEY EVIDENCE,
EVER, OF KNOWING MODERN pREooE MErHoDs-ARE
PLEASED AS FAR AS THEY sAW-WLL RETURN.
Murray, Idaho. October IA

r. y. ". moore ana wat. Moore,
4 brotherns looked over the placer fields
Of The North Side last week to get
an idea of their extent, depth and
cursory value, They remained three
das.s and secured fair knowledge of
what they desired to learn Whether
this visit was for their own satisfac-
ton. or for other parties, could not
be ascertained. They declared that
years, and that dredges had made a
decided success In the placer fields of
that northern territory, altho the
seasons for operations were very
short-from June to October. Here,
they thought, from what they had
heard of the climate, they could work
all the year, and they would have NJ
heavy expense in thawing out the
ground. Therefore the local fields
Would not have to be as rich as those
near the Arctic Circle to pay Besides,
dredging for gold said the elder Moore
was a very different proposition now
from what 1t was some years ago
Hard bedrock and boulders, which
frightened dredge men in the past,
did SO no more. They may make
dredging little more expensive, but
they were no obstacle in the way of
successful operation or for obtaining
the ground from the grass roots to the
solid bottom. These problems. and
and others, have been solved In the
Alaskan placer fields, and all the deep
ground, which heretofore has been
drifted by hand, with the expensive
water pumping methods, were now
obsolete. Machinery had done away
with the slow pick shovel and bucket
hoist, and given the dust" miner in
the bowels Of the earth a surface jon
The brothers, although they remain
ed only three days, covered the entire
placer territory about and adjacent to
Murray. They first famiiarized them
selves with Prichard creek, owned by
the Occur d'Alene Placer Company of
Boston, Massachusetts, of which John
+. Murphy, Superintendent Of the
Morning mine at Mullan. is general
manager, They were surprised at the
extent of this placer territory, stretch
ing from the North Fork of the Coeur
dAlene river to the Monarch lead
silver mine, distance of IL miles,
feet. A dozen huge dredges could not
work out this field in fifty years, ope-
rating continuously. every day In the
year, They weie amused when in
= formed Of the methods so far employed
here to work these placers, and We're
not surprised that the ground was
idle, and had been idle, since the sys-
TENS had proved failures.
Beaver Creek.
The brothers inspected conditions on
Beaver and Trail creeks, where some
small dredges were installed a few
years ago, .and were shortly after
wards dismantled and removed to the
On ofino diggings in Clearwater coun
discourage good dredge men now-a-
days If the ground prospected sufti-
ciently to Justify the erection of the
proper sized boats to handle gravel
properly and in adequate quantity
Placer gold, once pushed into a stream
became scattered and made its way
downward. The upper deposits Were
for the pick and shovel and sluict
miner; and the lower deposits for the
modern dredge. Hence, they reasoned
that if the side gulches Of Prichard
and Beaver creeks were so rich Il
must follow that the main creeks mus
have their proportion of the gold, al
belt more scattered
Eagle Creek.
The brothers also visited Eagle creek
examined the situation. and got what
information they could obtain They
thought conditions there similar t
those ON Prichard creek, except thai
Eagle creek has a wide bottom ol
valley where 1t empties into Prichsrc
and that the geld there may be verj
much scattered, perhaps too much
for profitable dredging. This, how.
ever, could easily be determined BY
prospecting.
FavorabIy Impressed.
The brothers were very favorablI
impressed with what they saw ant
the history of what had been done
here on the various creeks, and wha
is still being done here and there b.
placer miners. The former output O
gold was satisfactory to them, ant
they have had sufficient experience IL
placer mining to see that not over s.
acres of the IL miles of placer terri
tory on Prichard creek were turne'
over. none at all for FIVE miles NJ
E,gle crock, and the same may b.
slid of Beaver creek.
I'VE are simply scouting" said tn
elder brother II will return som
time during the winter. and lock tn
situation over more carefully. Tht