The Cordova daily times., 1915-05-29
b|G OPERATIONS LIN VALDEZ
 CREEK

| inspect their property. These men first became interested in placer min ing claims on Valdez Creek in 1907, four years after the first discovery of gold on the creek. Of their invest ment, a Boston paper says
 During 1914 they expended on these properties approximately $2OO,000 and installed a hydraulic plant, which is is simplicity itself. Valdez creek, in the last half of it's course, falls very rapidly. At the head of the last series of rapids a part of the water Is diverted by ditch. From the headgate, where this water is divert ed by ditch 6,200 feet long and 4,OO0 of steel pipe with an intake five feet in diameter, the water is delivered from three six-inch nozzles, under a head of $50 feet, against the gravels of an old, fllled-in pre-glacial canyon, which is rich in gold-bearing gravels. This old channel has been intersect- ed by the present creek canyon, which, in its rapid descent, has, at this point, cut a channel sixty feet deeper than the floor of the old channel and fifty yards further down the stream is a further fall of 2S feet.
 In the winter of 1913-14 26O tons of freight was started from the railroad terminus at Chitina, Alaska, and drawn over the frozen surfaces of the rivers to Valdez creek. Included in this freight was steel for the hydraulic pipe line, which weighed nearly one hundred tons. This outnt arrived at Valdez creek on May 7, 1914, and during a greater part of the season from May until the last of Septem- Der, more than fifty men were em- ployed in installing this pipe line, and supervising it's initial operation. The water was turned through this system for the first time on August 21 last. The above mentioned intersection of the present canyon of Valdez Creek with the old, filled-in pre-glacial chan nel was discovered during the first seasons that the claims on Valdez creek were worked; but the magni- tude of the discovery was not known until the following year.
 Altogether there was taken out from tunnels and drifts and stopes worked over s160,O00, which was about $21 per cubic yard for all the gravel taken out. They thoroughly prospected the bedrock gravels of the first 1900 feet and proved the values that warranted the installation of this hydraulic plant, which Boston capital has paid for. While these bedrock gravels to the height of seven feet-parts of the work include a stope 3S feet high-have yielded $21 per cubic yard, there are between there and the surface, which is 11O feet above bedrock (This being the depth of the old channeD scores or paystreaks of varying richness; and gold is found in the pans of dirt taken at the grass roots. From other claims in Valdez creek now owned by the Valdez Creek Placer Mines, more than s14O.OOO additional has been talk en out by hand methods.
 Forbes Rickert, of Denver, Colo, in examining these gravels in 1911. made an estimate of 94 cents per cubic yard for all the gravels in this old channel Actual hydraulic work by the present owners in 1913 with small equipment, showed the value of the gravel from the top to the bot tom of this old channel, exclusive of the seven feet of bedrock gravel, which had been extracted at the point. to be $2.7O per cubic yard. This season a No. 8 Keystone drill and a Rand-lngersoll air compressor, driven by a 5S-horse power water wheel. is going in as an additional equipment on the property. The Keystone drill will locate and thoroughly prospect the gravels of the old channel beyond the point where it was prospected by the tunnel The compressor will drive four RandrIngersoll drills, which will be used in drilling the larger bould- CTS found in the upper gravels as fast as they are uncovered, and thus In large degree increase the effic. iency of the bvdr aoufnv,ncx IT,.