The Chitina leader., 1915-10-26
GOLD L0DES | N WHITE RIVER
 DISTRICT

For many years the existence of low grade gold lode deposists in the White River region has been known. In 1906 a small stamp mill was erect ed at gold lode on Jacksina Creek, a tributary of Nabesna River, and 60 tons of ore crushed in this mill is re- ported to have yielded SIP a ton of free gold. This marks the most seri- ous effort to develop a gold lode prop erty in the region, but other lodes have been staked, and varying amounts of excavation have been done on them. AS result of the gold placer stampede in 1902 from Dawson into the basin of Beaver creek near the international boundary, a large number of gold lode claims were staked in that general district These claims, situated on Beaver Creek near the boundary and on Beaver and Fourmile creeks, and little development work has since Creekbeen done on them. On Cha thenda Creek at the mouth of Bonan- "a Creek a mineralized dike, known to contain some free gold, has been 'staked a number of times within the last eight years, but no serious at- tempts to prospect it have been made. The discovery of the rich placer de- posits in 1913 naturally stimulated the search for the gold lodes from which the placers were derived, and a considerable number of gold lode claims have been staked in the dis. trict surrounding the placer mines. At the mouth of Bonanza Creek the min eralized area, which was first staked several years ago, was prospected by tunnels each only few feet long. For distance of several hundred feet along Bonanza Creek the walls of the rock canyon are composed of an in-
 
 trusive rock, from pink to gray in color, mottled with phenocrysts of darker minerals and containing abund- ant pyrite, the whole being oxidized on the surface to rusty red color. There are in places punches composed al most entirely of pyrite, and some small quartz veins cut the mass. The dike cuts Carboniferous lavas and pyroclatic rocks and apparently strikes N. 20 degrees West and dips about 75 degress South. The quartz vein- lets are said to carry several ounces of gold to the ton, and the whole dike is reported to be auriferous. It is said that free gold can be banned from the oxidized and decayed sur face portion of the outcrop. No assay reports of the gold content were avail able, and too little work has been done to determine the average gold tenor of the dike, the location of the ore shoots, or the extent of the auriferous portion of the dike.
 In the canyon of Chathenda Creek, about halfway between the mouth of Dry Gulch and Bonanza creek, there is a zone of naturalization in the Car boniferous rocks and the diorites which intrude them. This mineraliz- ed belt strikes approximately N. 65 degrees West and dips IS degrees Southwest, and large group of claims has been staked upon it, extending from the canyon of Chathenda Creek up the mountain to the north. Two tunnels 10 and 15 feet long have been driven in steep gully that joins the canyon, and several open cuts have been made. As shown by these dis connected openings, there is a belt raching a width of 10 feet, of rusty mineralized country rock cut by some quartz veins which carry sulphides and are stained by green copper car bonate. No sampling was done by the writer, but it is reported that as- says taken from the quartz veins have shown a high gold content. Other claims supposedly on the continuation of this mineralized zone, have been staked on both side of upper Dry Gulch.
 Some quartz claims have also been staked on Canyon Creek about three fourths of mile above it's mouth, but no development work had been done there.
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