Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-10-29

Copyright, 1916, by Frank G. Carpenter.l
FAIRBANKS.
-HE completion of Uncle Sans
railway will be the beginning
of new era in the mining
< camps of Alaska. The road
will give easy access to many thou
sand square miles of new territory and
will pass through regions where the
precious metals are known to exist. 1t
will cross the Kenai peninsula. which
is peppered with gold and which con-
tains working mines, both placer and
quartz. The first gold found in Alaska
was discovered there in 1854 by Rus
sian engineer, but, in the cham ing con-
ditions. the camp was abandoned and
the discovery forgotten. Over twenty
years ago workable placers were found
on the northern part of the peninsula
not far from where the railroad now
runs. and they are still mining there.
The total output of the peninsula has
been in the neighborhood of two mil
lon dollars worth of gold and only
small part of the country has been
prospected or scratched
x
Even less work has been done in the
country running north to the Tanana
valley. About forty miles from
Anchorage are the Willow creek mines,
where they have recently taken out sew
eral hundred thousand dollars worth
OF quartz gold with a little stamp mill.
Willow creek is about 10 miles north
of Seward, and perhaps 900 miles from
Fairbanks. Three mines are working
there now, and there will be more when
the coal from Matanuska fields can be
brought in by the railway
On Broad pass, over which the road
crosses the mountains at an altitude of
about 1900 feet, silver-lead ores are
reported, and a little further north is
the Bonnifeld district, consisting of
gold placers which have already
yielded considerable metal And then
there are the Skwetna and Yetna
mines, west of the Talkeetna river.
where they are thawing placer gold
out OF the ice, and TO the north and
west is the kantishna mining district.
which contains not only gold, but
anthony.
=, Anthony has risen in price since
the war In Europe. and it is now worth
several hundred dollars ton. An
other valuable mineral which is being
mined near Fairbanks is seheeIite. r.
is hlgh-grade tungsten used in the
making of ammunition. The concen-
trate is now selling for over SO 600 a ton
As to the Fairbanks district itself If
has many gold mines, both placer and
quartz. The most of the gold so far
has come from the placers. the total
product amounting to more than sS0
000, 900.
The plan is to extend the railroad bv
oranch line to the Kuskokwim re-
gion- This will give cheap fuel to
large area of gold bearing Tertiary
and will make the Innoko, Iditarod and
other placer mines much more accessi-
Bile. There are twenty-five or thirty
plants plan, nov, now operating in the Kusko-
tary to Fort McGrath, which will ha
the terminus of this branch of the rail-
road.
The Innoko district has twenty-five
or thirty mines now working. Tbe
gold output Of the Iditarod annually
amounts to 100000 and upward The
placers are on or near the Iditarod
river, a branch of the Innol1o. about
100 miles southeast of Fort McGratb
The gold is found in the beds of the
creeks. A great part of the OUTPUT is
that of the Yukon Gold Company,
which is working the creeks with
dredges driven by gasoline or cleo I
tricity. There are several hundred
men employed there. Common labor
ers are getting Sc day and board
Another rich placer district Is at
Ruby, close to the Yukon. It produced
a million dollars in 1914 and has fiftv.
five different mines which are operated
during the summer. In the Hot Springs 5
district, which lies near the Tanana
river between Fairbanks and Fort Glib +
bon. forty miles are being operated
and not far away are the Tolovana :
and other new gold fields. !
In all Of these gold regions, the out /
put depends on fuel to operate the ma. :
chinery and to generate the steam :
needed to thaw the mass Of frozen :
gravel and Ice in which the gold lies. ,