The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-02-08
GOOD
CANDLE DISTRICT
MINING INDUSTRY

Amer Rydeen, VINO Is a mining
operator in the Candle region on
the northern slope of the Seward
arrived in Nenana Thurs
day night on his way to attend the
territorial legislature to be held at
Juneau next month.
The claims on which Mr.. Rydeen
is working are on Bear creek, a,
tributary of the Buckland river, and
approximately forty-five miles dis
tant from the town of Candle.
The region in which the mines
are situated is known as the Fair
haven mining district, and Candle
is the principal town in this dis
trict.
Candle is an old mining town,
having been in existence for the
past eighteen years, and the mining
sections tributary to it are in much
the same shape as those in other old
districts in other parts of Alaska.
The development of them being held
back very considerably owing to
the lack of transportation and the
high cost of fuel and mining sup
plies of all kinds.
In the Fairhaven mining district
at the present time, there is not
much doing in the mining line, said
Mr.. Rydeen; and besides the few
outfits working getting out dumps
for sluicing and by the open cut
methods, there are two small gaso-
line dredges; one of them is on
Candle creek and the other on the
Inmachuck river. Another gasoline
dredge is now in course of con-
struction and it is expected that it
will be at york next season.
The dredge on Candle creek is
owend and operated by the Candle
creek mining company; while that
on the Inmachuck is worked by
Hank Frese. The biggest mining
outfits in the district are the Candle
Mining company and the Kewalik
Mining company.
Nearly all of the more or less
primitive mining methods in vogue
in the various mining camps of
Alaska are in use in the Fairhaven
district also; and with mining activ-
ity cut down to practically the ir-
reducible minimum, the output of
the camp is placed at about quar-
ter of a million dollars. This figure,
Mr.. Rydeen stated, might be little
in excess of the actual output of
the camp.
| There is considerable low grade
ground in the district that might
be worked by either the open cut
ground sluicing or hydraulicking
methods, but the owners of them
are forced to let them lie fallow
until such time as they will be en-
abled to work them to better ad-
vantage.
Fuel is scare and expensive in
that district and the mining camps
on Candle creek and its tributaries
Jump, Patterson and Amy creeks
within a radius of approximately
ten miles of the town of Candle
use coal exclusively. The country
around Candle, within a radius Of
about rs miles or so is absolutel.
devoid of timber; willows being thu
only thing in this line found in thu
region. There are two coal mine
on the Kouguruk river, within fou
miles of each other, and a fairl,
. good grade of Ignite is mined Their
but owing to the great transporta
, ton difficulties and the small de
mand for the mine output, the pric
, of the coal ranges all the way from
SIT to $50 per ton.
Owing to the scarcity of labo
now, due to abnormal condition
caused by the war, and to the fac
that one of the coal mines on tn
Kouguruk caved in, the people o
the district had been obliged to i'm
. port coal from the Wellington min
; of Washington, at cost of 81
per ton.
| ualana Ioduo Mr. Rudaon Save