The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-05-12
Many Mine Operations Planned
 This Season in Moose Pass and .Kenni Peninsula Districts

| Ney puDllSllcQ III lSlO oldVCO. IN future of this region as a placer gold producer depends largely or the introduction of ec on m c a methods of handling large bodie' of low-grade gravels such as art found in the bench deposits. Int channel gravels yielded most of th' gold in the earlier days of placer mining on the peninsula, but tht richer spots were soon worked out and the remaining creek placers have repeatedly proved unprofitablt when worked by ordinary pick anc shovel methods.
 AS the topographic conditions and abundant water supply of the region are particularly favorable tc hydraulicking, most of the placer mining in recent years has been done by that method, the material worked in most places being the bench deposits.
 The handling of large bodies of low-grade gold-bearing Grayels by methods other than those of ordin- ary hydraulic mining has been at temped at different times in Kenai Peninsula, but thus far has not been successful. Many of the fail ureS are to be ascribed to inadequate prospecting of the placer ground be- fore the erection of plant for the recovery of the gold.
 Lode Mining History
 Regarding lode mining in this district. Bulletin 849-1 of the Geo. logical Survey, 1883, states "The history of lode mining in the Moose Hope district has been Jne of many disappointments. Small out rich gold-bearing lodes were discovered in the years when the primary interest was ill placer min ing, but at that time the develop ment of these lodes was neglected for the quicker and easier profits from the gravel.
 e@N~ Lucky Strike vein, near the head of Palmer Creek. It has been worked almost continuously and is the only lode producer in the district at this time Many of the pros- poets have been worked inter- mittently for the past IS years
 "The veins of the district have l remarkably high tenor, the aver age of the ore that has been mined in the past being about $45 in gold to the ton 1932 gold prices). This high tenor is economically neces- sary to offset high cost of opera tion, narrowness of veins, and poor mill extraction. The value of the concentrates usually averages between $500 and $1,000 ton. Careful Mining Needed
 "The future of the district tn lode mining) appears to lie in the careful and economical mining of the small veins. The highly faulted and folded condition of the country rock and the past mining experi- ences show that the veins will not warrant heavy overhead or large scale development work. Milling equipment should be adapted for small-scale operations, and develop ment work should be confined to following the vein or with very short distance between cross-cuts." 7" The 1933 Geological Survey bull letin gave the total value of gold mined on the Kenai Peninsula from 1895 to 1880 as $2,302,000, of which $1 ,990,OOO was placer gold.
 The first find by the Russians in 1848 was followed by attempts to mine in 1850 and 1851, but gold was not found in commercial quantities and the effort was abandoned.
 1884 Strike Reported
 In 1884 Joseph Cooper of Kache- mak Bay reported the discovery of gold on Cooper Creek, but no loca- tions were made.
 The next discovery, and the first in the Moose Pass-Hope district, was in 1888 by Charles Miller on Res urrection Creek, two miles above Hope. This ground was worked for several years. In the same year Robert Michaelson and Neil McCush discovered gold on Six Mile Creek at a point opposite Sunrise.
 In 1894 George Ready. F. R. Wal colt and Patrick Riley found gold on Bear Creek, and this area has been worked at intervals since. The presence of old workings at the time of the location suggested the possibility of earlier discovery by the Russians, but if so it must have been after the time of Doroshin, for he expressly states that the streams prospected by him were tributary to the stream known to- day as Kenai river.
 George Palmer also located in 1894, on Palmer Creek and by next
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