The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-10-15
Garnefsby
 Millions in . Mighty Dike
Huge Deposit Unedrthed on Dome Creek Near
 Fairbanks by Colbert
tFairbanks News-Minerl


 told tons. perhaps <. shiploads-in beautiful wine-colored crystals large as marbles and in granular form, the size of pinheads.
 Louis D.. Colbert, garnet king of Alaska, has them. And they are in a huge dike, 50 feet wide at places and stretching away for half a mile or more, less than l5 miles from Fairbanks,
 %. Tungsten Also
 Colbert, veteran Alaska miner and prospector made his garnet strike and located mineral claims to cover them, on Gilmore Dome, heart of the Fairbanks placer gold fields, early in the summer, and has been quietly prospecting the ground. Not only has he an enor- nous garnet depository but with it what is probably more valuable, a promising percentage of tungsten, in form of seheelite, all in the same vein.
 On Gilmore Dome
 The properties lie at the head of Gilmore Creek, near Pearl Creek, and adjacent to scheelite properties long held and previous ly operated by Mike Stepovich, well known Fairbanks miner. One end of the Colbert vein is not more than 500 feet from the stepo- vich properties. e
 Stimulated by the nationwide demand for scheelite, one of the strategic minerals, Colbert resolved to go into the field this season, and see if he could not find some thing very much worth while in the locality where Stepovich schee- lite had produced with success during World War No. I. Picking up float, Colbert worked his way up the hill gradually, sinking holes here, and there. until he came into the dike carrying enormous quantities of garnets.
 Several who have visited Col bert's vein say they never saw nor dreamed of the likes of it as a garnet treasure -trove.
 How They Occur
 T estimate" said Colbert, that 20 to 25 percent of the vein mate rial in the dike is comprised of garnsts--many large, eoften in groups like clusters of Tokay grapes, others small aiid scattered and of various sizes, down to that of pin point.
 Government geologists and oth- CTS recently visited the properties While garnetsl Of certain kinds are often used, as jewels, some are. used extensively as abrasives and for other purposes. It remains to be seen just what value these garnets are, and what is the demand. As to the scheelite in my dike, that may yet. prove of sufficient quan- tity to justify production. We shall see.
 Formation
 Authorities differ as to just what is the material in the dike in which these garnets and the tungsten occur. Some have called it an altered lime. and others g granite material. have found many fossils in the formation, fig ures of ferns and such.
 '.The garnets are quite heavy, almost as heavy as the scheelite Just how to segregate the garnets from the material in which they occur, especially if mined on any scale. is another problem.
 Garnet King Colbert has been working hard on his prospect all summer, and had reduced his adj pose tissue and girth about 50 per- csnt-but feels as fit as an athlete --and his face is radiant and as beaming as the most treasured "carbuncle." highly prized translu- cent gem Of the garnet family.
 To Follow Up
 Colbert will return to his claims within day or two. to continue prospecting until the .snows drive him in from the hills. A veteran prospector and miner Of nearly 45 years in the North. in which ilc has taken big stakes from gold- bearing placers from Atlin to Klon- dike, Nome Iditarod and Fair BILLY DeBECK
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