Trail Creek; Salt Creek; Dry Creek Mines, Hot Springs Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Trail Creek; Salt Creek; Dry Creek Mines	Group of Mines
Hot Springs Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This record represents placer gold prospects in the Boulder Creek drainage, chiefly its tributaries Trail Creek, Salt Creek, and Dry Creek, an unnamed branch of Trail Creek (Chapin, 1919). The site is at the junction of Salt Creek and Trail Creek, in the northwest quarter of section 26, T. 4 N., R. 18 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The location is accurate, but it was not plotted by Cobb (1972). The site roughly corresponds with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management location for Salt Creek (MAS number 0020480073).
Geology: The Salt Creek-Dry Creek area is underlain by Jurassic or Cretaceous clastic sedimentary rocks and by Paleozoic limestone, dolomite, greenstone, and chloritic schist, with minor amounts of phyllite, quartzite, and quartz mica schist (Chapman and others, 1982; Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). Serpentine Ridge, 1.5 miles to the south, consists of serpentinite and mafic intrusive rocks that intrude Mesozoic, predominantly marine sedimentary rocks, (Chapman and others, 1982). Chapin (1919) reported mining in Dry Creek in 1917. The gravels are angular, 3 to 6 feet thick, and consist of black slate, graywacke, quartzite, and schist. Water was not plentiful, but the ground was easily worked. Heiner and others (1968) reported mining in 1967, and that claims on Dry Creek were held or worked by Scotty Anderson, Farrell, Heiner and Wolff, and Higgins. Salt Creek and the immediate area of the junction of Salt Creek with Trail Creek was under claim and mined sporadically from 1973 to 1993 (Alaska Kardex files). Twelve claims were staked in the area in 1973, with 10 placer claims on Salt Creek and 2 placer claims downstream from the junction of Salt and Trail creeks. Mining was a bulldozer and loader sluicebox operation.
Workings: Chapin (1919) reported mining in Dry Creek in 1917. The gravels are angular, 3 to 6 feet thick, and consist of black slate, graywacke, quartzite, and schist. Water was not plentiful, but the ground was easily worked. Heiner and others (1968) reported mining in 1967, and that claims on Dry Creek were held or worked by Scotty Anderson, Farrell, Heiner and Wolff, and Higgins. Salt Creek and the immediate area of the junction of Salt Creek with Trail Creek was under claim and mined sporadically from 1973 to 1993 (Alaska Kardex files). Twelve claims were staked in the area in 1973, with 10 placer claims on Salt Creek and 2 placer claims downstream from the junction of Salt and Trail creeks. Mining was a bulldozer and loader sluicebox operation.
Age: Quaternary.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	TN076

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References