Wiseman Creek Prospects, Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Wiseman Creek Prospects	Group of Prospects
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Wiseman Creek is a tributary to the Middle Fork, Koyukuk River. It flows north from the north flank of Emma Dome, swings in a large arc to the east, and then flows southeast to enter the Middle Fork at the town of Wiseman. Placer prospecting on Wiseman Creek has generally focused on the 4 or 5 miles of Wiseman Creek between Nolan Creek and the Middle Fork, Koyukuk. The prospects are somewhat arbitrarily placed about 2.8 miles southeast of the junction of Nolan and Wiseman Creeks at the prospect symbols on the Wiseman B-1 topographic map.
Geology: Gold prospecting has been concentrated in the area between the mouth of Nolan Creek and the Middle Fork Koyukuk River. Prospecting is severely hampered by thick glacial deposits in the valley. Only one shaft, located about a mile below Nolan Creek, is known to have reached bedrock. This shaft was 260 feet deep and encountered only colors of gold in 30 feet of washed gravel in the lower 40 feet of the shaft. A second shaft was sunk to a depth of 335 feet and a pipe driven another 30 feet without reaching bedrock. In the 1920's an attempt was made to find a deep channel under the glacial deposits by making two open cuts along the edge of the valley about 1.5 mile northwest of the town of Wiseman. These cuts found only fine, flour gold with values estimated to be $0.06 to $0.10 per cubic yard of gravel (gold at $20.67 per ounce) (Reed, 1938). Also see Nolan Creek (WI101).
Workings: Wiseman Creek was explored by deep prospect shafts in 1908 and 1909 (Maddren, 1913) and by open cuts from 1924 to 1929 (Reed, 1938). There has been little or no mining or gold production. Over the years, placer claims have been staked along the length and width of Wiseman Creek valley but the creek has not proven to contain any significant concentrations of gold.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Wiseman Creek was prospected from 1909 to at least 1924 but there is little evidence of production (Maddren, 1913; Reed, 1938).

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI108

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References