1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Sheep Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10097498
MRDS ID A011032
Record type Site
Current site name Sheep Creek
Alternate or previous names Sheep Gulch

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -149.81333, 67.4997 (WGS84)
Relative position Sheep Creek drains the northwest flank of Poss Mountain and is a west-northwest-flowing tributary to Middle Fork Koyukuk River. The reference point is the mine symbol on the topographic map; it is approximately 1 1/2 miles above the mouth of the creek and 3 1/2 miles north-northeast of Minnie Creek Lake (sec. 21, T. 31 N., R. 10 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian). Placer mining has probably extended approximately 1/2 mile downstream and 1 mile or more upstream from the reference point. The location is accurate within a 1/2-mile.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Chandalar B-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Chandalar S(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Chandalar(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Gravel

Nearby scientific data

(1) -149.81333, 67.4997
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Reed (1938, p. 28-29) reported that the Sheep Creek placers are in both the present channel and a deep channel. The bench placers were discovered along the right limit of the present stream in about 1910 and were mined for a distance of approximately 7,000 feet upstream from the point where Sheep Creek valley opens into the Middle Fork valley. Above this point the channel grades into the present stream channel. At the lower end the depth to the deep channel was approximately 90 feet. There was little evidence of large boulders in the tailings from the mining of the deep channel. Values from the deep channel ran about $1 per square foot of bedrock (1937), but some small areas had much higher values. One of those areas returned $800 (1908) from 200 square feet. The deep channel probably extends some distance into Middle Fork valley but may have been cut off, as was the deep channel of Gold Creek just to the north (CH080).? Reed (1938) implied that mining had only just begun in the present channel about 1,000 feet above where Sheep Creek valley entered the valley of the Middle Fork. The depth to the schist bedrock there was about 6 ft, and the gravel was very coarse with many large schist boulders. The gold was said to be very coarse and water worn. Preliminary estimates of the values in the present channel in 1937 were about $0.50 per square foot of bedrock. Reed (1938) described the bedrock of Sheep Creek as schist. More recent mapping shows the area to be underlain by Devonian black slate, phyllite and phyllitic siltstone, chloritic siltstone and grit, and quartz-muscovite schist (Brosgi and Reiser, 1964).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Koyukuk

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production reported sporadically from the early 1900s through the early 1960s. Total value of production is unknown, but from 1900 to 1909, $2,000 worth of gold reportedly was produced (Maddren, 1913).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer was worked by surface mining of the present channel and underground drift mining of the deep channel.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Reed, 1938

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = Alaska Kardex No. 031-029 (Kardex is a card file mining claim information system located at the State of Alaska DNR Public Information Center in Fairbanks).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 17-NOV-1999 J.M. Britton U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.