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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Eagle Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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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 10001487
MRDS ID A012233
Record type Site
Current site name Eagle Creek
Alternate or previous names Mastodon Fork, Miller Fork, Cripple Creek
Related records 10112333

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -145.42488, 65.45167 (WGS84)
Relative position The location is the intersection of Miller Fork and Mastodon Fork with Eagle Creek. Placer mining extended about 2 mi downstream on Eagle Creek and about 1 mile up Mastodon Fork; no mining was reported on Miller Fork.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Circle B-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

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 Metamorphic Rock > Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -145.42488, 65.45167
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bedrock is mainly quartzose schists with many quartz veins. Mastodon Fork, Miller Fork and Cripple Creek drain an area underlain by the Upper Quartzite bedrock unit described by Wiltse and others (1995) as light to medium-gray fine- to medium-grained, quartzite, quartz-muscovite schist, and medium-gray to greenish-gray, fine- to medium-grained porphyroblastic-albite-chlorite-muscovite-quartz schist. Eagle Creek itself is underlain by the polylithic Upper Schist unit which is dominated by thinly layered pelitic quartz-muscovite schist, muscovite-quartz schist, chlorite-quartz-muscovite schist and distinct intervals of garnetiferous, calcareous albite-porphyroblastic muscovite-chlorite schist with interlayered impure marbles.? Gold is located in the lowest several feet of gravel, in clay near bedrock, on bedrock, and in the top two feet of fractured bedrock (Spurr, 1898). The paystreak is 150 to 200 feet wide extending down Mastodon Fork and Eagle Creek in stream gravels 5 to 20 feet thick which are overlain by 2 to 15 feet of muck (Mertie, 1938).? Since about 1901, mining has been almost continuous on the creek. Open cut and drift mining methods were replaced by hydraulic plants in 1906. Prior to 1980 most of the rich gravel in Eagle and almost all of Mastodon Fork was mined. Since 1980, a large operation has been remining some of the hydraulic tailings in Eagle Creek and has mined some areas of gravel along the creek margins that were not mined by earlier operations. The width of the mined area across the creek is up to 100 meters (Yeend, 1991, p. 63).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Ground mined in 1895 was reported to have averaged 3 ounces of gold per man per day. During 1897, 75 miners produced approximately 3,750 oz of gold, with only 4 of the 46 claims being worked (Dunham, 1898). Production through 1906 was about 29,000 oz of gold (Brooks, 1907). Gold fineness was 883 Au, 108 Ag (Mertie, 1938).? Ed Lapp and Sons Mining (ELSM) reported production on Eagle Creek in 1994 and 1996 (Swainbank and others, 1994,1996).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Since about 1901, mining has been almost continuous on the creek. Open cut and drift mining methods were replaced by hydraulic plants in 1906. Prior to 1980 most of the rich gravel in Eagle and almost all of Mastodon Fork was mined. Since 1980, a large operation has been remining some of the hydraulic tailings in Eagle Creek and has mined some areas of gravel along the creek margins that were not mined by earlier operations. The width of the mined area across the creek is up to 100 meters (Yeend, 1991, p. 63).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Yeend, 1991.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = Eagle Creek was the first area in Alaska where the gravels were elevated during placer mining. A gin pole and steam scraper were used to elevate and dump tailings alongside the cut. These rock piles can still be seen along Mastodon Fork (Yeend, 1991).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 08-SEP-98 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 08-SEP-98 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 08-SEP-98 Clements, A.S. Avalon Development Corporation

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.