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Lower Willow Creek

Past 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. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10001838
MRDS ID A012653
Record type Site
Current site name Lower Willow Creek
Related records 10136215

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.42523, 64.81542 (WGS84)
Relative position Lower Willow Creek is a major, west tributary to the Casadepaga River. The mouth of Lower Willow Creek is is 0.9 miles downstream from Casadepaga and across from the mouth of Ruby Creek (SO096). This is locality 76 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181). Cobb (1972, MF 445) shows the lower 5 miles of this creek as having been placer mined but Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 511) show tailings along 1.6 miles of the drainage starting about 1.2 miles upstream rom the mouth.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Solomon D-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -164.42523, 64.81542
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = This west tributary of the Casadepaga River, lower Willow Creek, is incised as much as 30 feet into terraces of its drainage and, near its mouth, terraces of the Casadepaga River. Bedrock is exposed at many locations along Lower Willow Creek (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 511) and placer mining has taken place at least locally for a distance of 5 miles upstream from the mouth. Sainsbury and others (1972) show tailings along 1.6 miles of the drainage starting about 1.2 miles upstream from the mouth. Benches are present on both sides of creek but the richest were on the north bank between Cahill and Rocky Creeks where mining is reported (Smith, 1910). The gold from the active drainage was both fine and coarse with nuggets up to about 0.1 ounce. Bedrock in Lower Willow Creek is a pelitic schist assemblage that may be Cambrian or Precambrian in age that is in contact with a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage to the west (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary; the numerous incised terraces along the Casadepaga River and its major tributaries (including Lower Willow Creek) indicate that more than one cycle of erosion and deposition has developed placer deposits in the area. The low elevations between 170 and 270 feet along the first 11 miles of the river, suggest that Quaternary sea level fluctuations could have influenced placer development.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Council

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer mining has taken place at least locally for a distance of 5 miles upstream from the mouth. Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 511) show tailings along 1.6 miles of the drainage starting about 1.2 miles upstream from the mouth. Most of the mining was between 1900 and 1915 and a dredge was operated between 1911 and 1915 (Cobb, 1972, OF 78-181).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1910, Geology and mineral resources of the Solomon and Casadepaga quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 433, 234 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Marsh, W.R., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic maps of the Solomon D-5 and C-5 quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 511, 12 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1910

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.