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Dexter Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Silver, Gold, Tin
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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 10308969
MRDS ID A012934
Record type Site
Current site name Dexter Creek
Related records 10160170, 10100992

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.29527, 64.58099 (WGS84)
Relative position This alluvial placer gold mine is on Dexter Creek, a west tributary to Nome River. Placer mining took place over at least 7,500 feet of Dexter Creek between elevations of 50 and 250 feet. The map location is in the NW1/4 section 33, T. 10 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is locality 118 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(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
Silver Primary
Gold Primary
Tin Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
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) -165.29527, 64.58099
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold mining was underway on Dexter Creek by 1899. About 14,500 ounces of gold were produced in 1900 (Schrader and Brooks, 1900; Brooks and others, 1901). Most of Dexter Creek has been worked from its mouth to its headwater tributaries (Collier and others, 1908). Bench deposits at elevations 75 feet above the creek were worked at a few locations on the north side of the creek valley. One such is 1 mile above the mouth and 100 yards above the mouth of Grouse Gulch. Near the mouth of Dexter Creek, pay was on a blue clay false bedrock 5 feet below the surface. Upstream, 3 to 10 feet of stream gravels are on schist and marble bedrock, and pay continued downward into decomposed or fractured bedrock. Solution-enlarged fractures in marble were locally very rich and extended as much as 30 feet below the base of the gravels; karst features in bedrock probably contributed to water loss that commonly hindered mining operations on Dexter Creek (Moffit, 1913). The bench gravels were as much as 30 feet thick. The bench deposit 100 yards above the mouth of Grouse Gulch contained 5 feet of yellow clay over 15 feet of poorly sorted schist, marble, granite, and sandy clay gravels. The low elevations of the creek, from less than 50 feet to 250 feet, and proximity to the lower Nome River valley and coastal plain suggest that Quaternary sea-level fluctuations could have influenced development of some of the lower Dexter Creek placers, although most of the gold ultimately came from high-bench placer deposits. The upper south tributary to Dexter Creek is Wet Gulch, which taps the high-bench gravel between North Newton Peak and Anvil Mountain (NM248). Other headward tributaries include Grouse Gulch and Deer Gulch, which tap the Dexter high-bench (NM246), and Grass Gulch (NM266), which taps the Summit high-bench (NM247). Bedrock in Dexter Creek is marble and schist, probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994). Bundtzen and others (1994) classified bedrock on the uplands above Dexter Creek as porphyroclastic micaceous graphitic schist. The completion of the Miocene Ditch to Dexter in 1903 allowed parts of the creek to be worked hydraulically, although drift mines were in operation as late as the winter of 1912-13 (Chapin, 1914). A dredge was installed in about 1918 and operated at least until 1926 (Cathcart, 1920; Smith, 1932). Cassiterite was reported from one locality (Cobb, 1973 [B 1374]). Gold on Dexter Creek ranged in size from dust to large nuggets; gold was approximately 900 fine (Purington, 1905).
  • 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 Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Dexter Creek has been extensively placer mined from its mouth to its headwater tributaries. All types of surface placer mining operations have taken place, from hand operations to dredging. Dredging was the principal mining operation from 1918 to 1926 (Cobb, 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group

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.