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YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS
The World Turned Upside Down: A History of Mining on Coal Creek and Woodchopper Creek, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska |
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CHAPTER FOUR:
ENDNOTES
1 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1969), 88.
2 Dale Patty, personal communication, June 25, 1998.
3 "General McRae Dies in Ottawa," undated obituary of A.D. McRae, taken from the Dawson Daily News. Original located in the Patty Collection at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
4 "General McRae Dies in Ottawa," undated obituary of A.D. McRae, taken from the Dawson Daily News. Original located in the Patty Collection at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
6 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1969), 88.
7 Ira B. Joralemon, Adventure Beacons (New York: Society of Mining Engineers of AIME for the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, 1976), 302.
8 "Saga of An Individual," unidentified newspaper clipping located in the Patty Collection, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
9 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1969), 88.
10 "Saga of An Individual," unidentified newspaper clipping located in the Patty Collection, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
11 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge, (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1969), 88.
12 Ira B. Joralemon, Adventure Beacons (New York: Society of Mining Engineers of AIME for the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, 1976), 301.
13 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge (New York: David McKay Company, Inc.), 89.
14 A number of the Quigley claims are now incorporated into the Kantishna area of Denali National Park and Preserve. They have been the focus of hazardous materials remediation and mine reclamation activities for a number of years.
15 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge (New York: David McKay Company, Inc.), 89-93.
16 Ernest Patty, North Country Challenge (New York: David McKay Company, Inc.), 93-94.
17 One element of McRae's personality that comes across in several descriptions of his actions is his philanthropic nature. On more than one occasion, Joralemon mentions in his autobiography that McRae would make "payments" to individual miners on the pretext of considering options for their claims, without formal contracts and without intention of following through with the options, simply brushing the payments off as "they need it more than I do." Joralemon also comments that "Gen. McRae liked and admired the miners of the early days in Alaska . . ." (Ira B. Joralemon, Adventure Beacons (New York: Society of Mining Engineers of AIME for the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, 1976), 312 and 314.
18 Clark C. Spence, The Northern Gold Fleet: Twentieth-Century Gold Dredging in Alaska (Urbana: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 104.
19 Patty, North Country Challenge, 93-94.
20 Patty, North Country Challenge, 95.
21 Joralemon had very little, if any, experience in dredging operations. This explains why he felt that the best way to mine the placers on Coal Creek and Woodchopper Creek was by using draglines. See: Clark C. Spence, The Northern Gold Fleet: Twentieth Century Gold dredging in Alaska (Urbana: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 105.
22 Joralemon, "Report on Coal Creek Placers," pg. 6. The figure of $1,360,000 was calculated at $35.00 per ounce (1935 values). In the current 1997 market, approximately $300 per ounce, the estimate would rise to almost ten times as much, or $13,600,000.
23 Charles Janin to Ira B. Joralemon, letter dated February 22, 1935. Janin MSS.
24 Patty, North Country Challenge, 96-97.
25 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935. Also, notes found in the Janin MSS, associated with the referenced letter.
26 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935.
27 Dyer was paid $200.00 for his services. McRae to Janin, letter dated June 7, 1935, Janin MSS.
28 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935. Janin MSS.
29 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935. Janin MSS.
30 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935. Janin MSS.
31 Patty, North Country Challenge, 98.
32 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated May 27, 1935. Janin MSS.
33 Ernest N. Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated May 27, 1935. Janin MSS.
34 Patty, North Country Challenge, 98.
35 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated May 27, 1935, Janin MSS.
36 A "cat skinner" is an individual who operates a bulldozer, generally a caterpillar-type, and in employed in operations with pushing materials, as in stripping the overburden off an area prior to thawing and dredging. The term is applied to the operator rather than the operation.
37 Cordwood was cut during the winter months when the sap was down, wood was easier to cut and split, and the snow covered ground facilitated hauling it to where it was needed. For the most part, woodcutters along the Yukon plied their trade in support of the sternwheelers traveling up and down the river. (See page 48 below for a discussion of Heine Miller's woodcutting operations on the Tatonduk River/Sheep Creek).
38 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 7.
39 "Gold Placers Inc., Annual Report, 1936," 11.
40 Patty, North Country Challenge, 97-98.
41 Patty, North Country Challenge, 98. Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated May 27, 1935, Janin MSS.
42 See: Arthur E. Knutson, Sternwheelers on the Yukon (Kirland, Washington: Knutson Enterprises, Inc., 1979. Knutson worked on several sternwheelers plying the Yukon River during the middle of the twentieth century and describes the loss of the SS Klondike as well as the reliance on which miners along the river systems relied on the sternwheelers for supplies. The loss of a single boat could set back a mining operation an entire year.
43 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc., Annual Report, 1936," 9.
45 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc., Annual Report, 1936," 9.
46 A.P. Van Deinse to Ernest Patty, letter dated June 7, 1935, Janin MSS.
47 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated April 5, 1935. Janin MSS.
48 Under Part I of the contract between McRae and the Walter W. Johnson Co., the company was required to have the dredge up and running by June 1, 1936. If they failed to meet this date, the contract called for a penalty of $100.00 per day, beginning on June 15, 1936, with a maximum penalty not to exceed $1500.00. As a result, no matter how late it took for the dredge to be brought on line, the most the Walter W. Johnson Co. could expect to pay in penalty was $1500.00.
49 Joralemon to Janin, letter dated July 6, 1935.
50 Walter W. Johnson Co. to Patty, letter dated August 9, 1935.
51 McRae to Joralemon, telegram dated August 28, 1935 and McRae to Janin, letter dated August 29, 1935.
52 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated October 2, 1935.
53 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Company, letter dated October 2, 1935. It is interesting to note that although Patty's "distinctive stripes" were not painted on the parts, most of the major elements of the superstructure were both labeled and numbered for assembly. These chalk markings can still be seen on many of the beams and posts inside the dredge.
54 "New Mining Co. Starts Big Works," Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 12, 1935, pp 1, 5.
55 "New Mining Co. Starts Big Works," Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 12, 1935, pp 1, 5.
56 Ernest Patty, "Operating Report, Gold Placers, Inc., 1936," pg. 7, 11. Copy in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve collection. Hereafter, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936."
57 W.E. "Bill" Lemm, (June 19-21, 1992) interview with Don Chase, former superintendent of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Copy of the interview tape is in the Oral History Collection at Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Eagle, Alaska and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. All materials referencing Mr. Lemm are taken from this interview and, as such will be noted simply as "Lemm Oral History."
58 Lemm, as well as locals today, refer to the river as Sheep Creek.
59 The term "batching" (for lack of a better phonetic spelling) means they were living together like bachelors, sharing communal chores.
61 By constructing the dredge in the late winter, early spring, before the pond ice melted, the need for placing cribbing to support the dredge was eliminated. This made the assembly process both faster and safer.
64 A spud wrench has an open end wrench on one end for tightening nuts and bolts and the other end is sharpened to a long tapering point that is inserted into the holes through both pieces. The length (generally about 24 inches) provides sufficient leverage for moving the two pieces around for inserting bolts or other pieces. The sharpened end however also posed a serious safety problem if the wrench was accidentally dropped from above.
67 In the case of the Coal Creek dredge, the bull gear measures approximately 14 feet in diameter and is approximately 9 inches thick along the outermost edge.
68 W.E. "Bill" Lemm to Don Chase, letter dated July 7, 1992 located in the Bill Lemm Collection at Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Eagle, Alaska.
69 Chuck Herbert is the same person as Charles Francis Herbert, the author of Gold Dredging in Alaska, his 1934 thesis from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, under the direction of Ernest Patty.
71 Patty, North County Challenge, 100.
72 Ira B. Joralemon, "Report on Alluvial Golds Inc. Woodchopper Creek Property, Circle District, Alaska," dated December 28, 1935. Copy in "Coal Creek Operating Reports" Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Hereafter, Joralemon, "Report on Woodchopper Creek".
73 McRae to Janin, letter dated December 4, 1935. Janin MSS.
74 James S. Couch, Philately Below Zero, A Postal History of Alaska (State College, Pennsylvania: The American Philatelic Society, 1953), 13.
75 James S. Couch, Philately Below Zero, A Postal History of Alaska (State College, Pennsylvania: The American Philatelic Society, 1953), 79.
76 Melvin B. Ricks, Alaska's Postmasters and Post Offices (Ketchikan, Alaska: Tongass Publishing Co., 1965), 13.
77 Bill Lemm, Oral History, June 9, 1992.
78 Melvin B. Ricks, Alaska's Postmasters and Post Offices (Ketchikan, Alaska: Tongass Publishing Co., 1965), 72.
79 Patty, North Country Challenge, 98-99, and "Gold Placers Inc., Annual Report, 1936," 11.
80 Joralemon to Patty, letter dated September 16, 1936. Janin MSS.
81 McRae to Janin, letter dated July 28, 1936. Janin MSS.
82 McRae to Janin, letter dated July 29, 1936. Janin MSS.
83 McRae to Janin, letter dated July 28, 1936. Janin MSS.
84 "Gold Placers Inc., Annual Report, 1936," 11-12.
85 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated August 14, 1936.
86 Patty to Walter W. Johnson Co., letter dated August 14, 1936 and telegram dated August 18, 1936.
87 Janin to Joralemon, letter dated August 10, 1936. Janin MSS. The overall tone of this letter comes from its context rather than content. Janin's correspondence is always carefully worded. In the case of this letter, it is filled with short, choppy sentences, often incomplete sentences with many typographical errors.
88 Joralemon, Adventure Beacons, 329.
89 Patty, North Country Challenge, 99.
90 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 11.
91 Patty, North Country Challenge, 99.
92 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 13, 16.
93 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 13.
94 See Appendix II "Cleanup Reports, Gold Placers Inc." for detailed information on each cleanup.
95 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 13.
96 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 15.
97 Amalgam consists of gold combined with mercury. This figure is not an accurate representation of the amount of gold recovered because the two elements must be separated during the retort process where the amalgam is heated to drive off the mercury (which is distilled and re-used) leaving the gold behind. The resulting "sponge" consists of gold in combination with other minerals and precious metals including silver. Mercury was only added to the upper and lower screen sluices in the Coal Creek and Woodchopper dredges. (Dale Patty, personal communication, June 25, 1998).
98 These figures were fairly consistent throughout the history of the dredging operations on both Coal Creek and Woodchopper. According to Dale Patty, the upper screen sluice accounted for 70%, the lower screen sluice 20-22%, the side sluices 6-8%, the nugget sluice 1/2-1% and the tail sluices 1-2% of the gold. (Dale Patty, personal communication, June 25, 1998).
99 The upper and lower screen sluices are located directly below the screen.
100 The nugget sluice is located directly below the junction of the screen and the stacker. It's purpose is to catch any nuggets that are too large to pass through the perforations in the screen.
101 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 11.
102 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 18.
103 An "ice lens" is an area of permanently frozen ground that is composed primarily of ice with little or no vegetative matter or dirt. When ice lenses are exposed to natural thawing processes they create puddles or small ponds depending on their size.
104 "Corduroying" a road was a common technique used in road building in Alaska. After surveying a right-of-way, the upper layers of moss and vegetation was removed. Then a layer of poles and logs was layed perpendicular to the road. On top of this, a layer of crushed stone was laid to provide a reasonably smooth surface to drive over. One difficulty with this type of construction is that the wet, muddy conditions quickened the decay of the logs resulting in a need to replace the corduroy.
105 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 18.
106 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1936," 19.
107 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1937," 10.
108 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1938," 8.
109 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1939," 7.
110 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1940," 7.
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