YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS The World Turned Upside Down: A History of Mining on Coal Creek and Woodchopper Creek, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska

1 During WW II, the Office of Production Management used the acronym OPM. To avoid confusing the historical office with the Office of Personnel Management, which currently uses the acronym OPM, when referring to the historical office, the title is spelled out.

2 Mary Claire McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines: August 1941 to March 1944 (Historical Reports on War Administration: War Production Board, April 5, 1946), 3.

3 Ibid., 3-4.

4 Wilbur A. Nelson, "Address Before Training Group of the Priorities Field Service," November 10, 1941. In McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 4.

5 "Status of Gold Mining," November 18, 1941 (Supplies, Priorities and Allocations Board (SPAB), Document 12d). In McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 4.

6 Wilbur A. Nelson, "Address Before Training Group of the Priorities Field Service," November 10, 1941. In McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 4.

7 US Bureau of Mines, Minerals Yearbook (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1941), 67.

8 "Status of Gold Mining," November 18, 1941 (SPAB Document 12d).

9 The Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor in June 1943 and occupied the small islands of Kiska and Attu in the Aleutians afterward.

10 Spence, 113.

11 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 1.

12 McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 16. The clause relating to gold and silver mining described mines eligible for ratings under Order P-56 as "Any plant actually engaged in the extraction by surface, open-pit or underground methods, or in the beneficiation, concentration or preparation for shipment of the products of mining activity, but not including any plant more than 30 percent of the production of which in dollar value consists of gold and/or silver."

13 Minutes, Meeting and Priorities, University of Nevada, March 12, 1942, Statement of Herbert B. Maw, Governor of Utah. In McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 20.

14 Ibid., Statement of Senator Pat McCarran.

15 U.S. Senate, 74th Cong., 2nd Sess., Subcommittee of the Special Committee on the Investigation of Silver, Hearings, May 6, 1942, p. 562.

16 "Recommendation for Issuance of Amendment to Order P-56," on file with the Recording Secretary, War Production Board. In McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, 21.

17 Order L-208 addressed the gold mining industry exclusively. It directed each operator to take immediate steps to close down operations and, after seven days, not to "acquire, use or consume any material or equipment in development work." The order further directed that, within 60 days, all operations should cease, excepting only the minimum activity necessary to maintain mine buildings, machinery and equipment, and to keep the workings safe and accessible. Placer operations, processing less than 1000 cubic yards of material in 1941 were exempted from the order. Neither Gold Placers Inc. or Alluvial Golds Inc. met this criteria having processed 624,200 cubic yards. (See: U.S. v. Central Eureka Mining Co., 357 U.S. 155).

18 Philip S. Smith, Mineral Industry of Alaska in 1940 and 1942, USGS Bulletin 943-A (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1944), 3-4.

19 Ibid.

20 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 5.

21 Spence, 123.

22 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 1.

23 Patty, "Alluvial Golds Inc. Annual Report, 1943," 2.

24 Patty, "Alluvial Golds Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 4.

25 Patty, "Alluvial Golds Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 1, 6-7.

26 Patty, "Alluvial Golds Inc. Annual Report, 1942," 9.

27 Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1980), 1.

28 Patty, North Country Challenge, 190-91; also, Patty, "Alluvial Golds Inc. Annual Report, 1943," 1.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid., 2.

32 Ibid.

33 Patty, "Gold Placers Inc. Annual Report, 1946," 1.

34 McCauley, The Closing of the Gold Mines, Appendix E.

35 With the exception of gold mines in Utah, all those in the western US and Alaska suffered substantial decreases in production as a result of Order L-208. Utah is the only state that actually increased its production during the period in question. This is due in part to the increased output of the Bingham Copper Mine and the gold produced as a "by-product" of copper mining.

36 Utah's Bingham Copper Mine remained a viable mine during the war because copper was a strategic metal needed for militarly applications. As a result, some miners who were put out of work in gold mines were able to obtain employment in mining copper and other strategic metals.