YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS Yukon Frontiers Historic Resource Study of the Proposed Yukon-Charley National River

At the same time that the embryonic transportation system evolved, the Yukon's primary industry, mining, progressed slowly. The great Klondike Gold Rush created gold fever throughout a nation recently hit by financial depression. The lure of instant wealth drew thousands to the Yukon. Unfortunately only a few experienced the pleasure of finding their fortunes. Others fanned out to explore, prospect, and discover their own bonanza. The severity of Alaska's environment coupled with the discouraging mining results forced many to leave the country. Other miners augmented their income with additional jobs—woodchopping, trapping, freighting, fishing, or special services. Thus post-Kiondike miners fell into three vague categories: the stampeder who followed new gold strikes hoping to cash in on good luck, the prospector who stubbornly sought his own elusive bonanza, and the miner who settled for a claim that allowed him, with hard work and perseverence, to eke out a livelihood.

Although numerous gold strikes fueled stampedes until 1913, the last great bonanza was the Tanana discovery in 1902. Its close proximity to the Yukon-Charley region drained the area of all but its most determined miners. So in less than four years a country that once had every creek staked and boasted six supply communities in a space 170 miles, shrank to two basic communities, Eagle and Circle, and a few stalwart miners and prospectors.

Typical of this breed of miner was C. A. "Bert" Bryant. A farm boy from New York attracted to the Yukon by the Klondike Gold Rush, Bryant arrived in Eagle in 1899. [1] Initially he worked as a packer for the army at Fort Egbert, then shifted over to his own freighting business of supplying the Fortymile miners. Finally in 1901 he staked his first claim on the Seventymile River and bought another claim on nearby American Creek. During the winter he contracted with the army to haul cordwood to the fort. This provided money to prospect and mine. His first mining venture occurred on Jack Wade Creek in the Fortymile country. Here he freighted his supplies by dog team and began a drift mine. Into the perpetually frozen ground he sunk a mining shaft, without timbering or danger of cave-ins. Using wood fires to thaw the ground, Bryant's first drift mine went down twenty-two feet and drifted along bedrock to a width of seventy-five by thirty-five feet. All the dirt he hoisted to the surface and dumped to await spring break-up. When enough water flowed, he washed the gravels, only to learn that after expenses were paid, he had earned only $2.50 per day. [2]

In the summer of 1903 Bryant prospected Copper Creek, a tributary of the Charley River, which he named when he located and claimed a copper ledge. [3] Although he spent several months of the next two years developing the mine, his main income came from freighting and logging contracts. Unfortunately a mining expert cast a "cold draft" on Bryant's expectations when he assayed the specimens as good but counseled that the location was too remote to be mined profitably. [4] Discouraged Bryant went "Outside" to Minnesota where he met an old flame of his schooldays "Married her in March. That was the beginning of my bad luck". [5] Together they returned to Eagle.

Bryant next tried his luck on a quartz lode mine on Flume Creek of the Seventymile River. With his partners he constructed a water-powered arrastre to grind the gold from the quartz rocks and completed sixty-six feet of tunnel. [6] The vein did not prove rich enough to develop without adequate transportation. Bryant turned once again to freighting. He even served as Eagle City's jailer for a couple of months. Finally in 1910 he established a camp at Alder Creek on the Seventymile. Several old-timers, dating back to the Fortymile days, worked mines along with Bryant on the Seventymile. Among them was George Matlock, who was still a tough, self-reliant, individualist.

Bryant decided to mine Alder Creek by ground sluicing. He constructed two dump gates on the creek to control the water. Then he made a cut, probably twelve feet wide and one hundred feet long. Through this cut the overburden and much of the gravel was sluiced, concentrating the gold in the remaining gravel. Finally Bryant shoveled the remaining gravel into sluice boxes for a final clean-up of sixty-five ounces. [7] The succeeding years saw floods that filled his mining cuts with debris, and hot, dry summers that produced no water at all for mining.

When mining failed, Bryant prospected. Prospecting consisted not of aimless wandering and searching for easy surface finds but of a systematic approach. First, the history of a creek was researched and old-timers' tales pieced together. Second, United States Geological Survey Bulletins were consulted. Finally, a line of prospecting shafts were sunk to bedrock to assess the pay dirt since few prospectors could afford the more expensive drilling methods. On Barney Creek one winter Bryant sunk sixteen prospecting holes to bedrock with indifferent results. [8] Bryant's feeling typified the average prospector: "We melted ice for water, had caribou meat. . . . We put in a pleasant winter. No financial results but a lot of valuable experience." [9]

In 1917 Bryant joined thirty-five other men on the Alder Creek mine, which he had leased to men who had decided to mine it by hydraulic methods. They built a six-mile ditch to provide additional water and pressure to remove the overburden and push the gravel into sluice boxes. [10] During the winter he returned to Eagle and chopped wood. The following spring he bought an interest in the hydraulic plant. The subsequent dry summers barely paid out. Later a few good years stimulated him to travel to New York to attempt to find financing to dredge the Seventymile River but had no luck. [11] For the next twenty-five years Bryant continued working his Alder Creek mine during the summer and freighting, chopping wood, or trapping during the winter. In 1938 he left Alaska only to return in 1941. He died in an automobile accident in 1945 at the age of 83.

C. A. Bryant's life characterized not only the lifestyle of miners within the Yukon-Charley area but throughout Alaska. Few ever struck it rich, but more than an elusive hope for wealth kept the miners on their claims. After years of pouring labor and money into the development of a mine, miners became reluctant to part with it. At best, it provided a livelihood and, at the very least, allowed an independence that appealed to many men. [12] Thus, they returned to their claims year after year. Moreover, as the years passed and the lucky bonanza discoveries waned, the United States Geological Survey surveyed, studied, and produced detailed papers on the economic geology of Alaska and the most appropriate mining methods. Miners merged their experience and background with this theoretical knowledge and slowly evolved efficient and profitable operations on low grade placer claims.

In short, the geologists traced the origin of the Yukon-Charley gold placers back to the mineralization of the area during the middle Mesozoic era. Subsequent erosion broke up and removed the gold from the granite intrusions. Still millions of years later time and pressure cemented gold-bearing gravels into rock known as Tertiary conglomerate. [13] Identification and recognition of this process supplemented the prospectors' intuition of where gold might lie. Folding and faulting, however, further disturbed the horizontal attitude and contributed to the irregular distribution of the gold. Later, streams and rivers cut through these Tertiary placers, scattered the gold-bearing gravels, and created new placers. Chance, then, played an important role in discovery of placer deposits.

Chance could be minimized by careful and scientific prospecting. Warnings throughout the United States Geological Survey bulletins cautioned the miners to study thoroughly an area before committing large capital sums towards its development. As more knowledge accumulated on the geology of placer deposits, the more sophisticated and efficient became the operations. Initially the bonanza miners of the Klondike era had focused on river bars, creeks, or beaches where only a gold pan or rocker supplied a daily wage. Finding an environment totally different from past mining experience, miners developed drift-mining to utilize the permanently frozen ground. Later they modified the other three basic mining methods, open-cut mining, hydraulic mining, and dredging to conform to their special circumstances. Thus, not only did they explore, survey, and research, but they created and adapted as well.

Arriving in Alaska, early miners confronted two new environmental factors—permafrost and muck. Permafrost was permanently frozen ground that did not thaw during the summer months. Muck, a mixture of silt, animal and vegetative remains, plus sixty percent ice, shielded this underlying frozen ground from the warm air of summer. Muck ranged in thickness from a few inches to forty feet. When the protective blanket of moss was removed and muck was exposed to warmer temperatures, it melted and could be washed away. [14] Every miner, however, faced the problem of removing the muck or burrowing through it. For small-scale operations drift mining in the permafrost offered a novel approach—using the frozen ground to the miner's advantage, no timbering or pumping was needed. Furthermore, drift mining perpetuated the miner's independence. Since one man could run the operation, no large capital, complex organization, or expensive machinery was needed for development. Unfortunately, drift mining only mined the bedrock, and any gold in the overburden was irretrievably lost. [15]

As miners became restless as a result of the bonanza strikes, the time-consuming process of thawing the permafrost by wood fires led to still another innovation—steam thawing. In 1898 C. J. Berry of Dawson noticed that steam from his steam engine exhaust had thawed a hole in the muck. [16] He connected a rubber hose to the exhaust and channeled it directly into the ground. Next he attached a rifle barrel with a small hole bored in the side and hammered it into the frozen ground. The steam point was invented. By this process steam, under high pressure from a portable steam boiler, passed through rubber hoses and into hollow steam points that were driven into the ground. Once heated the pressure was reduced and the points left to heat or slowly thaw the surrounding ground. Since thawing for drift mining could now be easily directed and channeled, shafts could be sunk more quickly but at greater expense.

Most of the mines in the Yukon-Charley area have evolved through the drift-mining phase. Most of the mines have caved in or flooded, removing any trace of their existence. Sam Creek (#111) has at least two mining shafts, three feet wide and five feet long, with collars of logs laid around each of them to prevent rocks and dirt from falling into the hole. Although the shafts have thawed and collapsed below the collars, the idea of drift mining is clearly illustrated. The cabin and cache characterize a one-man operation typical of drift mining. Mining implements—picks, shovels, buckets, ladders—add flavor to the scene. Sandy Johnson also drift mined Ben Creek (#116). Frank Slaven drift mined Coal Creek (#119) as George McGregor did Mineral Creek (#125). Colorado (#124), Boulder (#123), and Iron Creeks (#126) were all mined using the drift-mining method. Some used only wood fires; others applied steam points. Drift mining was the most widely used technique in the Yukon-Charley area.

While drift mining progressed with the introduction of steam-points, open-cut mining, the mining of a whole area from the surface to the bedrock, adapted a myriad of western mining techniques. Although Klondike miners had practiced open-cut methods, deep placers and frozen overburden had presented seemingly insurmountable problems. They found that by removing the protective moss and allowing the muck to thaw naturally, shallow placers could be mined. Standard manual methods used by Bryant typified these small operations—ground sluicing or booming followed by shoveling in. Open-cut mining also adapted itself to large-scale modifications. Mechanical methods such as steam scrapers, bottomless scrapers, cableway excavators, and dragline excavators were employed. [17] The high cost of transportation, however, discouraged the use of bulky and heavy machinery. The choice of either method, manual or mechanical, depended upon the topography, the bedrock grade, the depth of the overburden, the abundance of available water, the quantity of frozen gravel, and the amount of capital to be invested. All methods ended at the sluice box and depended on enough water to sluice down the excavated gold-bearing gravels. Unfortunately by 1910 shallow deposits were rare. Furthermore, the bedrock grade in Alaska seldom proved steep enough to dispose of the tailings adequately.

Ben Creek (#116) is currently being mined by open-cut methods coupled with hydraulicking the overburden. High-pressure water strips the muck and washes it away exposing the gravel. In general the gravel is then allowed to thaw naturally, but a portable steam boiler could thaw the ground through the archaic method of steam thawing. Modern machinery—bulldozers—take over the chore of 'shoveling in' and of removing the overburden if water is too scarce for hydraulicking. Ben Creek's greatest problem is the lack of water, and so the water must be impounded behind an automatic dam. When the water rises to more than two-thirds the height of the gate, the water is automatically released until nearly empty when it closes. This allows water at certain intervals for "booming" or ground sluicing, hydraulic mining, and sluice box clean-up. All implements clearly illustrate the open-cut method. A portable drill for prospecting is still used, and an adjacent grindstone sharpens the drill bits. The cabin, cache, and shed depict an earlier mining period—that of Sandy Johnson who owned the mine from about 1900 to 1945. His lifestyle included drift mining, trapping, and constructing cabins.

The shallow grade of the bedrock in Alaska also prevented the full exploitation of hydraulic mining as it had developed in California. In 1852 in California Edward E. Matteson invented the process that channeled water, under high pressure, into pipes that shot it out in jets of great velocity against the face of a gravel bank. [18] When the bank fell, the gravel was then disintegrated and carried by force into a sluice. In Alaska the process was modified to include any operation that applied water under pressure. Hydraulic mining could be used to excavate, transport, sluice, or dispose the tailings. Most commonly, the process was used to strip overburden and muck. [19] Often hydraulic mining supplemented open-cut, dredging, or even drift mining and unlike California, was seldom the sole method used.

In addition to steep bedrock grade, hydraulic mining required an abundance of water under high pressure and adequate dumping room for the disposal of tailings. The Yukon environment provided none of these requirements. The annual precipitation supplied less than twelve inches of water, and few natural reservoirs impounded the available water. Thus, man-made reservoirs, ditches, and wooden flumes had to be built to increase the water supply adding high initial costs and continuous maintenance expenses to the overhead. The gentle slopes of the mountains and the low grade of the creek valleys prevented high pressure from developing and allowed no adequate grade for sluicing or dumping the tailings. Moreover, the short season, from June to September, made large investments unlikely. Unlike California's gold, Alaska's gold was not distributed throughout a bench bank but rather was concentrated in the bottom fifteen percent. [20] Also in contrast to California's large-scale industry, Alaska's hydraulic plants were small with low capital investment. Although a number of mines used hydraulic mining in some part of the process, true hydraulic mining occurred only in shallow placers where soft bedrock cleaned readily, and other environmental requirements were met.

The Fourth of July Creek mine (#55) meets most of the requirements for hydraulic mining except an abundant supply of water. During the early 1920's old-timer George Matlock was hired by the owners of the claim to build a ditch (#57) to carry water from Washington Creek to Fourth of July Creek. Unfortunately, he built the nine-mile ditch on a porous rock base, and only during heavy rains did it carry water. Nevertheless, this mine produced the greatest quantity of gold prior to the dredges on Coal and Woodchopper Creeks. The tailing piles testify the extent of the mine as do the many remaining pipes and pumps scattered around the premises. A shed, a fallen house, and a bunkhouse plus the foundations of at least three more depict an operation of greater size than the typical one-man operations. The scarcity of timber is common for any large-scale mining project. The Fourth of July Creek mine once had a sawmill, but few trees remain now even for firewood. Most of the wood undoubtedly went to supply the power to produce the pressure for hydraulicking. Although only assessment work is currently being done on the mine, plans are to bring in a bulldozer along the road (#54) and to start mining by open-cut and sluice methods.

As the bonanza deposits that allowed inefficient and wasteful practices became exhausted, miners began to improve mining methods and reduce costs, enabling them to exploit the lower grade gravels. Meanwhile improvements and modifications moved the steam point out of the realm of poor miners and into the field of large-scale mining. Steam thawing required boilers, machinery, and additional men. Eventually miners applied the technique to thawing large areas of over-burden and muck that could be washed away. Then the whole area, from surface to bedrock, was worked. Once the steam point made thawing of large areas practical, other more elaborate methods of mining became emphasized, primarily dredging.

New Zealand miners invented the dredging process, but Californians quickly adopted it and improved it. In 1899, hard on the heels of the bonanza diggings, the first dredge arrived in the Klondike. [21] The bucket ladder and stacker type dredge developed in California became the most widely used. Typically the dredge consisted of a bucket elevator placed upon a barge averaging thirty-five feet wide and one hundred feet long. Constructed in a pit below the water level of the creek, the barge floated once water was admitted. It then dug its way forward by means of a chain of steel buckets upon a lowering ladder. The buckets in turn dumped the gravel through a screen and into a revolving washing apparatus at the rear of the barge. After the gravel was washed and the heavy gold fell into sluice boxes, the tailings travelled by conveyor belt to the stacker forty feet or so beyond the barge. Here they were dropped out of the way of the dredge. The dredge advanced forward and sideways by means of winches moored to posts on shore and powered by hydroelectricity, or wood or coal boilers. Later, Diesel engines proved effective power sources. [22]

The early Alaskan dredges proved no more than costly experiments and failures. Inadequate prospecting propelled operations into expensive investments and mistakes. Poor construction coupled with grandiose plans for large dredges contributed to the failures. Unforseen high costs in construction, transportation, labor, and maintenance added unusual expenses. The chronic problem of frozen gravel dealt the final blow to the early experiments.

Thus the same recurring problems that faced drift miners, open cut miners, and hydraulic engineers confronted dredge operators—frozen gravel and muck. Hydraulicking and ground sluicing stripped the muck and opened the gravels to natural thawing that unfortunately often took two or three seasons to complete. Dredge owners turned to steam points to thaw the frozen gravel in advance of their dredges. In 1912 the high cost of using steam points led to experiments, using hot water. The Yukon Gold Company of the Klondike commissioned two men, Henry M. Payne and W. L. Churchill, to investigate the temperature, nature, and depth of the frozen material. [23] Unfortunately, World War I disrupted their studies. In 1917 John H. Miles startled the placer industry by announcing the superiority of cold-water thawing over hot water and steam. [24] Not only was it cheaper because the water did not have to be heated, but it produced a preferable thaw pattern. He recommended a minimum temperature of thirty-six degress; however, the warmer the water the more heat available to transfer to the frozen ground.

Although the problem of thawing frozen gravel had been resolved, other factors had to be considered before dredging could commence. Extensive prospecting and drilling was an absolute necessity to learn the character and depth of the bedrock, the dimension of the deposit, its gold tenor, and the distribution of boulders. The climate, length of season, water and fuel supplies, power possibilities, labor and transportation costs all had to be considered. Finally the valley to be dredged had to be broad with an even distribution of gold and deposits no deeper than thirty-five feet nor less than two. Once these factors were considered, the operator faced the task of ordering and installing the dredge followed by organizing and maintaining a camp of not less than twenty men. [25]

Only two dredges, Coal Creek dredge (#120) and Woodchopper Creek dredge (#129), mined the Yukon-Charley region. Both still remain. Owned and operated by Canadian politician, General A. D. McRae, and Alaskan mining engineer, Ernest Patty, the two dredges represent the most efficient means of exploiting low-grade placers. Although the two creeks had been mined for forty years by one-man operations, only with the consolidation of claims and investment of large capital were the creeks profitable. After operating nearly thirty years, from the mid-thirties to the mid-sixties, the dredges closed. For a while the high gold prices of the early 1970's encouraged the Coal Creek dredge to operate again. The sane problems of old occurred—high costs for transporting supplies, equipment, and men; big wages for labor; and costly thawing techniques. Moreover, with the placer industry dying out, skilled winch men and hydraulic engineers were hard to find. Nevertheless, the dredges illustrate the final culmination of the placer industry in Alaska and throughout the world. Floating in a pond and surrounded on three sides by tailings, the dredges appear ready to continue forward. Time has dulled the paint and rusted the metal but otherwise has not harmed the machinery. The mining camps (#121 and #127) capture the feeling of what life associated with the dredges must have been. Messhalls, bunkhouses, tool sheds, offices, and even pool halls project images of a once bustling camp that is now largely abandoned.

Although mining methods improved and evolved chronologically, their application occurred in a haphazard manner. The least efficient, drift mining, happened simultaneously with the most efficient, dredging. Nonetheless, the development of the placer industry did follow the basic pattern established in California. Eclipsed by the romance and excitement of the early gold rushes, the history of placer mining in Alaska centered on the persevering and the innovative miner.

Throughout the history of the placer industry, Yukon miners confronted the same problems: short available working season, lack of suitable grade to streams, poor water supply, poverty of timber resources, high cost of labor and transportation, concentration of gold on or in bedrock, great thickness of barren overburden, frozen condition of gravel, lack of wagon roads, high cost of fuel, inadequate mining and police regulation, and ineffectual laws. [26] Although time and conditions improved some of these problems, they were never fully solved. In fact as miners of lower grade deposits inched their way into profits, dry seasons or erratic transportation catapulted them back into shoestring operations. Thus the placer mining industry progressed forward, but also slid backward as far as it had advanced.

The first period of Alaskan placer mining reflected the bonanza mentality. From 1897 to approximately 1906 miners either followed the moving frontier of gold-rush towns or prospected for their own bonanza. Those who remained in the Yukon-Charley area during this time sought the most expedient means to reach bedrock. The development of bonanza deposits led to wasteful methods—the gold pan, rocker, and sluice box. Miners—without capital, experience, or ability—lucked into wealthy shallow deposits. The lure of this poor man's mining attracted thousands of ill-equipped and inexperienced men, each unwilling or uninterested in consolidating claims, investing large capital, or organizing long-range plans. This era found claims on every creek.

A few hardy souls experimented with California's more advanced techniques. A hydraulic mine started on the Seventymile. Fortymile miners applied steam points to their drift mines. Since steam boilers required at least two men, they forced greater cooperation. The miners on American Creek built a flume and tried to use the ineffective method of hydraulic elevators. Because the United States Geological Survey had just begun their yearly reconnaissance and survey reports, only by trial and error could the miners learn what methods would work in the unusual Alaskan environment. Mammoth Creek near Circle attempted mechanical methods of open-cut mining and introduced the steam shovel. Twenty individual miners of Fourth of July and Woodchopper Creeks produced the largest quantity of gold in the area. Small operators completely dominated the region. Moreover, over half the claims used drift-mining methods. In 1906 Woodchopper alone, largely through winter drift mines, produced over $18,000. [27] Although some search for suitable dredging ground began and some machinery had been introduced, the Yukon-Charley miners ignored the low-grade gravels and capitalized on the smaller but richer placer deposits. [28] These Yukon miners were not unique to Alaska; over eighty-five percent of Alaska's gold production came from placers. [29] Only in south-eastern Alaska did gold lode mines develop extensively.

General discontent raged across the territory because of the lack of roads and trails and the inadequate steamboat service. The abuse of the power of attorney provision in the federal mining law provoked complaints. With this power, one individual could tie up a whole creek, prevent any new bonanza seeker from staking a claim, and contribute to rampant speculation. [30] Although the Yukon had been a hold-out against outside investment, by the end of 1906 several groups of claims had passed into the hands of strong companies who promised improvement in mining technology. [31]

Slowly the bonanza seekers recognized that rich deposits were rapidly becoming exhausted. The few small gold rushes that occurred only provided a burst of nostalgia for a past era. A transitional period, from 1907 to 1914, resulted in a decline in gold production. During this transition from bonanza mining to low-grade mining, miners experimented with dredges, ditch systems, and hydraulic plants. Unfortunately careful prospecting and planning did not preceed these large developments. Thus, when the cycle of drought years arrived in 1910, all mines suffered heavily. Four steam-powered dredges moved into the Fortymile area using steam-point thawing. Another dredge was built on Mastodon Creek. Steam scrapers mined the open-cuts on Fourth of July Creek. American Creek, Seventymile River, and Mammoth Creek attempted hydraulic plants and ditch systems, but the shortage of water forced them to close. An increasing number of open-cut mines developed. Even though this period represented a decline in gold production, the effort to improve mining methods merited praise from both the United States Geological Survey and The Mining and Scientific Press. [32]

Yukon-Charley miners shared problems with other Alaskan miners. An overall business stagnation that followed the financial panic of 1907 prevented large amounts of capital from being invested in large-scale placer mines. [33] A cry for improved transportation culminated in a demand for a railroad. Thus the low-grade deposits remained almost untouched, and the placer-mining business fluctuated. Only with the exploitation of lower grade material would stability arrive. [34] Unfortunately the pioneer miner who discovered and opened new districts took little part in the development of large enterprises.

The years 1915 and 1916 saw conditions improve considerably. Only a new dredge on Mammoth Creek survived the end of the doldrums. Hydraulic plants, however, proliferated on Alder, Crooked, Fourth of July, Mastodon, Eagle, Switch, and Butte Creeks, In 1916 over 70 mines employing 265 men produced over $375,000. [35] The tendency toward large-scale mining increased. Open-cut and drift mining still occurred, but the greatest production came from the larger operations. The improvement in mining conditions ceased abruptly with the onset of World War I. [36]

With World War I a gold depression occurred that lasted from 1917 to 1923. The world war had depleted the labor supply and raised the cost of materials and equipment. Moreover, dry summers plagued those that attempted to mine. Mines, such as Alder and Woodchopper, closed. Less than half the number of placers continued as the small-scale, high-cost operations succumbed to the adverse conditions. [37] With the exhaustion of the bonanza deposits, the production of gold shrank to new lows and no longer ranked as the territory's leading export. [38] Prospectors discouraged by the continuing depression and attracted by good business opportunities elsewhere, left the territory in large numbers. [39]

In 1920 the average annual return to the small miner was $398, whereas the cost of his yearly provisions was $420. Thus the miner had to find renumerative occupations, such as trapping or cutting wood. [40] Yet at the same time, owners of the large plants, dredges and hydraulic mines, could not afford to let them idle, and thus, continuous improvement in mining methods and economic management occurred. [41] A general consensus of the United States Geological Survey was that the day of profitable small operations had rapidly passed. Almost as important was the recognition that large operations could not support the settlements built up by bonanza mining and that some settlements were bound to decline and be abandoned. [42] The completion of the Alaska Railroad sparked the only positive note during the long depression. Improved transportation now offered an opportunity to exploit the low-grade deposits that previously could not be mined at a profit. Slowly the placer-mining industry struggled back to a stable base.

The following period, 1924 to 1929, marked the consolidation of claims and one peak for the production of low-grade deposits. Nevertheless, mineral production continued to rank second to fisheries in monetary value. [43] During these years rainfall and water supply proved sufficient. Hydraulic mining became popular. Careful planning, efficient management, extensive experimentation, and the replacement of obsolete machinery signaled a new approach to low-cost mining. [44] Meanwhile consolidation occurred on Coal, Deadwood, and Steele Creeks. Placer mining evolved from the mine of the poor man to the mine of the engineer and capitalist. Technical training, large capital, and labor saving machinery replaced the old-timer's intuition and back-breaking labor. Consequently the number of prospectors decreased. In alarm the Territorial Legislature responded to the strong mining lobby to pass the Prospector's Aid Act. Under this act Alaskan prospectors received monetary assistance to meet some of their transportation expenses. [45] The completion of the Steese Highway allowed new and heavy equipment to be transported by railroad and then by road to the borders of the Yukon-Charley area. [46]

The next period, 1929 to 1934, found the world in a business stagnation and depression. Unlike the gold depression of 1917 to 1923, placer mining held its own. In fact the constant price of gold coupled with large unemployment revived an interest in prospecting. [47] Yukon placers, stimulated by a number of new miners and plentiful supplies of water, produced greater quantities than before 1918. [48] The Great Depression, however, limited the capital available for development and increased the value of machinery and supplies. Thus, small operations enjoyed a revival. Most of the placers mined during this period used either hydraulic or open-cut methods—drift mining had become an anachronism. In 1932 the price of gold rose from $20.67 to $35.00 an ounce, which further enhanced the appeal of placer mining. In 1934 Ernest Patty began prospect drilling of Coal Creek with contingency plans for a dredge. [50]

Although the world depression continued until World War II, the Yukon-Charley area saw its peak production and development between 1935 and 1942. Ernest Patty and General McRae bought and consolidated the claims on Coal and Woodchopper Creeks. During the next few years, the mining company built ditch systems, two camps with frame structures mounted on skids, and a road joining the two camps in addition to the construction of the two dredges. They stripped the muck to the gravel, using hydraulic nozzles. Then, using the ditch water, they applied cold-water thawing. An airstrip improved transportation of supplies, equipment, and men. Other camps within the area improved as well. Interest rates were low, the government offered limited subsidies, and tax deductions were allowed on unprofitable enterprises. Yet at the same time the Territorial Legislature placed a license tax of three percent on mineral production in excess of $10,000. Nevertheless dredges developed on Deadwood, Mammoth, Mosquito, Walker Fork, and Jack Wade Creeks. Draglines, bulldozers. and hydraulic operations also boomed. [51]

The boom came to a shuddering halt with the entrance of the United States into World War II. Gold mining operations, determined non-strategic industries, were closed. After the war, rapidly rising costs forced many operations to remain closed. To cut costs Patty discontinued hydraulic stripping of the muck overburden in favor of ground sluicing—allowing the creek water to erode the muck. Furthermore, he abandoned cold-water thawing for solar or natural thawing. In spite of all new techniques employed, the soaring labor and material costs forced the profit lower and lower. Finally in 1957 Patty closed the dredges. They were leased for five years than sold in the early 1970's to Joe Vogler, a politician and developer, and Ernest Wolff, a mining engineer and University of Alaska professor, and his partner, Dan Colben. High contemporary costs prevent much profit despite the inflated value of gold. Other operations fared as poorly. Currently a few miners mine the old deposits around Circle and Eagle, but only marginal operations continue at Coal and Ben Creeks, and both are mined by open-cut methods. [52]

The Yukon-Charley area experienced the drama and excitement of gold rush bonanzas, experimented with various mining methods, suffered through droughts and depressions, realized full potential, and slumped with the exhaustion of its deposits. Faced with a unique environment and its related problems, twentieth-century miners adopted or modified the methods of earlier mining frontiers and, in several instances, invented new techniques to conform to unusual environmental demands. But like the exploitation of any mineral deposit, exhaustion always occurs. Although the placer industry has waned, a few miners continue to live the lifestyle of C. A. Bryant. The mining frontier has not yet passed. Other minerals may foster still other mining horizons.