Quest for Gold: An Overview of the National Park Service Cultural Resources Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program (CRMIM)

574 Pages·2000·42.5 MB·English

by  Saleeby, Becky

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An Overview of the NationalPark Service
Cultural Resources Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program
(CRMIM)
Becky M. Saleeby 2000
National Park Service
Alaska Region
Alaska Support Office
Cultural Resources Team
2525 Gambell Street, Room 107
Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2892
The Alaska Region
The Alaska Region includes the 15 National Park Service areas in Alaska. The diversity
of areas and their resources is reflected in their designation as national parks,
monuments, preserves and historical parks. These 15 areas represent more than 50% of
the total acreage the National Park Service administers.
Alaska Region's team of cultural resource professionals work to inventory, evaluate and
preserve the cultural resources of the park areas and to bring an understanding of these
resources to both the professional and lay public. A wide variety of specialists, including
archeologists, ethnographers, historical architects, historians and museum curators conduct
ongoing studies of the area's vast array of prehistoric, historic and ethnographic sites to
further that understanding and expand our limited knowledge of the 14,000-year human
story in the Alaska parklands. Each year the National Park Service adds new information
to the record of the many and varied peoples, both past and present, whose cultural legacies
are embodied in the cultural resources of the parks.
The National Park Service disseminates the results of inventories and surveys through the
Resources Report series. Cultural resource documents in this technical series are prepared
primarily for professional audiences and for internal use within the National Park service.
This information is not intended for wide public distribution.
Mention by the National Park Service of trade names or commercial products does not
constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
Copies of this report are available from the following. To order from the National Park Service, use the
reference number on the report's title page.
National Park Service National Park Service
Alaska Support Office Technical Information Center
Cultural Resources Team Denver Service Center
2525 Gambell Street, Room 107 P.O. Box 25287
Anchorage, Alaska 99503-2892 Denver, Colorado 80225-0287
Front cover: Bunkhouse ruins at the Nukalaska Mine, SEL-235, in Nuka Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park
and Preserve, Alaska. (Photograph and cover design by Frank Broderick)
THE QUEST FOR GOLD
AN OVERVIEW OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
CULTURAL RESOURCES MINING INVENTORY AND MONITORING PROGRAM
(CRMIM)
By
Becky M. Saleeby
National Park Service - Alaska Region
Research/Resource Management Report ARRCR/CRR-2000/37
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
2525 Gambell Street
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
2000

CRMIM: The Quest for Gold
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report is the result of 10 years of Cultural Resources Mining Inventory and
Monitoring (CRMIM) fieldwork carried out by 40 people - archeologists, historians, archi-
tects, and even some volunteers. The hours they spent hiking, surveying, measuring, and
describing is but a fraction of the time that many of them spent back in the lab, writing
the site reports and drafting site and feature maps that constitute the basic data for this
overview. I would like to acknowledge them and thank them for all their efforts. The
following people served on the CRMIM crews: the late Bernard (Ben) Bensen, Nancy
Bigelow, Richard Bland, Frank Broderick, Rolfe Buzzell, Doug Carr, John Christopher,
Richard Chesmore, Margie Connolly, Jim Creech, Mike Elder, Carey Feierabend, Jim
Firor, Cassie Flynn, Gene Griffin, Leonard Hansen, Fred Harden, Roger Harritt, Logan
Hovis, Wayne Howell, Bill Johnson, Ann Kain, A.J. Lynch, M. B. Lynch, Martha
McCollough, Karen Miller, Martha Olympic, Mike Ostrogorsky, Tim Sczawinski, Kaerin
Stephens, Karen Sturnick, Theresa Thibault, Ann Thornton, Sue Thorson, Beth Turcy,
Dale Vinson, Rudy Walser, Keith Williams, and Anne Worthington. Ben Bensen, a
CRMIM crewmember and a friend, died in a tragic mountaineering accident the winter
after his work on the project. His fine abilities as an archeologist and a cartographer are
missed.
Several of the people mentioned above deserve special recognition for the extra time
and talent that they devoted to their jobs. A. J. Lynch served as a CRMIM crew leader
and the reigning expert on Denali National Park and Preserve archeology from 1986 until
her retirement in 1994. Her incredible memory for site details and love for her work
inspired all of us around her. Logan Hovis, who also began working on the CRMIM pro-
gram in 1 986, now serves as an NPS mining historian. Logan's knowledge of the technical
intricacies of mining equipment and procedures is unsurpassed. I am grateful that he has
been so generous with this knowledge. I would like to thank him for all the detailed expla-
nations he h as given to my questions, all the historic documents he has loaned me over the
years, and for his thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this overview.
Longevity awards should also be given to Jim Creech and Frank Broderick for their
many years of work on the project. Examples of their superb feature maps can be seen in
the placer and lode mining chapters of the report. Frank also produced the cover and all
the fine illustrations found throughout the report. Thank you, Frank, for serving as the
general "artistic director" of this project! Also to be specially recognized are mining histo-
rians Rolfe Buzzell, Ann Kain, and again Logan Hovis. Without their well-researched
drainage and site histories, this report could not have been written.
It was necessary to create several different computer databases to organize and sort
the wealth of information recorded on the CRMIM site forms. I was helped in the time-
consuming and tedious task of data entry by John Christopher, Cassie Flynn, Megan
Partlow, and Theresa Thibault. James LaCas helped with the bibliography. Roger Harritt
greatly assisted me in the preparation of the chapter on prehistoric sites. Laura Shelton
of Resource Data Inc. made the first draft of all the Arc-View maps, while Judy Kesler
spent many hours at work and at home in fine-tuning them into the high quality product
that appears in this overview. Assistance in gathering the historic photographs published
in the report was given by Diane Brenner, Wayne Howell, John Branson, Ann Kain, Logan
in
CRMIM: The Quest for Gold
Hovis, and Cyd Martin. Greg Dixon assisted greatly in the time-consuming task of index-
ing. Thank you all very much.
Thanks also to Team Manager for Cultural Resources, Ted Birkedal, and to Gary
Somers, formerly the Senior Archeologist, for their years of patience and support in this
long-term writing project. I would like to acknowledge Ken Schoenberg, the original
archeological supervisor for the CRMIM program, and Gene Griffin, who headed up the
CRMIM field operations until 1992. My final thanks go to Thetus Smith, who went over
each page of this report with her sharp editorial eye and her hot-pink pen.
IV
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
SECTION I: THE PROGRAM
CHAPTER 1
Cultural Resources Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program: Background,
Organization, and Results 1
Overview of Mining Laws 2
Organization of the Cultural Resources Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program 7
Research Design 9
Results of Fieldwork 16
CHAPTER 2
Mining Technology 21
Geology of Ore Deposits 23
Conditions Affecting Mining in Alaska 24
Prospecting and Exploration 34
Placer Mining 38
Lode Mining 51
Site Interpretation 63
SECTION II: THE PARKS
CHAPTER 3
Denali National Park And Preserve 65
Geology and Mining Districts 65
Cultural Setting 66
Cultural Changes During the Gold Rush Era (1886-1920) 68
Summary of Surveys and Sites 74
Geology and Mining Districts 79
CHAPTER 4
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve 79
Cultural Setting 80
Culture Change During the Gold Rush Era (1886-1920) 82
Summary of Surveys and Sites 91
CRMIM: The Quest for Gold
CHAPTER 5
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve 97
Geology and Mining Districts 97
Cultural Setting 98
Cultural Changes During the Gold Rush Era (1885-1920) 100
Summary of Surveys and Sites 103
CHAPTER 6
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve 105
Geology and Mining Districts 105
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era 105
Summary of Surveys and Sites 109
CHAPTER 7
Bering Land Bridge national Preserve Ill
Geology and Mining Districts Ill
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era Ill
Summary of Surveys and Sites 115
CHAPTER 8
Kenai Fjords National Park 117
Geology and Mining Districts 117
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era 119
Summary of Surveys and Sites 120
CHAPTER 9
Katmai National Park and Preserve 123
Geology and Mining Districts 123
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era 123
Summary of Surveys and Sites 127
CHAPTER 10
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve 129
Geology and Mining Districts 129
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era 129
Summary of Surveys and Sites 133
CHAPTER 11
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve 135
Geology and Mining Districts 135
Cultural Setting and Change During the Gold Rush Era 136
Summary of Surveys and Sites 139
VI
Contents
SECTION III: THE SITES
CHAPTER 12
Placer Mining Sites 141
Domestic Features and Artifacts 141
The Kantishna District 153
The Nizina District 173
The Chisana District 191
The Circle/Eagle Districts 213
The Koyukuk District 239
The Fairhaven District 252
Bristol Bay Region - Portage Creek 261
Discussion 265
CHAPTER 13
Lode Mining Sites 271
Valdez Creek Mining District (Chulitna River Area) 271
Kantishna District 277
Chistochina District (Kotsina-Kuskulana Area) 296
Nizina District 313
Chisana District 345
Homer District (Nuka Bay Area) 354
Juneau District (Reid Inlet Area) 367
Discussion 368
CHAPTER 14
Mining Communities and Other Historic Sites 377
Denali National Park and Preserve 377
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve 390
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve 403
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve 408
Discussion 411
CHAPTER 15
Prehistoric Sites 413
Prehistoric Overview 413
Site Settings 416
Denali National Park and Preserve 418
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve 423
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve 425
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve 428
Katmai National Park and Preserve 430
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve 430
Discussion 432
Vll
CRMIM: The Quest for Gold
CHAPTER 16
Conclusions and Management Recommendations 435
Preservation and Conservation 437
Interpretation 443
Continuing Research 444
APPENDIX
Annotated List of CRMIM Sites 447
BIBLIOGRAPHY 477
INDEX 523
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