The Chisana Story

[Steve Herschbach]

9 hours ago, kiwijw said:

Awesome Steve. ? How did those boots go for detecting with the SD 2200D? Looks like they have metal lace lugs. Cheers.

Good luck out there

JW 

Hi JW,

I have never had a problem with PI detectors running stock coils and things like boot lugs. 18” and larger coils seemed to be where I might run into the issue.

[Steve Herschbach]

OK, let's fast forward almost ten years! I ran off in other directions for most of the first ten years of the new century. The claim ownerships at Chisana continued to consolidate over this time as claims were dropped due to the new enhanced permitting requirements. Others were bought and sold, reducing the number of owners. The main claim block at Bonanza and Little Eldorado came up for sale, and we put together a small group to purchase the claims. This in turn resulted in a couple years of intensive activity as the claims underwent a full validity exam conducted by the BLM. In 2009 I visited the claims to show off the ground to some of the new partners, and to start the validity exam process.

By now my father was out of the picture and we shifted to using charter services to access the area. There are multiple possibilities but in general we worked out of the Devil's Mountain Lodge airstrip near Nabesna. The owners of the charter operation there are not only pilots but certified airframe mechanics. They have taken Piper Super Cubs and modified them to be more useful. The main problem with a Cub is cargo space. So these guys take a Super Cub, split it lengthwise, and add tubing to make it fatter. This makes a two place airplane into a four place airplane - the Kirk Ellis "Hulk"!

Here is a shot of the Hulk taking off on a day made smoky by forest fires farther north. The dirt strip is the Devil's Mountain Lodge private airstrip.

Hulk taking off from Devil's Mountain Lodge

And here the plane is parked up on "The Hill" (Gold Hill). The ATVs and other gear were brought in overland from the town of Chisana the prior winter.

Kirk Ellis "Hulk" parked on Gold Hill airstrip

I showed a picture earlier looking up this small mountain airstrip. Here is a view looking down the strip. The approach to land is up the valley in lower right, then a last second turn into the mountainside airstrip.

View looking down dirt airstrip

Takeoff is in reverse - head downhill and then bear to right on going airborne. Here is a sequence (click for larger view).....

Hulk (modified Super Cub) making short field takeoff

The vast majority of this trip was dedicated to trail work, cleaning up the old camp areas, getting gear situated and put away, plus giving the new partners the tour. That being the case for this entry I will mostly just do a photo tour with notes.

This is an interesting little test site. Shallow bedrock was excavated and material scraped from cracks and pockets in bedrock and screened into buckets.

Excavating shallow bedrock

We were far from water, and so set up a little recirculating system. The sluice from a 1.5" dredge was set on sawhorses to dump into a tub to catch the tailings. The tub is placed in a larger tub to capture the water overflow. A 1HP pump collected the muddy water and fed it back into the little sluice box. There is a little water loss, so extra water is added periodically to both make up for lost water, and to cut the increasingly muddy mix. The more mud the water carries, the less ability the water has to cleanly separate gold.

Hand feeding collected material into mini sluice

The testing and sampling while undergoing validity exams is limited in what you can do and test sites must be recovered as much as possible when sampling is done. In this case the tailings material that accumulated in the tub was dumped back into the hole as it was worked, backfilling the hole to back to near original condition.

Recovered sample location

And some nice chunky gold recovered as part of the sample process....

Gold recovered from sample location

Some dredges and highbankers were brought in for the sampling program, and hopefully for mining later after full permitting is acquired. Most was Keene gear but this used 4" Dahlke dredge was picked up for use due to its exceptional compact, lightweight design.

Dahlke 4" suction dredge

And a little gold found while dredging....

Gold found with a suction dredge

A gold nugget found metal detecting

More gold found with detectors

To be continued....

[Steve Herschbach]

This location was closer to water so we were able to set up a highbanker and get more volume. The decomposed bedrock here was carrying quite a bit of small gold.

Feeding the highbanker

Relaxed gold panning!

A cleanup from the highbanker operation

Happy prospector with total from highbanker operation

To be continued....

[Steve Herschbach]

And a little scenery. There was an old outhouse at camp, which was in rough shape but got the job done. The funny part is that there was a wooden box nailed to the inside wall to hold toilet paper. Every year birds nest on top of the box, and we and they shared the area with no harm done. I got to watch the chicks get big enough to leave the "nest".

The old outhouse

The chicks close up

And side view

The shrubby cinquefoil or tundra rose Dasiphora fruticosa is very common in many areas of Alaska.

Yellow "tundra rose"

There are scattered caribou in the area, which make an appearance now and then. Here are a couple checking out the old flume system.

Caribou wondering "what is that thing"?

Caribou on the ridge

To be continued....

[Steve Herschbach]

Let's go for a walk down Little El and up Bonanza Creek.....

Hand stacked rock on Little Eldorado Creek

Old flume system skirts canyon wall

Hydraulic piping stacked along creek

Exposed bedrock and pipe scattered by floods

Old "Long Tom" sections

Old flume just below a wooden water collection dam

Horse or crawler drawn scraper

Brass plate from Sauerman Bros. Crescent Power Scraper

Old hydraulic pipe valve section

Old wagon wheels

Another view of typical Bonanza Creek gold

Another caribou

To be continued....

[Lanny]

I am truly enjoying your prospecting and mining memoirs!

Nicely done, and all the best,

Lanny

[fredmason]

Great photo-trip!

I will always remember my only experience in a small plane. Leaving Moore Creek, taking off, seemingly running out of runway...finally lift-off...

what a ride

fred

[Steve Herschbach]

Yeah Fred, that small plane flying is something else. I have had a lot of small aircraft adventures and am lucky to have had an expert Bush pilot - dear old Dad. Alaska Bush pilot saying: "there are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots!" Knowing when not to fly is the name of the game, and I spent countless hours weathered in on small strips and gravel bars waiting for weather to lift.

If you are ever stranded on a dirt airstrip, help the pilot and yourself by walking the runway and tossing the larger rocks aside and filling any squirrel holes, etc. Lots of gold has been found in airstrips made of mined tailings, and if there is ever a hole you want to fill in, those are the ones! 

[Hard Prospector]

Hey Steve,

Was the horse drawn scrapper used much like the much larger mechanical  drag line bucket?  Sure am enjoying the story and pics.....Thanks!

Rob

[IdahoPeg]

Thoroughly enjoying your pictures and narrative! Thank you for taking the time to share these memories!?