Pioneer Creek is a tributary of Baker Creek in the U.S. state of Alaska. Other Baker tributaries in the vicinity include Eureka, Thanksgiving, and Gold Run. [1]
Pioneer Creek heads against the Baker-Minook divide, flows around the head of the Eureka, and then, at a distance of 1–2 miles (1.6–3.2 km), flows parallel to the main course of that creek. After traversing 7–8 miles (11–13 km), it joins Eureka Creek and they are said to lose themselves on Baker Flats. Pioneer Creek never carries less than three or four sluice-heads of water, and its gradient along its lower course is about 60 feet (18 m) per mile. The valley's northwest side has a gentle slope running back for about a mile, and the southeast side is of almost precipitous steepness. On the gentle slope of the northwest side there are perceptibly flatter places or benches, but only one of these is persistent. This bench is traceable along Pioneer Creek for over 4 miles (6.4 km). Its northeast end is a little above the present level of the creek while its southwest end is about 250 feet (76 m) above the creek. Over this bench and covering much of the slope below is a deposit of auriferous gravel left by the creek as it moved to the southeast. The different diggings upon it are known as "bars". Five small tributaries, Doric, Boothby, Seattle Junior, Skookum, and Joe Bush, flow across this bench at right angles to the course of Pioneer Creek. Near the upper end of the bench at Joe Bush Creek, prospecting holes showed a well-defined old stream channel. [2]
The bed rock is schistose grit with interbedded slates and thin beds of quartzite. The grits sometimes become very carbonaceous, particularly on Doric Creek. There is some quartz in small veins and stringers, and on Doric Creek at places there is considerable pyrite distributed through the rocks. The pyrite is often oxidized, so that only small holes lined with iron rust indicate its former presence. On Doric Creek, inclusions of a carbonaceous substance the size of a walnut occur with small quartz seams. [2]
Like many other Alaskan' creeks Pioneer Creek was staked in the early 20th century, and then each man waited for his neighbor to do the hard work necessary to locate the pay streak, if there \was one. Meanwhile, the claims lapsed and were then restaked by other parties, and pay was discovered on What Cheer Bar in 1902. After this discovery pay was found on Doric Creek and at several other points along the bench. The production of Pioneer Creek Valley to the end of the summer of 1904 was about $35,800. [2]
The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. From its source in British Columbia, Canada, it flows through Canada's territory of Yukon. The lower half of the river continues westward through the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is 3,190 kilometres (1,980 mi) long and empties into the Bering Sea at the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta. The average flow is 6,400–7,000 m3/s (230,000–250,000 cu ft/s). The total drainage area is 833,000 km2 (321,500 sq mi), of which 323,800 km2 (125,000 sq mi) lies in Canada. The total area is more than 25% larger than Texas or Alberta.
Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area is a census area in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,343, down from 5,588 in 2010. With an area of 147,842.51 sq mi (382,910.3 km2), it is the largest of any county or county-equivalent in the United States, or about the same size as the entire state of Montana. It is part of the unorganized borough of Alaska and therefore has no borough seat. Its largest communities are the cities of Galena, in the west, and Fort Yukon, in the northeast.
Manley Hot Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 169, up from 89 in 2010.
Minto is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the CDP is 150, down from 210 in 2010. The name is an anglicized version of the Lower Tanana Athabaskan name Menhti, meaning 'among the lakes'. After repeated flooding the village was relocated to its present location in 1969. The former village site is now known as Old Minto.
The Tanana River is a 584-mile (940 km) tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon (Athabaskan) tene no, tenene, literally "trail river".
The Nenana River is a tributary of the Tanana River, approximately 140 miles (230 km) long, in central Alaska in the United States. It drains an area on the north slope of the Alaska Range on the south edge of the Tanana Valley southwest of Fairbanks.
The Chena River is a 100-mile (160 km) tributary of the Tanana River in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows generally west from the White Mountains to the Tanana River near the city of Fairbanks, which is built on both sides of the river. The Tanana empties into the 2,300-mile (3,700 km) long Yukon River.
Beaver Creek is a 180-mile (290 km) tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. The creek begins at the confluence of Champion and Bear creeks in the White Mountains National Recreation Area, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Fairbanks. From there it flows west around the southern end of the White Mountains, then northeast into the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, then west into the Yukon River downstream of Beaver.
The Kantishna River is a 108-mile (174 km) tributary of the Tanana River in the U.S. state of Alaska. Formed by the confluence of the McKinley River with Birch Creek in Denali National Park and Preserve, it drains part of the north slope of the Alaska Range including the Denali massif. The direction of flow is generally north-northeast. The Toklat River is a major tributary.
The Kiwalik River is a stream on the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. The headwaters of the river originate in the eastern portion of the peninsula, around Granite Mountain. The river flows north to its mouth at Kiwalik Lagoon, Chukchi Sea. The start of the 20th century mining town of Candle is found on its western bank at the confluence of Candle Creek. The ore minerals and materials found in the river basin are galena, gold, pyrite, scheelite, silver and sphalerite, and the primary commodities are tungsten, lead and zinc.
Prindle Volcano is an isolated basaltic cinder cone located in eastern Alaska, United States, in the headwaters of the East Fork of the Fortymile River, approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Tok, Alaska. The cone is fresh-looking and has a base approximately 900 metres wide. It is the northwesternmost expression of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. The cinder cone, and an approximately 11-kilometre (6.8-mile) long lava flow which breached the margin of the cone, erupted in the Pleistocene approximately 176,000 years ago. The lava flow extends to the southeast, then turns southwest and continues in a river valley.
Tofty is a ghost town in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was a gold-mining town known for its high production.
Gold mining in Alaska, a state of the United States, has been a major industry and impetus for exploration and settlement since a few years after the United States acquired the territory in 1867 from the Russian Empire. Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced. Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau, Alaska.
Elbridge Truman Barnette was a Yukon riverboat captain, banker, and swindler, who founded the city of Fairbanks, Alaska and later served as its first mayor.
The Rampart Dam or Rampart Canyon Dam was a project proposed in 1954 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dam the Yukon River in Alaska for hydroelectric power. The project was planned for Rampart Canyon just 31 miles (50 km) southwest of the village of Rampart, Alaska, about 105 miles (169 km) west-northwest of Fairbanks.
Mount Prindle is a granitic mountain in the Yukon–Tanana Uplands, and is located approximately 45 miles (72 km) north-northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. The plutons that form the core of the Mount Prindle massif are Late Cretaceous or early Tertiary age. These plutons intruded older metamorphic rocks. Mount Prindle exhibits classic glacial landforms, unlike most of the surrounding Yukon–Tanana Uplands. It is in the Circle Mining District and many of the surrounding creeks have been or are being mined for placer gold. The area has also been prospected for tin and rare earth minerals. Mine roads and hiking trails provide access to the mountain. A 900 feet (270 m) granite wall on an eastern spur of the massif is an attraction for rock climbers.
Minook Creek is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is named after John Mynook Pavaloff, a half-Russian/half-native Alaskan, who found gold in the river's valley in 1894.
Baker Creek is a right bank tributary of the Tanana River in the U.S. state of Alaska. Baker Creek tributaries include Thanksgiving, Gold Run, Eureka, and Pioneer creeks; Seattle Junior Creek is a tributary of Pioneer Creek. The Baker Creek diggings of the early 20th century were situated approximately 30 miles (48 km) south of Rampart.
Eureka Creek is a tributary of Baker Creek in the U.S. state of Alaska. Other Baker tributaries in the vicinity of Eureka Creek include Thanksgiving, Gold Run, and Pioneer creeks with Seattle Junior Creek a tributary of Pioneer.
Troublesome Creek is a stream in Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, in the United States. It is a tributary of Hess Creek.