Thanksgiving Creek Mine, Hot Springs Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Thanksgiving Creek Mine	Mine
Hot Springs Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Thanksgiving Creek placer mine is marked by about 0.4 mile of tailings along a tractor trail in the northeast quarter of section 15, T. 4 N., R. 14 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The site is at the midpoint of the tailings. The location is accurate. The site is included in location 38 of Cobb (1972), and roughly corresponds with the site for Thanksgiving Creek, U.S. Bureau of Land Management MAS number 0020480038.
Geology: Thanksgiving Creek flows in a shallow, open valley about 5 miles long. The area is underlain by Mesozoic clastic sedimentary rocks that are cut by thrust faults and locally intruded by small Cretaceous monzodiorite bodies (Chapman and others, 1982; Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). The upper part of Thanksgiving Creek flows along the trace of one of the thrust faults. According to Hess (1908) and Mertie (1934), the local bedrock is yellowish, sheared arkosic sandstone. It is overlain by 6 to 18 feet of gravels, overlain in turn by 1 to 4 feet of muck. The gravels contain subangular cobbles of quartzite, schistose arkose, vein quartz, slate, and small amounts of monzonite, along with intermixed sticky yellowish clay (Hess, 1908). Hess reported that the pay streak was 25 to 45 feet wide and 1.5 to 9 feet thick. The gold was rough and shotty, sometimes bright, and sometimes iron-stained. The source of the gold is controversial. Prindle and Hess (1905) thought that it was derived directly from small quartz veins in the schistose bedrock. Mertie (1934), however, believed that the gold in Thanksgiving Creek was reconcentrated from adjacent bench or terrace gravels. Gold was discovered on Thanksgiving Creek in 1903 (Prindle and Hess, 1905), and there was sporadic mining from 1903-1936. After a long hiatus in reported mining, Anthony Lanning and two men mined on Thanksgiving Creek in 1967 and 1975 with a bulldozer and sluice (Heiner and others, 1968; Carnes, 1976). Thanksgiving Mining Company was active in 1984, using a backhoe to trench placer ground on both Thanksgiving and Slate (TN052) creeks (Eakin and others, 1985). In 1989, John Shilling worked Thanksgiving and Slate creeks (Bundtzen and others, 1990). In 1992, Thanksgiving Mining (John Shilling) worked Thanksgiving Creek, and collected a bulk sample (Swainbank and others, 1993). Mining continued in 1993 (Bundtzen and others, 1994), and a small amount of sluicing was done in 1994 (Swainbank and others, 1995). Separate production figures have not been published for Thanksgiving Creek. According to Hess (1908), combined mining of Thanksgiving and Omega creeks had produced $18,200 worth of gold by the fall of 1904. Cobb (1977) estimated this to equal approximately 880 ounces of gold, and speculated that no more than a few thousand ounces of gold had been produced through 1977 from Thanksgiving Creek.
Workings: Gold was discovered on Thanksgiving Creek in 1903 (Prindle and Hess, 1905), and sporadic mining was reported until 1936, apparently by ground sluicing and other surface methods. After a long hiatus in reported mining, Anthony Lanning and two men mined on Thanksgiving Creek in 1967 and 1975 with a bulldozer and sluice (Heiner and others, 1968; Carnes, 1976). Thanksgiving Mining Company was active in 1984, when Thanksgiving Mining Company used a backhoe to trench placer ground on both Thanksgiving and Slate creeks (Eakin and others, 1985). In 1989, John Shilling worked Thanksgiving and Slate creeks (Bundtzen and others, 1990). In 1992, Thanksgiving Mining (John Shilling) worked Thanksgiving Creek, and collected a bulk sample (Swainbank and others, 1993). Mining continued in 1993 (Bundtzen and others, 1994), and a small amount of sluicing was done in 1994 (Swainbank and others, 1995).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Separate production figures have not been published for Thanksgiving Creek. According to Hess (1908), combined mining of Thanksgiving and Omega creeks had produced $18,200 worth of gold by the fall of 1904. Cobb (1977) estimated this to equal approximately 880 ounces of gold, and speculated that no more than a few thousand ounces of gold had been produced through 1977 from Thanksgiving Creek.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	TN118

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References