Hope Alaska ???

[49erjohn]

Hello Brother Miners, Can you help me with Hope Alaska? Has anyone mined in the public sites around the Hope Alaska area? Thank you for your help. JOHN

[Joe S (AK)]

Hey John,

Years ago I did a little working there in the Rec Area. Very fine Gold with not much volume.

A few years ago the State of Alaska closed the Rec Area (on Resurrection Creek) to re-work the landscape to what some nitwit thought it should look like. The excuse used was old, nearly overgrown tailing piles and demon Mercury which "might" pollute the creek.

I don't know if the area was ever re-opened to Recreational Mining again.

At the end of the road, in the mid 60's, there was a guy who had a """Mining School""". He would charge "tuition" to learn how to pan (even if you were experienced) and then would open the high bank diggings for the newly "Graduated Student" (with a freshly completed, mimeographed, """Diploma""") to dig for exactly one hour.

What was unique was the delivery system for the pay. The highbank deposit was 15 or 20 horizontal feet above the stream which had a crudely built sluice box set up there. The newly graduated miner would climb up the hill to the dig site and dig the pay to be run. There was a pulley mounted at the 'Impact / Dump Area' next to the sluice box while up on the hill there was a small automobile front wheel assembly mounted on a post with the brake still operational by hand. There was a thin rope that made a full circle from top to bottom and then back up again. (like an old clothes line with two pulleys). Attached to the rope was a specially constructed 5 gallon bucket.

The bucket had almost the entire bottom cut off with a small piece of the bottom still as original. The cut off piece of the bottom was attached by hinges to the retained section of the bottom. A retainer latch for that dump bottom section was attached to an arm that hung down below the bucket.

The graduate would load the bucket (with the full bottom retained in place by the latch) and when full would use the hand brake to control the decent of the bucket on the clothes line. At the bottom the bucket bottom retainer latch arm would finally strike a trip bar over the impact zone and the pay would drop next to the sluice box. The upper wheel assembly had a crank handle attached to it to retrieve the bucket to the top and everything would be redone over and over until the magic hour came to an end. Then the graduate would climb down to the box and shovel in the pay.

All carefully monitored by "The Professor" so that not one scoop extra of pay was worked.

I kept that "diploma" for years and years until the ravages of time claimed it.

Joe

[Hoser John]

wow