Crow Creek Consolidated Gold Mining Company

The Crow Creek Mine is a major remnant of the mining activity that transpired in the Turnagain Arm region of Alaska. Notoriety and fortunes in the gold mining episodes there were certainly not equal to those of the Klondike, Nome, or Iditarod, yet the mining activities in the drainage basins of this section of Cook Inlet were remarkably persistent forces that lasted from the 1890s until the Second World War. Both placer and lode gold mining sparked the development of the region: small thriving towns such as Hope, Sunrise, and Girdwood sprang to life as supply centers to the hinterland. The Crow Creek Mine is but a part of that overall movement, however, it is an important one not only because of the magnitude of the placer operation during its heyday but also because the fabric of the mining buildings, associated equipment, and geologic features are prominently preserved in the lower Crow Creek Valley.

In looking at the context of the Crow Creek Mine in relation to the mining history in the Kenai/Turnagain Arm region, one would logically start with the prospecting of the Russian American Company. The first documented references point to the activities of Peter Doroshin, a graduate of the Imperial Mining School in St. Petersburg. He led mineral explorations on the Kenai Pennisula from 1843 to 1852, and in doing so, he found placer gold along the Russian River. Prospecting was presumed dormant for the next thirty-odd years until Joseph Cooper discovered gold in 1884. Still, it was not until a prospector by the name of King returned to Kenai in the late 1880s with four pokes of gold to repay a grubstake debt that mining possibilities were taken seriously. Successful prospecting and placer mining in 1894 brought a minor rush in the following two years; it is estimated that during the summer of 1896 about 2,500 men, and an additional few women, came to the arm. Logically, the prospecting spilled across into the north side of Turnagain Arm. There in 1895 Christopher Spillum, F.J. Perry, and Fred Crow, acting as partners, staked the first claims on California Creek.

California Creek was just one of a series of tributaries to Glacier Creek; Crow Creek whose headwaters are high in the Chugach near Raven Glacier proved to be the richest source of gold on the north side of Turnagain Arm. The first claims on Crow Creek are said to have been made in 1897. James E. Girdwood, for whom the town at the mouth of Glacier Creek is named, staked the claims on upper Crow Creek and ran one of two hydraulic mining operations in the early years.

The other operation, the subject of this nomination, was located just above the so-called "canyon" near the confluence of Crow Creek and Glacier Creek. In 1898, a geologist W.C. Mendenhall, who was part of the military exploration led by Captain Edwin F. Glenn, reported that mining on the creek was in its incipient stages. The early history of the claims and the buildings associated with them is not entirely clear; a group of eight partners, known in the valley as the "Crow Creek Boys" operated the hydraulic works in 1904. These "boys" probably included Andrew Nisbet, K.A. Schlifer, Paul Buckley, Dante Barton, W.C. Jack, George W. Davis, D.E. Oldham, Chris Spillum, S.W. Wimble, and G.W. Davies who owned the Pathfinder, Three C's and Weaver Claims of lower Crow Creek; they were stockholders in the Crow Creek Consolidated Mining Company which operated until 1906. The following year that company sold out to D.H. Nutter, C.M. Nutter, and R.B. Dawson; it was known as the Nutter-Dawson Company until 1912 when they incorporated (under the laws of the State of Washington) as the Crow Creek Gold Mining Company.

During the early 1900's it was the most productive camp of the Turnagain-Knik Region. The glacially deposited gravels were as much as 250 feet thick along the claims there, yet through the use of a diversion ditch, heady, pipe, and hydraulic giants, those gravels were excavated and sluiced for over 1,000 feet along the creek. The resulting gorge is still apparent today and scattered sections of pipe and other hydraulic equipment bear witness to the mammoth task. A U.S.G.S. bulletin of 1906 reported that over 200,000 yards of gravel had been removed that year alone. The gold-saving apparatus was a series of sluice boxes over 200 feet in length; each was over 5 feet and had spruce riffles which typically wore out in 3 months.

In the season of 1915, the operation was altered because of the danger of the diversion ditch spilling over to placer workings and because substantial gold-bearing deposits were located under the ditch and pipe. Thus a sawmill was built and a diversion flume of about 3,400 feet in length was constructed. The sluice line was 1,800 feet long then consisting of boxes five feet wide and four feet deep. Between 20 and 30 men were employed that season. They worked ten hours each day and were compensated between $105 and $120 each month (plus board).

In the 1920's the ownership again changed hands. In 1921 the Crow Creek Mining Co., represented by J.B. Wood, President, and D.H. Nutter, Secretary, transferred both real and personal property associated with the mine to Paul Denkert of Seattle, Washington. Personal property included a sawmill, giants and boxes, flumes, blacksmith shop, mess hall, and equipment, bunkhouse and furniture, one frame log warehouse, and related mining items.
From the precinct records it appears that Denkert was not actively involved in the mining himself. In 1922 Arne S. Erickson was hired to supervise the operations. His association with the mine continued into the 1970s. Erickson worked with John E. Holmgren who became the owner in 1925. During the early 1930's the claims were known as the Holmgren- Erickson property, operated through the Crow Creek Gold Mining Company. Erickson acquired the deed to the property in 1933 and continued to operate the mine until 1958 when labor costs almost equaled production costs. A record of the total production at the mine would be difficult, if not impossible, to establish; the Erickson's reported that about $40,000 worth of gold was an average take during the years in which they were associated with the mine. The mine was opened to the public in 1967 as one of the activities of the Alaska Purchase Centennial an example of a mining operation and its associated buildings where visitors could sluice and pan. That opportunity still is presented today through Barney Toohey and his family who reside in the manager's house and oversee the part-time and recreational mining on his claims.

Age, history, and exemplary mining buildings mark the significance of this property. In that the oldest buildings at the mine were built slightly before or around the turn of the century, they are among the earliest to be constructed in the Municipality and represent the first dwellings and outbuildings, associated with the American period of settlement in this political subdivision of Alaska.

(The Eklutna Village site and other native sites would obviously predate the mining activity discussed in this nomination).

The mine's buildings and its history, as described above are important, in offering to the residents and tourists a glimpse of what the mining era was like and what it had to do with the settlement of the State. The hydraulic operation at the Crow Creek Mine was reputed to be the largest of any placer operation in the region; the mining operation was described time after time in the U.S.G.S. bulletins as being the most extensive and productive mine.
The fact that the mine buildings are still standing is, in itself, incredible. This fact can be attributed to the continuous residency at the site. Very few other buildings are still around which hints at the chapters of mining history in the region. Old sites have typically been pilfered and vandalized. The Crow Creek Mining buildings are one of the most, if not the most, representative collection of mining buildings in the Turnagain-Kink Region.