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Chandalar, Alaska
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Project History |
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| 1902: |
Discovery of placer gold in Wiseman area, 60 miles west of Chandalar Lake starting a small gold rush to the Chandalar district, Alaska. |
| 1905: |
Frank Yasuda, Nevelo Yasuda, Charles McNett, James Minano, and Thomas Carter stake Discovery Claim on Little Squaw Creek, Chandalar district, Alaska. |
| 1906: |
Gold placers discovered on Big Creek and St. Mary's Creek, Chandalar district. Approximately 100 miners are working in Chandalar area. |
| 1909: |
Four gold veins are discovered, reportedly the sources of the placer gold. A small stamp mill is shipped into the area to test ore from the Little Squaw Lode and other lode claims. |
| 1909-1941: |
William Sulzer, former governor of New York, acquired the majority of the most promising prospects in the area. He financed exploration and development through his company, Chandalar Mines Company and later, as the major shareholder of Chandalar Gold Mines, Inc. when the two Chandalar companies merged in 1926. |
| 1916: |
Most of the shallow placers are playing out so miners shift their interest to the placer drift mines (underground operations). The most notable of these is the Little Squaw Bench, including the Mellow Bench. Approximately 29,000 ounces of gold were recovered averaging 1.0 oz/cubic yard of gold in the gravels with spikes of up to 4.6 oz/cubic yard. Some individual nuggets were over 10 ounces. |
| 1920s: |
Drift mining continues in the Chandalar district. |
| 1937-1939: |
William Sulzer acquired federal mineral patents for the principle discovery claims and a series of reports were produced to prepare the properties for production. However, no mining and few exploration activities occurred. |
| 1930s: |
Chandalar district mining diminishes as the remaining pay zones are either deep or lower grade, or in many cases, no longer frozen (necessary for drift mining). |
| 1946: |
Eskil Anderson acquired the interests in the Chandalar district from Sulzer's estate. |
| 1954-1955: |
Hugh Matheson, Jr. of Chandalar Mining Company began mining on Big Creek. |
| 1959: |
Little Squaw Mining Company (LSMC) was incorporated in Alaska. |
| 1960: |
Ellis Anderson (no relation to Eskil Anderson) first mines the Tobin Creek gold-bearing bench. He employs hand mining methods. Frank Birch acquired the Tobin Creek placer mine and expanded it while also commencing development on the Mikado Lode. |
| 1967: |
LSGMC issued a lease to Chandalar Gold Mining and Milling Co. Led by Frank Birch, Chandalar Gold Mining and Milling was consolidating mining claims in the district. |
| 1968: |
LSMC changed its name to Little Squaw Gold Mining Company (LSGMC). |
| 1970: |
LSGMC listed for trading on the Spokane Stock Exchange. Frank Birch constructed a 100 ton-per-day mill for the Mikado Lode, to be mined under lease from LSGMC. |
| 1971: |
Frank Birch killed in an airplane crash at Tobin Creek. His company's assets were acquired by LSGMC. |
| 1972: |
LSGMC merged with Chandalar Gold Mines. |
| 1980s-1990s: |
Spokane Stock Exchange closed and LSGMC transferred to trade on the NASDAQ-OTCBB trading under the symbol LITS. A succession of companies leased the Chandalar properties from LSGMC including Canalaska Placer Inc., Whelan Mining & Exploration, Jan Drew Holdings, Ltd., Canadian Barranca, Gold Dust Mines, Marmac Alaska Mines, Ltd. , Noranda Mining Corporation, Callahan Mining Company, Mikado Gold Mines, Inc., and Chandalar Development Corporation (CDC). |
| 1980-1983: |
CDC recovered 8,169 ounces of gold from the Mikado and Summit mines. |
| 1984: |
LSGMC won back their leases from CDC in litigation. |
| 1988: |
LSGMC hired professional mining engineer Edward Odin Strandberg, Jr. to prepare a comprehensive report on the Chandalar district, finished in 1990. |
| 1989-2003: |
LSGMC offered leases to various parties but no significant development ever occurred because of low gold prices. |
| 2003: |
New LSGMC management was installed, a new board of directors was named and the elimination of 1/3 of a million dollars in debt brought new life to the company. The new management are seasoned professionals with a broad range of modern technical and financial skills and capabilities. |
| 2005 |
First-ever successful public fi nancing completed and a new era of exploration starts, with good drilling results in 2006. |
| 2007 |
The State of Alaska establishes a public highway right-of-way from the Dalton Highway to Chandalar, and an expanded exploration drilling program begins. |
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Frank Yasuda (left) and Tom Carter formed a partnership at the Point Barrow, Alaska trading post in 1902 to look for gold in the Brooks Range. Photo circa 1910. |
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The crew of Chandalar mining camp. This photo was taken by Samuel Marsh, a mining engineer who did a year long examination of the Chandalar mining claims and quartz veins. He produced the first technical report about the property, and he recommended to a consortium of New York investors the purchase of the claims. Photo taken in 1908. |
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An unknown prospector standing next to an ore pile the mined from the Little Squaw vein. Photo by Samuel Marsh Photo taken in 1909.
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Frank Yasuda (left) and Amero, a placer miner, at the Big Creek camp, Chandalar. Mr. Yasuda was 80 years old at the time and this was his last trip to Chandalar. Frank Yasuda was a generous person, always helping those in need. He saved more than 200 in Point Barrow from starving in 1903 by leading them on an epic, 800 mile two-year long journey across the Brooks Range to resettled them in beaver, Alaska, a town he started for specifically that purpose. Photo taken in 1948. |
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Frank and Nevelo Yasuda at their trading post in Beaver Alaska. Nevelo was the first to discover gold at Chandalar. She had a baby strapped on her back; hence the name Little Squaw arose. Frank Yasuda died on January 12, 1958, ending his spectacular life of ninety years. The Alaska Legislature officially honored him by a document “In Memoriam” in 1968. Photo taken in 1955. |
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This cabin was built on Little Squaw Creek around the turn of the century. It was a bunk house and cook hall for the prospectors and miners of the Chandalar district. Photo circa 1975.
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Remains of an old mining camp on Little Squaw Creek. This is a food cache built to protect supplies from bears. The spectacular fireweed in the foreground was the favorite feed of the workhorses. Photo taken 1982. |
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These are the remains of a three stamp mill that operated largely as a test mill in 1916. It is located on the five acre patented mill site Little Squaw Gold Mining Company owns in lower Little Squaw Creek. Photo taken 1960. |
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This is the boiler and hoist house for the Carlson - Buckley shaft digging operation carried out in 1934. It was the first steam power attempt in the district, and was successful in driving the shaft to bedrock at 163 feet depth. Photo taken 2004. |
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This is the Toussaint mill on upper Big Creek in the Chandalar district. The mill operated briefly during the late 1950's processing high-grade quartz ores from the Star quartz veins. There are no production records. The mill is in ruins today, with only the big iron crusher left. Photo taken in 1958. |
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This is Ellis Anderson, one of the pioneers of the Chandalar district. He is a placer miner who lived and mined on Tobin Creek for many years. He hand dug shafts like the one behind him to depths of up to 50 feet to test for gold in the gravel alluvium. Photo taken in 1961. |
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Mr. Eskil Anderson observes an old fenced graveyard where several pioneer miners of the Chandalar district were laid to rest.
Photo taken in 1960. |
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This is Frank Birch, a mining engineer who leased the Mikado mine from Little Squaw Gold Mining Company in 1967. He is shown here with two pans of gold recovered from operations on Tobin creek in 1965. Both pans contain nugget gold, but the pan behind holds the more coarse faction of the gold. Mr. Birch did detailed ore reserve calculations and economic studies on the Mikado quartz lode. He figured that nearly 40,000 of two ounces per ton gold was mineable at a profit. He constructed a 100 ton per day mill on Tobin Creek in 1970. At the time, that represented an approximately $2,000,000 investment. Photo taken in 1965.
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Unfortunately, Frank Birch was also an amateur pilot. He died in this plane crash on the Tobin Creek airstrip in September, 1972. He never saw his mill reach full production capacity. His untimely death was a great set back in the development of the Chandalar district. |
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One hazard of living in the Chandalar district is the constant threat of being attacked by grizzly bears. In this case the powerful bear ripped right through a trailer where the camp superintendent lived. Fortunately, no one was in the trailer at the time. It was also an unfortunate incident for the bear.
Photo taken in Sept. 1972. |
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