Happy Creek Mine, Fairbanks Mining District, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, USA i
Regional Level Types
Happy Creek Mine Mine
Fairbanks Mining District Mining District
Fairbanks North Star Borough Borough
Alaska State
USA Country

Location: Happy Creek has been placer mined in its headwaters in the SW1/4NW1/4 sec. 28, T. 1 N., R. 2 W., Fairbanks Meridian. The mine is locality 48 of Cobb (1972 [MF 410]).
Geology: Gold placers were mined from 1913 to 1916 and from 1938 to 1940 (Cobb, 1976 [OFR 76-662, p. 44]). Some mineable ground was found as deep as 140 feet (Smith, 1917 [BMB 142 and B 153]). The gold varied from 820 to 825 fine (Glover, 1950).
Workings: Gold placers were mined from 1913 to 1916 and from 1938 to 1940 (Cobb, 1976 [OFR 76-662, p. 44]).
Age: Quaternary placer.
Production: There is no record of the amount of gold produced from mining that took place from 1913 to 1916 and from 1938 to 1940 (Cobb, 1976 [OFR 76-662, p. 44]).

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

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

ⓘ Gold

Mineral List

ⓘ Native Gold

1 valid mineral.

Detailed Mineral List:

ⓘ Native Gold

Formula: Au

References:

(2008) Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) Open-File Report 2008-1225. US Geological Survey

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 1 - Elements
ⓘ	Native Gold	1.AA.05	Au

List of minerals for each chemical element

Au	Gold
Au	ⓘ Native Gold	Au

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	FB055

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

North AmericaContinent

North America PlateTectonic Plate

North America PlatformPassive Margin
Yukon-Tanana lower DomainDomain

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

Brooks, A.H., 1914, Mineral resources of Alaska; report on progress of investigations in 1913: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592, 413 p. Brooks, A.H., 1916, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1915: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 642, 279 p. Chapin, Theodore, 1914, Placer mining in the Yukon-Tanana region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592-J, p. 357-362. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Fairbanks quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-410, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Fairbanks quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-662, 174 p. Eakin, H M., 1915, Mining in the Fairbanks district: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 622-G, p. 229-238. Glover, A.E., 1950, Placer gold fineness: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 195-1, 38 p. Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1938: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 917-A, p. 1-113. Smith, P.S., 1941, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1939: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 926-A, p. 1-106. Smith, P.S., 1942, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1940: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 933-A, p. 1-102. Smith, S.S., 1917, The mining industry in the Territory of Alaska during the calendar year 1916: U.S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin 153, 89 p. Wimmler, N.L., 1926, Elmes Gold Mining Company (Happy Creek): Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Prospect Evaluation 58-2, 5 p.

Quick NavTop Commodities Mineral List Other Databases Other Regions References

Mindat.org® is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Mindat® and mindat.org® are registered trademarks of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2026, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau.
Content on this site may not be used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine learning models without prior written permission - see our Terms & Conditions.
To cite: Ralph, J., Von Bargen, D., Martynov, P., Zhang, J., Que, X., Prabhu, A., Morrison, S. M., Li, W., Chen, W., & Ma, X. (2025). Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research. American Mineralogist, 110(6), 833–844. doi:10.2138/am-2024-9486.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: October 22, 2026 02:04:19 Page updated: August 8, 2025 15:03:07

Go to top of page