See also Mastodon Creek, ARDF no. CI037, Independence Creek, ARDF no. CI029 and Miller Creek, ARDF no. CI039.
Location: The location is the approximate center of a broad placered area extending along the entire length of the creek from the confluence of Mastodon and Independence Creeks to Crooked Creek, a distance of about 4 miles.
Geology: Bedrock along Mammoth Creek is mainly quartzite schist and mica schist intruded by granitic bodies and cut by numerous quartz veins (Prindle, 1905; Mertie, 1938). About 12 feet of locally-derived gold-bearing gravel is overlain by 3 feet of overburden. Gold in upper valley is fairly coarse and light colored. Fineness is about 840, increasing downstream. The source of gold is believed to be quartz veins and mineralized zones in the bedrock (Mertie, 1938). Samples of granite talus contained allanite, galena, molybdenite, scheelite, iron sulfide minerals, garnet, topaz and hematitic copper carbonate minerals (Nelson and others, 1954). In 1906, a small steam shovel capable of handling 50 cubic yards of gravel per hour was installed on Mammoth Creek, and a 9.5 km long ditch was built in 1908 to bring water from Bonanza Creek for hydraulic mining. The largest hydraulic plant in the Circle district was used in mining the entire length of Mammoth Creek from Mastodon to Porcupine Creeks (Ellsworth, 1910; Ellsworth and Parker, 1911). In 1915 the Berry Dredging Company installed a dredge on the creek. It worked upstream along several parallel paths, was dismantled, carried downvalley, and reassembled several times during the following 35 years (Yeend, 1991). The main channel of the creek is completely mined (Menzie and others, 1983). In the 1980's, as many as four separate mining plants were operating along the creek in an attempt to clean the bedrock better than it had been by dredging, as well as to wash pockets of gravel left unmined along the channel margin. In addition, the thin mantle of colluvium on the channel sides yielded some gold following the stripping of the barren overlying ice-rich muck (Yeend, 1991). Gold was discovered on Mammoth Creek in 1894. Yields were 0.3 to 0.5 ounces of gold per man per day by the 'shoveling-in' method of mining (Dunham, 1898). The early miners recovered a few 3 and 4 ounce nuggets from gravel that yielded values of 0.1 to 0.15 ounces per cubic yard (Prindle, 1905). Detailed production records have not been published.
Workings: In 1906, a small steam shovel capable of handling 50 cubic yards of gravel per hour was installed on Mammoth Creek, and a 9.5 km long ditch was built in 1908 to bring water from Bonanza Creek for hydraulic mining. The largest hydraulic plant in the Circle district was used in mining the entire length of Mammoth Creek from Mastodon to Porcupine Creeks (Ellsworth, 1910; Ellsworth and Parker, 1911). In 1915 the Berry Dredging Company installed a dredge on the creek. It worked upstream along several parallel paths, was dismantled, carried downvalley, and reassembled several times during the following 35 years (Yeend, 1991). The main channel of the creek is completely mined (Menzie and others, 1983). In the 1980's, as many as four separate mining plants were operating along the creek in an attempt to clean the bedrock better than it had been by dredging, as well as to wash pockets of gravel left unmined along the channel margin. In addition, the thin mantle of colluvium on the channel sides yielded some gold following the stripping of the barren overlying ice-rich muck (Yeend, 1991).
Production: Gold was discovered on Mammoth Creek in 1894. Yields were 0.3 to 0.5 ounces of gold per man per day by the 'shoveling-in' method of mining (Dunham, 1898). The early miners recovered a few 3 and 4 ounce nuggets from gravel that yielded values of 0.1 to 0.15 ounces per cubic yard (Prindle, 1905). Detailed production records have not been published.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Cu, Mo, Pb, W
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer gold deposit (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.

Mineral List

4 valid minerals.