Kenai Fjords A Stern and Rock-Bound Coast: Historic Resource Study

Nuka Bay Mining Sites: Surprise and Quartz Bays

Sonny Fox Mine (Babcock and Downey Property)

The Sonny Fox Mine is located one mile upstream from the mouth of Babcock Creek. This creek flows into Palisade Lagoon, which is at the head of Surprise Bay, an eastern extension of Nuka Bay's West Arm. The mine was, by all accounts, one of the major mining properties along the Kenai Peninsula's southern coast. It produced gold on a commercial basis for more than ten years, longer than any other Nuka Bay property during the pre-World War II period.

Gold was apparently discovered at the site soon after Frank Steen awakened mining interest in the area with his June 1923 find. That September, the Seward Gateway reported on Tom Babcock's good fortune:

Tom Babcock, an old time Dawson and Willow Creek miner ... arrived today from Nuka Bay. Mr. Babcock prospected the country while at Nuka Bay, and found three claims on an opposite mountain, tracing the ore vein for 1200 feet.... [128]

Babcock did not immediately develop his prospect. By 1925, however, he had acquired two partners; one was David W. Downey, the other was his brother A. C. Downey, a Seward longshoreman. J. G. Shepard, who visited the Sonny Fox mining claim at the "Babcock and Downey Prospect" that September, noted that the partners had already roughed out a mile-long trail from the beach to their mining property. He also noted that they had "ordered an Ellis chili ball mill and a small aerial tramway for installation this fall." Shepard, however, was patently skeptical of the site's commercial viability; he noted that "it is extremely doubtful if ore of a sufficiently rich gold tenor will be found to make an installation of this sort profitable. Certainly at this time, the expenditure is not warranted." The partners, however, remained optimistic, and they hauled the mill to their claim that fall. By December 1925, they were "preparing everything so that in the spring, actual operations can commence." [129]

Despite the presence of milling equipment, the property produced no gold either in 1926 or 1927. But in 1928 production began, and a U.S. Geological Survey bulletin for that year declared that "in the Nuka Bay region, the greatest amount of gold was recovered from the Babcock & Downey property." (Until this time, the Alaska Hills Mine had been the only other commercial producer.) [130] During 1929 and 1930, Babcock and Downey's operation became even more important in the local area; it was Nuka Bay's only producing camp, owing to the snowslide that destroyed several buildings at the Alaska Hills site.

In May 1929, the local newspaper editorialized on the success of the Babcock and Downey "gold quartz mine;"

After three years of hard effort [the mine] made its first production last summer.... Further development has only gone to confirm the early judgment that it is the biggest gold strike in years.... Notwithstanding the fact that big balls of amalgam [of] almost solid gold weighing many pounds recovered from a little wornout mill testified to the phenomenal richness of the vein, the scoffers refused to believe, evidently on the theory that Babcock and Downey were modern alchemists and had made their gold out of some base metals they found out there.... This gives the direct lie to the wise-crackers who sneeringly declaim that Alaska is no longer the land of opportunity for the poor man.... In fact there is no portion of Alaska that holds forth greater promise right now to the prospector than Nuka Bay and its extensions. [131]

News from the site, now known as the Sonny Fox Mining Company, remained good during the first several months of the 1929 season. Except for a bad casting, which slowed mill production for a short time, good news poured forth. A June 14 article was particularly bullish; "It is estimated that the partners will take out at least $100,000 this season." A mid-July article noted that Tom Babcock had just brought between 20 and 30 pounds of gold bricks into Seward, and that "a few months ago a similar shipment was brought up from the camp." By this time, Babcock's sole partner was Dave Downey. (A. C. Downey had given up his interest in the operation back in October 1928.) The two owners hired an employee (Charles Skinner) to work at the mine site that summer. [132]

Based on the mine's optimistic prospects, Babcock and Downey petitioned the Alaska Road Commission for improved access to the mine. At the time, only a rough, one-mile trail connected the mine with Palisade Lagoon; over that trail, the partners had carried supplies to the mine, first on foot and later on horseback. Because the mine was now producing commercially, Tom Babcock hoped to obtain an improved trail and a 30- or 40-foot bridge, the cost of which would be approximately $1,500. Babcock also convinced the local chamber of commerce to intercede on his behalf. Philip Garges of the ARC, however, turned him down, noting that "I very much doubt if status of our funds will permit considering the project this season." The ARC, so far as is known, never helped improve this trail. [133]

For the next several years, the mine continued to be the area's top producer. At the close of the 1929 season, the U.S. Geological Survey noted that "the showings on this property continued to be very encouraging, and the plant was in operation from the later part of May to early in October." Up to that point, the ore had been tested in the Ellis ball mill, the tailings were concentrated, and the concentrates were shipped to a smelter in the States. But the amount of stoping ground that had been opened up was overtaxing the small capacity of the mill, and by mid-July the owners decided to purchase a 15-ton No. 1 Denver stamp mill. [134] In 1930, many improvements were added. Work that year consisted of the mill installation

and the construction of the necessary mill and compressor buildings, together with tram, dock, and other facilities required to aid production. At the mine about 1,000 feet of drifts and tunnels and 100 feet of raises have been driven. The ore is principally quartz, with sulphides, and the larger part of the gold is recovered by amalgamation. In addition to concentrates some crude ore is produced that is shipped directly to smelters in the States.

The installation of the new mill and the other construction work necessarily restricted production in 1930. The report noted, however, "from all accounts the conditions are favorable for a considerably greater production in 1931 if not subjected to interruptions." [135]

Mine operations in 1931, as predicted, were rosy. Although several Nuka Bay operations were active that year, it remained the region's biggest producer. The property that year consisted of six mining claims: Sonny Fox (the discovery claim) and Sonny Fox Numbers 1 through 5, inclusive. Earl Pilgrim, who visited the site that year, noted that on the Sonny Fox claim, a 60-foot tunnel and, 40 feet higher, a second 40-foot tunnel had been drilled. A raise had been excavated between the two tunnels, and a tramway (as noted above) delivered ore from these workings to an Ellis ball mill. The Sonny Fox vein had produced "a small production of gold." On the Sonny Fox No. 3 claim, 1,200 feet to the south, the owners had dug out a short tunnel, at an elevation of 206 feet, and several open cuts. Twenty feet to the south was a fourth tunnel, 60 feet long (and also at a 206-foot elevation); and south of that, on the Sonny Fox No. 4 claim, was the Lady Luck vein, which was "the most productive vein on the property" at that time. Initial operations on this claim had consisted of "an open-cut, 65 feet in length, from which several hundred tons of high-grade ore was extracted." Subsequently, a 100-foot tunnel was driven on the vein below the outcrop exposure at an elevation of 190 feet. The tunnel being worked in 1931 was driven at an elevation of 150 feet, just below the 100-foot tunnel; by July 1931, it was 230 feet long. An "800-foot surface tram, partly graded and partly on trestle work" connected the portal of the 230-foot tunnel to an ore bin at the head of a short two-bucket aerial tram. The aerial tram, after a 75-foot drop, carried the gold ore to the new (Denver) stamp mill, which was at an elevation of 35 feet. Other mill machinery included a Blake jaw crusher and a Wilfley concentrating table. The camp buildings, located adjacent to the stamp mill, included "a log mess-house, a log bunk-house, two tent-frame residences, and a log compressor-house and blacksmith-shop." The company that year had three owners: Thomas Babcock, D. W. Downey and Charles A. Tecklenberg, all of whom listed a Seward address. On August 1, 1931, the property had produced about 1,000 tons of ore; the value of that ore had averaged approximately $25 per ton. [136]

In spite of their operation's success, the owners recognized that the mill installed in 1930 made "no adequate provision ... to improve the milling technique to a point where the gold losses would be negligible." Furthermore, they knew that "the recovery of no more than 60 per cent [of the gold ore] is possible with this equipment." In 1931, therefore, Babcock left to purchase "complete cyaniding equipment." Such equipment, however, was never used at the mine site. [137]

The mine continued commercial production each year during the early and mid-1930s, and annual government reports consistently described the site as one of the "principal producing mines in the Nuka Bay district." Local sources buttressed those statements; an April 1935 newspaper article, for example, stated that development work had been going on all winter, that mill operations were set to begin, and that a "big season" was in the offing. [138]

In 1936, geologist Stephen Capps visited the property and found that both the camp and the tramway system had changed little since Pilgrim had been there five years earlier. He noted that the present workings, which were at the same site as in 1931, "are on a vein which crops out near the camp and on which more than 800 feet of drifts have been driven on two levels, in addition to raises and stopes." Capps, clearly impressed by what he saw, said that

free gold is ... present, often in coarse particles abundantly visible to the naked eye. This mine has yielded remarkable rich specimens, assays having shown a gold content of many thousand dollars to the ton and one shipment of 5 tons to the smelter having yielded a net return to the owners of $530 a ton. [139]

The mine, with its relatively long production history, is one of the few in the district in which details of the area's social history are known. Nuka Island residents Pete and Josephine Sather, for example, liked to stop by. As Josephine recalled several years later,

Pete would often take me with him to visit Mrs. Downey, who for years was the only woman besides myself in Nuka Bay, and whose husband and his partner, Tom Babcock, owned several claims.... Tom Babcock would take me up to the tunnel and pan gold for me, while Pete sat visiting with the Downeys and drinking coffee. Every pan Tom brought out of that tunnel had gold in it. [140]

Bad news came out of the mine, too. In April 1932, Dave Downey was seriously injured when his left hand was caught in a compressor. Ray Russell, who was working with him, turned off the machine in time to save his life. [141]

During the mid-to-late 1930s, the Sonny Fox Mining Company and the Nukalaska Mining Company were the only two consistent producers in Nuka Bay. To judge by crew size, the Nukalaska was a far larger operation; while Nukalaska's crew during the 1934-1938 period ranged from 12 to as many as 20, Sonny Fox's crew during the same period ranged from 2 to 4. [142]

In 1939, the mine remained active; a report that year noted that the Sonny Fox was one of three Nuka Bay mines where "more than casual prospecting" took place. In 1940, a site visitor noted that "Babcock and Downey have been developing and milling a small amount of ore with no men hired." A year later, Babcock reported that the property "had been inactive all season." Rumors flew that "further development [was] to be continued this fall and winter," but other events–perhaps the beginning of World War II–intervened, and before long Babcock and Downey abandoned their claims. [143] By the time it ceased operation, the property had been commercially active for 13 years, from 1928 to 1940 inclusive. During that time, it produced an estimated $70,000 in gold. Both the length of operation and the level of commercial output were greater than for any other Nuka Bay property.

The property remained idle until July 1951, when Wyman Anderson and B. C. Rick relocated the site, calling it the Surprise Mine. Soon afterward, they transferred their interest in the mine to the Alaska Exploration and Development Corporation. The company held the ground, apparently without developing it, until August 1953, when a territorial mining engineer evaluated the property's mineralization potential. The engineer noted that minerals were limited to pyrite and arsenopyrite; at no point was either free gold or gold ore encountered. Perhaps on the basis of that report, the company abandoned the property. [144]

When geologist Donald Richter visited the property in 1967, the condition of the mine, mill and camp had significantly deteriorated. He noted that only the northernmost quarter-mile of the route connecting the camp to Palisade Lagoon was "a well graded trail;" the remainder was "no longer discernible." The rock and wood trestle connecting the mine entrance with the mill was still in evidence, but the mill was "almost completely ruined." Most of the camp buildings were "still standing and serviceable," but the "lower adit, or main working tunnel" was caved and thus inaccessible. Richter, as part of his survey, sampled the sediments of nearby Babcock Creek and noted that the results "suggest the presence of additional gold-bearing veins in the drainage area." [145]

Perhaps in response to Richter's visit, Leroy Hollman of Seward and William Bern of Wooster, Ohio, recorded the Surprise Bay No. 1 through No. 5 claims on August 23, 1968. The partners [146] do not appear to have carried on active development work. They retained their interest in the property at least until 1976; an assessment that year stated that past production had amounted to "1,500 tons averaged 1 to 2 ounces of gold per ton." The existing physical plant, however, was limited to a "one room cabin in poor to fair shape." (This appears to have been the only standing building. The "old mill building" was collapsed, and both of the tunnel portals were partially caved.) The value of the physical plant was assessed at $1,000; the value of onsite minerals, judged to be primarily from mill tailings, was assessed at $5,250. [147]

In 1979, claim holder Julie Bern Hightower leased the five claims to John Kinney and Jock Coglan. The following year, the pair cleared brush from the tailings piles, re-opened the portals, and tested the tailings and loose materials found underground. Kinney apparently found prospects encouraging; in 1981, he acquired a full interest in the property from Hightower, Don Coisman, and Leroy Hollman. [148]

Kinney held the unpatented claim for more than 15 years. In 1983, archeologist Harvey Shields visited the site and noted that the "Surprise Bay Mine" was an active concern where "present activity is focused on the reworking of the tailings from previous operations...." Shields found that there were "several buildings making up the [camp] complex, including a standing bunkhouse and cookhouse as well as a collapsed shed or garage." He also found a sizable collection of mining tools and equipment. Kinney, however, had "gone through" many of the artifacts, and because of his "well intentioned collecting," Shields observed that "archeologically, this site's worth has been severely diminished." Bill Brown, who accompanied Shields to the site, came away with a more positive impression; he noted that "the area is rich in mining machinery and artifacts dating mainly from the 1930s and 1940s." He too recognized that "most of the artifacts have been moved, reused, etc., to the point where they have no scientific value." He did, however, note that the artifacts had "atmospheric value" and that Kinney's "opportunism in using old items in the modern mining site is one of the strongest historic values at the site." [149] Kinney held the claim until the mid-1990s, when the NPS acquired it.

In 1989, a team of NPS personnel working for the Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program visited the site. The writeup that followed that visit stated that the site was potentially eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. A year later, staff prepared a Determination of Eligibility report for the site and again recommended the site's National Register eligibility. The NPS forwarded the report to Alaska's State Historic Preservation Office. On April 24, 1991, the head of that office, Judy Bittner, wrote the NPS and stated, "We concur that [this site is] eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under the stated criteria." [150]

Skinner Prospect #1

This property is located in a small cove on the east side of Surprise Bay, approximately one mile south of the narrows at the entrance to Palisade Lagoon. Little is known about the prospect, and some of the available information is contradictory.

In 1931, when engineer Earl Pilgrim visited the various Nuka Bay properties, he noted the Frank Skinner Property. Here, at an elevation of "a few feet above high-tide level, a tunnel has been driven on the [graywacke and quartz] vein for a distance of 42 feet." Pilgrim made no mention of how old the tunnel was or if it was currently active. He visited the site but did not sample the ore; he was informed, however, "that assays of two samples of the vein taken by others showed values in gold of $38.90 and $18 per ton, respectively." Those values, at that time, appeared to justify further development work. [151]

The following year, the Chamber of Commerce listed and mapped the site as an active prospect; the claimant, however, was labeled as Gaylord (not Frank) Skinner. Nothing more surfaces in the literature about Frank Skinner; the following year, however, the local newspaper described "Gaylorde Skinner" as a "Nuka Bay quartz operator." (As if to lend authenticity to this claim, a 1928 article in the Seward newspaper noted that "G. R. Skinner" had been prospecting in the area for the past three years and had recently found a purported platinum deposit.) By the mid-1930s, Skinner had lost interest in the site and was instead developing a new property (probably the old Lang Prospect) on the western side of West Arm (see below). [152]

The property lay idle until 1966 when three men from Seward, with the surnames of Madison, Quackenbush, and Suddath, relocated the property and called it the Tidewater claim. A year later, Richter visited the site and found that the trio had left the site untouched. The site, however, had severely deteriorated; slumping of the cliff at the adit's portal had shortened the tunnel by 17 feet, and the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 had lowered the local topography to the point where the adit was almost completely flooded during high tides. [153]

The three Sewardites soon abandoned the property, and in May 1969 three others–J. L. Young, V. J. Wright, and Ray Wells–established the Sheri No. 1 through No. 3 claims. They, however, made no improvements to the property, and abandoned it after 1971. A 1976 assessment of the site showed that neither a mill nor camp was located anywhere in the vicinity; furthermore, there was "nothing of economic interest evident on these claims." The site was not claimed again. The NPS did not visit the site as part of its Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program work, and no attempt has been made to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places.

Johnston and Deegan Property

As historian Mary Barry has noted, Fred Johnston was a Seward pioneer, having arrived in town with his family in 1904. In 1916, he began working as a fireman for the Alaska Engineering Commission, which at that time was building the railroad from Anchorage to Fairbanks. By 1925 he was an engineer, and he continued to work on the Alaska Railroad until his death in 1932. [154]

In addition to his railroad duties, Johnston worked with a partner, Mike Deegan, in developing a Nuka Bay mining property. The pair may have begun their partnership as early as 1925; a newspaper article that fall referred to Johnston as a "Nuka Bay mining man." Though no corroborating evidence has surfaced, it appears likely that by the fall of 1925, the pair had begun to develop a claim on the ridge between Quartz and Surprise bays. In June 1927, a local newspaper article noted that the two men, along with several others, were getting ready to go to Nuka Bay to "carry on development work on their various properties." [155]

The first known description of the partners' claims appeared after engineer Earl Pilgrim's 1931 visit. Pilgrim noted that the pair had five claims that were situated on either side of the ridge top. The Grubstake No. 1 and No. 2 and Lost Bay claims were on the Quartz Bay side of the ridge, while the Grubstake Extension No. 1 and No. 2 claims were "on the ridge directly above the narrows that connect the head of Surprise Bay with Palisade Lagoon." Development work, by that time, included a number of shallow surface trenches, which were probably located on the Grubstake Extension claims. The pair also built a cabin at the northeastern end of Quartz Bay and roughed out several trails that connected the cabin to the various quartz veins on their property. Pilgrim's report suggests, however, that the site was idle at the time of his visit. [156]

That October, Johnston had a fall, and in January 1932 he died from his wounds. Deegan, however, retained an interest in the property until 1936, when the property was incorporated into the Sonny Fox holdings, two miles to the northeast. A geologist who visited the area that year noted that "no recent work of note" had taken place at the Johnston and Deegan claims. [157] These claims, along with the Sonny Fox holdings, were probably abandoned in the early 1940s.

Little is known about the property's current status. It does not appear to have been reclaimed by latter-day prospectors. Donald Richter, who visited the area in 1967, was unable to find the decades-old trenches (he suggested that they were covered with either slide debris or snow) and did not describe the condition of the Quartz Bay cabin. [158] The NPS's Mining Inventory and Monitoring team did not visit the site of either the trenches or cabin, and it therefore made no attempt to nominate the property to the National Register of Historic Places.

A U.S. Geological Survey quadrangle, published in 1953, identified a cabin at the northwestern end of Surprise Bay; more specifically, it was located just southwest of the narrows and at the base of a likely access route to the Johnston and Deegan claims. (This cabin is just one-quarter mile southeast of the claims, while the Quartz Bay cabin is a mile or more west of them.) The source for the cabin's existence appears to have been a 1951 aerial photograph. Although the cabin is not known to have been related to the Johnston and Deegan operation, it was probably constructed after the Sonny Fox interests claimed the property in 1936, and the cabin was probably used in that context. The cabin no longer exists; either the 1964 earthquake or an avalanche destroyed it. [159]

Goyne Prospect (Golden Horn Prospect)

The Charles Goyne prospect is located on the west side of Surprise Bay, one-half mile south of the narrows that separate the bay from Palisade Lagoon. Over the years, several people have attempted to develop the site. Charles H. Goyne, the initial site claimant, moved to Alaska in 1906, apparently from Pennsylvania. Shortly after World War I, he and his brother Frank moved to Seward. Before long he became interested in Nuka Bay's mining possibilities, and in 1929 he located and staked his first claim at the site. [160] By 1931, Goyne apparently had two claims, the Surprise and the Bear, which extended "from the shore of Surprise Bay up the mountain-side to an elevation of approximately 1,000 feet." A year later, however, Robert Heath stated that Goyne had a "group of three contiguous unpatented lode claims" which started "at the beach line and continue[d] up the hill in a westerly direction for three thousand feet," where it joined with the Johnston-Deegan claims. [161]

Regardless of the actual number or configuration of Goyne's claims, development activity was focused on the Surprise claim, near tidewater, where the principal vein exposures were located. By the summer of 1931, Goyne had dug out a 51-foot tunnel at an elevation of 150 feet; earlier that year, he had taken 6,710 pounds of the extracted ore to a Tacoma smelter. (The ore yielded 4.1 ounces of gold and 1.7 ounces of silver, and Goyne received about $80 for his efforts.) By early 1932, Goyne had dug a few shallow pits just 20 feet south of the tunnel, and by the end of the 1932 season, he had apparently extended his tunnel another 100 feet. He had a cabin at the site, which may have been built as early as 1929. In the spring of 1932, he was living alone at the cabin. [162]

Later in 1932, Peter M. Ogle, a Seward garage owner, and William Patterson obtained an option on Goyne's property, and the partners spent the next two years working there. Various news articles during the period detailed their comings and goings; at one point, Ogle's wife and her niece visited the property for several days. [163] The partner's efforts were centered on digging out a second, lower tunnel, just 30 feet above sea level, and by 1934 the tunnel was 300 feet long. During the winter of 1934, the pair shipped 35 tons of ore to the Tacoma smelter. The results of that shipment, however, were disappointing, and the partners allowed their option to lapse. Stephen Capps, who visited the property in 1936, philosophically noted that

There can be no doubt that ore having a high gold content occurs on this property, but the developments so far made have not yet demonstrated the presence of an ore body of sufficient size to justify the installation of milling equipment with the assurance that a continuous supply of profitable ore can be obtained. [164]

Despite that glum assessment, Goyne apparently returned to the property sometime after 1936. He now had four claims: Surprise, Bear, Surprise Extension, and Bear Extension. By 1940 he was again "working alone developing on his property at Surprise Bay." A year later, perhaps as a result of a financial infusion from outside investors, he was calling his claims the Golden Horn prospect. He spent the year "engaged in driving the lower tunnel by hand mining," and by late July of 1941 the tunnel was 514 feet long. [165] But the coming of World War II forced Goyne to stop his prospecting. He returned to Seward and worked as a longshoreman until his retirement in 1953. He then returned to Pennsylvania. [166]

After the war, the Golden Horn group of investors may have made another attempt to work the deposit. They were, however, unsuccessful. [167] No further work has been performed at the site. Altogether, the prospect had more than 650 feet of underground workings from two tunnels, and there were also "numerous small open-cuts extend[ing] up the slope above the upper tunnel to an elevation of 570 feet." Despite all that activity, however, no mill was ever built, and less than $300 in gold ore appears to have extracted from the property [168].

The site, predictably, has significantly deteriorated in recent years. When Donald Richter visited in 1967, he noted the presence of two adits: the vein in the lower adit was just 100 feet long, and in the upper one it was just 70 feet long. All that remained of the campsite area was "a wave-demolished cabin on a small slate-pebble beach, about 300 feet north of a still-conspicuous tailings dump," the latter located at the lower tunnel entrance. [169]

In August 1968, Henry Waterfield of Anchorage renewed interest in the property when he established the Surprise Bay No. 1 claim at the site. Soon afterward, he installed an air compressor on the beach, and using a 1_ inch compressed air line he did some shallow trenching on a quartz vein located 500 feet above sea level. George Moerlein, who assessed the property in July 1976, estimated that 100 to 200 tons of ore, containing 2 to 4 ounces of gold per ton, might exist between the upper and lower tunnel levels. Based on that estimate, he estimated that the property, exclusive of physical improvements, was worth $7,000. [170]

In late June 1983, NPS historian Bill Brown visited the property. He noted that "some artifacts and old narrow-gauge ore-car rails make the mine reasonably interesting, but it is not a significant site." (Waterfield probably obtained the ore-car rails from the nearby Sonny Fox Mine.) Brown recommended that the agency make no effort to preserve onsite artifacts. [171]

In 1986, a team from the NPS's Mining and Minerals Branch in Anchorage visited and mapped the site. They noted two adits with adjacent tailings piles, a gravel road connecting the upper adit with the beach, an ore bin and adjacent crusher, a covered equipment/storage building, a recently constructed cookhouse/bunkhouse and adjacent fuel storage location, an old bunkhouse and cabin remnants.

Six years later, members of NPS's Mining Inventory and Monitoring Program visited the site and made a detailed description of the mine and camp. The inventory form that resulted from the visit showed several new site features, at least some of which appear to have been borrowed from other Nuka Bay mine sites. The form stated that the site

consists of an amalgamation of features and structures dating from the 1930s through to the present. Features dating from the 1930s operations include: cabin remnants; upper adit; equipment scatter and aerial tramway. All that remains of the wave demolished cabin are sill logs adjacent to the slate pebble beach. Recent structures and features dating from the 1950s to the present include: screening and concentrating machinery; collapsed rib frame structure; explosives box; plywood bunkhouse; smaller plywood shed and compressor. The site is in fair to poor condition and deteriorating rapidly.

Throughout this period, Henry Waterfield claimed the property, but after his death in the mid-1990s, his claim was relinquished to Tom DeMachele. [172]