A history of National Park Service clean-up efforts at the historic Coal Creek Mining District, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve
Allan C. 2015. A history of National Park Service clean-up efforts at the historic Coal Creek Mining District, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Natural Resource Report. NPS/YUCH/NRR—2015/1099. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Industrial placer gold mining is a messy business. To make it pay, miners turn the earth upside down by excavating the richest mineral-bearing gravels and casting away all but the dust, flakes and nuggets of gold. This operation requires not only men and machines but also chemicals, heavy metals, and large amounts of petroleum-based fuels and lubricants. And when the mining is done, these hazardous materials often remain. This was the situation in 1986 when Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve acquired a group of mining claims along Coal Creek, a tributary of the Yukon River roughly eighty miles from the U.S.-Canada boundary. Coal Creek is located in the heart of the preserve half way between the towns of Eagle and Circle, and it has a mining past stretching back to the Klondike-Alaska Gold Rush of 1897-1899. Dramatic reminders of that history are scattered across the land—a complete mining camp, large machines of various kinds, a historic roadhouse, and a magnificent pontoon-style bucket gold dredge. The value of the donation was unmistakable, but it came with hidden costs. Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve was created by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, and part of the reason for its creation was “to protect and interpret historical sites and events related to the gold rush on the Yukon River”[1]. In order to pursue this mission and to make use of the new property for other purposes, the National Park Service needed to address risks to human health and the environment posed by contamination from placer mining operations. The following is the story of gold mining at Coal Creek and the impressive campaign launched by park managers to make the Coal Creek watershed safe for use by the public and by National Park Service employees.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Allan, Chris
- Date of Issue
- 2015-12-22
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CAKN , NRSS , YUCH
- Keywords
- abandoned mining lands, environmental cleanup, gold mining, Hazardous Materials, Mercury, Remediation