Jul 9

Written by:
7/9/2011 12:39 AM 

Greetings again from the Cripple River Gold Camp!

Summer is here again in far north Alaska and so are we. There is so much news to report I’m like a three headed chicken in a patch of spilled grain, I don’t know which area to start pecking at first.

Our gold camp has been undergoing a small growth spurt, with several new buildings being added, one in particular is slated to become a camp favorite! Located close to Chip’s chow hall (whose official name, of course, is the Grizzly Bear Chow Hall.) It’s a nice sized new gold concentrates cleanup room with lights and a stove which allows prospectors to run the Keene Gold Concentrators out of the sometimes cold wind, rain, and mosquito filled weather. The height of Cripple River luxury. It also includes a small lighted garnet table that will allow three garnet pickers to search for garnets at the same time. For those of you who have been here before, “no worry mates,” the large black panning tubs and the full sized white garnet table still hold center stage in the panning gardens.

There is a new shower replacing the broken one from last year, though how the older one got broke is still a matter of great debate. One unlikely theory is that a giant Brown Bear, that’s what Grizzlies are called here in Alaska, tried to hibernate in it last winter. No, that was the Chow Hall and it was a few years ago.

Next unlikely theory — a bunch of miners tried to see how many miners could fit in a shower, like college students trying to see how many people could fit into a phone booth. No again. Miners are hard working people and not subject to flights of fancy.

Unlikely theory No. 3 — Someone was showering and singing opera after the 10 p.m. time limit, the generator went off and so did the hot water. And, when the 38-degree ice cold water hit their hot soapy body, they hit a high note never before heard in camp, shattering the glass in the fiberglass shower. This was the winning theory!
However it was broken, we have a nice new shower, bringing the number in camp to back to seven. In addition to new buildings, several storage containers and buildings have had their insides remodeled and several of the older hooches whose floors and walls no longer joined up properly, letting daylight, cold air and rain enter at will, are now connected again. '

My hooch, one of the camps golden oldies, had a roller-coaster shaped floor built over a small lake. When I moved in 14 years ago, if you weren’t careful where you stepped, you had small indoor geyser to dodge. I repaired the large crack in the floor with lots and lots of duct tape and nailed plywood strips over it. Hey, it worked!

This year, the entire four couples hooch received a brand new floor. the walls were repaired, and the small lake underneath drained and filled with gravel. Sweet! Changes have been made to the common operation, the six-inch dredge and a huge highbanker are the common this year and all the gold recovered for the Friday night Gold Draw will be matched by the Alaska Exposition, so the more workers for the common operations, the more gold found and the bigger the split for the participants!

Storm damage this year wasn’t as bad as usual, but it still took a lot of work to repair the camp from the normal wear and tear of an Alaska winter, so our Early Crew again had their hands full with cleanup and repair. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to bring our camp out of its winter sleep, but every year our all volunteer crew is equal to the job. So, to those of you in Cripple River for the first time who are reading this, “Welcome to Cripple River!” For all of you, who have been here before, “Welcome Back to Cripple River!” And, to all those of you who have yet to come here to our camp, “We hope to be able to welcome you to Cripple River someday soon!”

Lisa Harmon of Temecula Calif. was looking for some old rusty iron to decorate her hooch with, when she found an Altoids tin wrapped in duct tape, dated 2009. One of Pirate Long Tom Silver’s (Massie) that is, the Pirate King of Cripple River, hidden treasures. For a few years, he has hidden small boxes packed with goodies around camp above or below ground for treasure hunters and metal detectors to search out and not all have been found, yet! Lucky Lisa’s box contained many cute items, including a dollar bill dated 2009, a G.I. Joe, a heart- shaped rock, two gold nuggets, one of which was also heart shaped, and other things. Lisa, who loves to find heart-shaped rocks, as well as other more unique shapes, was very pleased with her treasure box.

Al Marconi, our intrepid Camp Manager had the following to say about this coming summer at Cripple River: “This year should be a fun year at our camp. We have a good crew of hardworking and knowledgeable volunteers who are ready willing and able to share their expertise with you. The gold on the beach should be good to better than average, one beach miner found four small “beach nuggets” on his claim the first day! We also have a television crew in camp following people around, filming lots of people and activities, and “harassing” our prospectors in a very nice way. The GPAA television show, “The Alaskan”, is being filmed here — somewhere between 20-26 episodes — and the whole crew is here, not just the camera folk. So , if you are on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, avoid these people.”Al laughs! “All in all, if the weather co-operates it should be a great year!”

Fishing is just OK this week, with Dolly Varden, a trout that likes both salt and fresh water being the main fish caught. These large trout are real fighters and the size being caught are in the average range of 20-24 inch. Most are caught on spoons that look like small fish, as the Dolly likes to eat Salmon Smolt (one- year-old fish) as they head out into the Bering Sea to grow and mature. Cast out, then retrieve your lure in a pattern-like fleeing bait fish to get more strikes. The occasional Pink Salmon is also being caught, but the salmon run has not started here yet.

The weather here has been variable, half days of light rain half days of sunshine with temperatures of about 65 degrees, warm cloudy days, a few days of rain, some days hour to hour almost the weather has been very changeable. Early the other morning, we had a bank of heavy fog stray through the camp for a visit and stay for a couple of hours, giving about five or six feet visibility, making the entire area unrecognizable. Mother Nature, seeing her fog had strayed from the water, called it back and by six o’clock all was clear again. The Alaskan born person watches the weather and listens to reports about it on the radio like we do sports and soap opera’s in the lower 48. Up here, where the weather is made, they can and do have interesting weather patterns.

This year, again the Cripple River Gold Camp will show up en masse for the big Fourth of July Parade in Nome. The Shining White Giant GPAA trucks will carry people from the camp who will throw out candy in small baggies to kids of all ages in the watching crowd, and Mardi-Gras-style necklaces will be thrown to the crowd. ATVs will follow the trucks to show Nomeites that we do support their small town with our presence and to celebrate the greatest country in the world’s birthday!

GPAA Claims Outings & Expeditions Director Blake Harmon seems happy with the way camp has been started this year.

“Everyone has worked very hard to get the camp up and running and ready to greet our first participants when they get here. With our improvements to some of our new beach boxes, and our gold recovery equipment, Gold should be better than average this year. Our outlying camps also show good gold, so things look great for the year. The weather has been changeable, but that is Alaska. If you are willing to prospect a little and put in some work, the gold is here.”

Larry Mills from Soldotna, Alaska, on the Kenai River admitted this is the first summer vacation he has taken in 30 years! No wonder, at home he and wife run a fishing lodge! While he is here for a week this summer, his loving wife, Mary, is keeping everything running smoothly at home. He will share prospecting skills he learns here with her when he gets back. Mary and Larry joined the GPAA two years ago, then bought a metal detector in March of 2011, and went on a trip to California.

“When we bought a metal detector, Mary and I talked it over, whether to buy one or two detectors. We decided to get just one, because we both have weak shoulders, so we would use it in turn. Then Mary found some gold and I really never got to use it again!” Larry explained, with lots of heart-felt laughter.

“I really like being here; the only thing I miss is Mary and with her here, this place would be perfect. Next year, I plan to bring her with me, even though we can only get away for a week. She will love it here. When we sell out and retire, we will be able to stay the whole six weeks!”

Forget the gold. If we could bottle and sell what he and Mary have, we’d all be rich!

Frankie and her husband, Don Markham, are camp mini-celebrities, as they celebrated their sixty-first wedding anniversary yesterday, here at our camp! They are accompanied by their youngest granddaughter, Breana, who just turned 16 on Father’s Day.

When asked the secret to being happily married for so many years, Frankie said: “We jokingly tell all our family and friends that we agreed in the beginning the first one to call it quits had to take the five kids with them when they left!”

Yesterday the weather was perfect 80 degrees and sunny. The Bering Sea was a beautiful deep blue turning to light blue merging to green, and the waves were dancing friskily in the beach glass picking area of E. Beach. They would wash up to shore, break at the last minute, and reveal beach glass hidden under the sand. Timed just right, you collected treasures, timed wrong, or get lured in too far, and you collected a boot full of water! Safer to stay dry on the sandy shore, but not as exciting!

The rocks for the rock hounds were great, with many rocks with holes in them being found. Riding back from town the trip was almost perfect. The hot, salty air from the Shining Blue Jewel of the Bering Sea on my left, whispered in my ear, “Don’t go, stay and play awhile, it’s early yet.”

The warm flower and grass-laden air from the Jade Green and Chocolate Brown Tundra Steppes (the Bering Sea’s sister), whispered in my right ear, “Come and explore the beach. There are treasures to be found here”! Hearing their siren’s song, I wanted to stop so-oooo bad. But, I had things to do in camp.

“No, I can’t today!” I shouted. “Wait for me I’ll be back soon!”

And sadly, I rode on.

Well, I’ve got to get this to my editor and may get to go prospecting some. So, until next week, may your life and your pan turn golden!

— Your Friend, Arctic Annie