Southeast Alaskans follow clues in forest

A century ago, gold fever rampaged across Alaska and miners could be found everywhere from the beaches of Nome to the mountains of Juneau. Today there's been another outbreak of the symptoms. Explorers' boots are again trudging through some of the most inaccessible parts of the state, following in the footsteps of their pioneer predecessors. One such location is Woewodski Island in southeast Alaska, where enterprising local people have teamed up to finance the search for valuable minerals.

Woewodski Island is a 45-minute boat ride from Wrangell, a town of about 2,300 located 155 miles south of Juneau. Wrangell itself was a chaotic mining community in the late 19th century, when prospectors swarmed through on their way to the Cassiar and the Klondike. This history is celebrated in the town's brand new museum, an essential stop for the cruise ship passengers who pour in every summer. Outside the museum, children sell chunky garnets that are embedded in pieces of rock like cherries in a cake. They bring these from the famous Garnet Ledge, which is owned by the Boy Scouts of the region. Only children are permitted to chip out the garnets without the payment of a fee.

On Woewodski Island itself, gold was found at the Hattie prospect in 1901. There was about 500 feet of underground workings at this prospect on the west side of the island, but it didn't prove economic to mine. At the Helen S prospect in the northwest, though, a company called Olympic Mining erected a 20 stamp mill and mined gold there from 1904 to 1915. Heavy piston-like vertical rods called "stamps" dropped repeatedly on the quartz ore, crushing it to powder. At least 650 feet of underground workings were driven on this property.

A group from the Alaska Miners Association visited Wrangell and Woewodski Island in August during their tour of mining properties in southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The host for this visit was Mark Robinson, a geologist who owns a shipyard in Wrangell. He led the group around the small exploration camp on Woewodski Island, which consists of a comfortable two-storey cabin and a core shack by the shore. The dense Tongass rainforest covers large parts of the island with western hemlock, Sitka spruce, yellow cedar and red cedar. Old mining equipment lies rusting in the forest, and a 100-foot shaft from the early 20th century is cordoned off by a rope.

Robinson is one of a handful of people with professional expertise who work at the property when they have the chance. The owner of the claims is a private company, Olympic Resources, which was formed in the mid-1990s and recently partnered with Vancouver-based junior Bravo Venture Group to advance the project. Residents of Wrangell and the nearby town of Petersburg invested in Olympic Resources: in the first year the price was set at 1,300 shares for $1,000, then 1,250 shares for $1,000, then 1,200 shares for $1,000. Many of these investors are elderly and can't assist physically with the exploration work, but extra hands are always needed.

Olympic Resources and Bravo are focusing much of their attention on the Mad Dog prospect, which is probably not a gold deposit but does contain "small, but world-class numbers" of lead and zinc, according to Robinson. There is also a possibility that gold could be found. "You don't want to make the mistake of saying this is a non-prospective area when you're just looking at the lead and zinc," Robinson said. The distinctive blue quartz veins in the south and west of the island are another tantalizing prospect, which do contain gold and resemble the vein deposits at Kensington, near Juneau, where an underground mine is currently being constructed.

By itself, Olympic Resources has already raised and spent about $1 million on Woewodski Island, and Robinson hopes that Bravo will find a major to provide further financial support. "The farther you go into these things, it really gets expensive," he said.