Jul 30

Written by:
7/30/2005 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! Our beautifully bright and sunny weather continues! Yesterday a small herd of Musk Ox (or oxen as both are said to be correct) heard from a traveling reindeer that we had the most tasty ‘ox food’ in all Alaska growing on the tundra covered hillside just across the river from the Cripple River Camp. Being Musk Ox with delicate palates they decided to check out our ‘Tundra Buffet’. Donna Fairless, our “animal finder extraordinaire” came to the chow hall just as the lunch bell was about to be rung, and alerted everyone that “The Musk Ox are here!” Now anyone who has ever eaten Chip’s food knows that it takes a powerful reason to miss or even delay a delicious meal, but the chow hall emptied out as everyone wanted to see one of these rare and unusual animals in person. With binoculars you could see every detail of these glorious and shaggy beasties left over from the distant past. The herd of four grazed peacefully as people admired them at length (from a safe distance) for quite a while. Then someone decided to get closer and rode an ATV towards the group. The Musk Ox, shy creatures that they are, left the area immediately--- going on to quieter if less succulent graze.

This year, as always, the summer is rushing by. It seems as though we just arrived here the day before yesterday (in reality over five weeks ago) and the day after tomorrow we will have to leave (really the end of the first week in August) to return to the ‘lower forty-eight’! You notice I didn’t say go back home. For many of us if home is where our heart is, our heart is in a little primitive gold camp where the Bering Sea meets and dances with the Cripple River, just outside of Nome Alaska. This exotic place seems to get into your blood.

There are many ways to prospect for gold, and I never stop being surprised at the ingenuity of our prospectors, and the more unusual “tricks of the trade”. One of these inventive people is Robert Wodal from Ridgefield Wa., who is enjoying his third trip to Cripple River this year! In 1998 he came to our camp for only one week. He said, “One week was just not enough time to check everything out, so I returned in 2004 for three weeks. This year I am here for two weeks. I like the gold camp, and I like the country. This is the only place in Alaska I have visited. In camp, all the crew is nice and friendly and very helpful. Except maybe for one or two, and I just avoid them! I do have one suggestion; the water in the panning tubs should be changed more often by the crew, rather than relying on us clients to do it. Many times we don’t know where to get the clean water from.” Robert joined the G.P.A.A. in 1993, as he wanted to learn to prospect and find gold after watching a T.V. show hosted by George (Buzzard) Massie. Now I noticed Robert prospecting with a machinist’s “Chip Brush” which to me looks just like a 2 inch paint brush made with boar bristles. According to Robert, this brush can be used to gently brush away the blonde sand in a mining area, or on the beach, without disturbing the black gold bearing sand underneath. This makes the black sand easier to collect and pan out. Here in camp, this inventive prospector has been brushing the fine material left over on the panning tables into his green gold pan, including brushing out the cracks in the wood, and panning this abandoned material out. He is doing very well. Robert admitted, “I am frequently more interested in the process than in just finding lots of gold.” I totally understand this, as I once crawled under a camp truck to check for gold in the sand left on the metal truck parts after the vehicle returned from a town trip!

Fishing continues to be very good, with Kenny Barber currently holding the unofficial camp record for the largest fish caught this year, at least up to now. He hooked and landed a 13 pound Silver Salmon last night. Now Kenny is an excellent angler, but he still had to play this fish for about twenty minutes before he landed it. Kenny fishes almost everyday, and is seen out in all kinds of weather with his rod and reel on his ATV, heading for the river. Now you don’t have to be an angler of the Perry Massie or Kenny Barber stature to catch nice fish here. One of the nice things about a good salmon run is even inexperienced or so-so fisher folk do well here!

NEWS FLASH: Last night Perry Massie went to visit Kenny at his favorite fishing hole. He was surprised to see a 30 pound King Salmon lying on the bank that Kenny had just landed! This is the first King Salmon caught by an Alaska Trip participant since the camp was founded in 1986. This fish was so large it bent the hook on Perry’s fish scale when it was weighed. While the Chinook King Salmon is known to favor the fishing flies called the Chartruese Everglow, the Fat Freddie, and the Green Screamer, Kenny hooked his “Moby Dick” salmon on fresh fish roe. A special ‘King Salmon Tag“ is required to keep these beautiful fish. The fishing continues to be good at the mouth of the Sinuk River, and again this week Perry Massie led an adventuresome group of ATVers on this fun trek. In addition to great fishing, one group of non-fishers on this trip went rock hunting down by the Bering Sea, in the surf. A nice piece of jade was found, as well as many great quartz rocks. This area has some of the most beautiful quartz for rock tumbling or even working on a ‘wheel’ to make cabochons for jewelry. These rocks have been tumbled by the sea, so the smoothing process has already been started for you by Mother Nature. Quartz comes in many varieties that are designated as gemstones, including amethyst, citrine, smoky quartz, which are not usually found here, but even milky, pink, or striped/banded quartz makes beautiful jewelry. Sam Rua, who teaches the Geology Class, told me that several nice pieces of Jade were found on the Sinuk trip this week.

John Hagen, our “Beach Master” reports that the gold on the beach continues to look very good, and that no one has said they are unhappy about the amount of gold they are finding. He also reports that several people are being just a little ’secretive’ about their gold, and he has noticed these same people are working long hours on their claim. Jon, a very experienced prospector, does have some pertinent advice. He recommends “Prospect all the areas on your claim, and do some test panning when you find the good black or ruby layers. The gold will vary greatly in different areas on your claim. Once you find the best area, set up your beach box there so you don’t have to carry the material very far.” And if you need any help or advice do not hesitate to ask your “Beach Master! He’s nice, he’s knowledgeable, and that’s what he’s there for! He won’t do it for you, but he will show you what to do.

Two trucks have just left our camp (as they do twice a week) on the Trommel Trip, full of people ready for a scenic ride down the beach, and then up the Teller Highway to the old road that leads to our trommel operation. While there, they will be able to run high bankers for part of the day looking for coarse gold, pickers, and even nuggets. They will also be able to see the trommel in action, metal detect if they bring their detectors, or play rock hound looking for specimens to take back home. This area is a good place to take pictures. Many times reindeer, moose, or musk ox can be seen on this trip. For people with rented ATV’s, there is also a weekly ATV trip to the trommel that winds along the Cripple River, before following Arctic Creek past the Dredge Camp and finally reaching the trommel. This ATV trip is normally led by Perry and Sandy Massie, and is a great chance to see some of the beautiful back country.

Occasionally I am asked a question often enough that I try to answer it here in the Chronicle, and today is one of those days. I have been asked the chronological order of when each of the camps here in Alaska was started by the Massies. So here goes---the first camp was started on the Casadepaga River in 1982. This was a dredge, high banker, and common operation camp, and was a camp for men only! Part of the road to this camp was made from railroad ties from the old Russian railroad bed. The Russians tried to cut a rail spur to go into the town of Council, but the tracks kept warping, buckling, and even sinking so eventually the project was abandoned. The railroad ties were then pried up and laid next to each other to build a road. Driving over this road was a real teeth chattering, bumpy experience. One old timer stated if you started on the road with fresh cream, it would be churned to butter by the time you got to camp! In about 1984 or 1985 the Monument Camp was opened to allow women members to come to a gold camp. Married couples and all women went to the Monument Camp, while single men, (or men not accompanied by their wives) went to the Casadepaga Camp. In 1986-1987 a dredge camp was started on Big Four Creek. The Cripple River Camp opened in 1986, and in an interesting aside, the entire main street here was built in only two weeks. In 1990 and 1991 a common operation was opened just across the river from this camp. The Ketchmark Camp was opened in 1992. There was an old abandoned cabin on the property left over from the late 1930’s-1940’s, which is still there, and several more cabins were built to keep this old timer company. Also in 1992, Jim Boatman then from Ventura Ca., now a resident of Nome built a cabin inside the old dredge at Creosis. Still standing today is the original two story leaning tower/building from the early 1900’s. The original Dredge Camp on lower Arctic Creek was built in 1992. Now the majority of people who work this eight inch common operation dredge are men, with both men and women acting as tenders, however there was a woman diver on this dredge for five years, until this year. The Stella Camp was built in 1994, where there was a lonesome old cabin waiting there to be rediscovered. There was a ‘wash plant’ at Stella, and Vanetta Arnold, our storekeeper, was the ONLY woman ever to work this wash plant, and she worked it for one full week. The Trommel Camp on upper Arctic Creek is the “baby of this family of camps” having been built in 1998. For the future, who knows? To fully cover the history of the Massies Alaska Experience would take a book, and not a small one, either!

This Wednesday we again enjoyed a dinner of fresh caught and cooked Alaskan King Crab. Those people who wanted to be ‘crabby’ tossed ten dollars apiece into a kitty to pay for this succulent meal. For those who are not crab aficionados, a great meal, cooked by Chip was available. Some people were seen eating both! You really work up and appetite prospecting and mining for gold.

Treasure hunting for Tom Massie’s treasure boxes continued this week, but the easy ones seem to have been found, leaving the challenging ones to be hunted.

Cripple River had its first ladies tea party hosted by Cindy Massie on Sunday. Two party crashers, (men in drag with fake boobs and wigs) were caught sneaking away after the festivities. Fred Buscher and John Risso were the gender confused individuals. Three types of tea was served by Tom Massie??? Yes, Tom Massie. Fresh veggies and a variety of cookies were also served.

This day is too gorgeous to sit here any longer, my fingers are a twitchin’ and my feet are itchin’ to go look for some gold! So until next time, may your life and the bottom of your gold pan turn golden!!!

Your friend Arctic Annie