Aug 8

Written by: alaska
8/8/2008 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! Our final week of 2008 is upon us, and the most unusual summer in ten years is almost over, leaving many of us here sad about leaving our summer home.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about our great gold camp and some of the people who make it work so well. I am often asked by participant prospectors why some people in camp have yellow badges, while they have black and white badges. I answer yellow badges mean the person is a crew member. As sure as darkness follows day, except during the summer in Alaska they ask, what does the crew do? Almost anything and everything that needs doing in camp! I’ll try to list the crew work areas in random order, and while the list of the jobs they do is far from complete, (I’d need to write a book to cover everything we do) I only hit the high spots. In Random Order:

The people who work as The Supply Crew spend their time busily issuing out gold pans, buckets, shovels, hand sluices, or whatever it is they have that the prospector or crew member needs to get the gold. And when asked darned good advice. The ATV Repair Shop Crew, was kept busy this year with oils changes, repairs and such, as well as normal maintenance, flat repair, you name it. We modern day prospectors really depend on our “mechanical burros” these days, and the “burros” are only as god as their vets! The Truck Repair Shop Crew has been doing a “land office business” keeping our giant trucks repaired as the beach road was the worst it has been in years with holes, driftwood, and rocks, and our trucks took a real beating. No trucks, no supplies from town, no crab dinners, no mail---the list goes on and on! Don’t forget The Transportation Crew, the trucks don’t drive themselves! The same badly rutted beach that beat up the trucks takes its toll on the drivers who drive it day after day. The beach changes everyday with the high tide rearranging bad spots, sometimes from bad to worse! Next year back to our smooth nice sandy highway. The Small Engine Repair Crew is busy servicing and repairing the pump motors that run the beach boxes. It is essential to have a good running motor if you want to maximize gold recovery on the beach, which everyone does. The individuals in Camp Operations keep the water running and the electricity on from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. They keep the showers and o.h. facilities as clean as possible and the hand sanitizers filled. The latter is may not be the most pleasant job in camp but it is one of the most important health wise. The Wood Crew hauls the wood and cuts it up into stove size lengths for heating the hooches. They try for dry wood, but the take what is available. I don’t know how much wood a wood chuck can cut if….but our wood crew is good, real good! The Beach Crew helps set up the beach boxes, check out the beach each year for the best (richest) area to work. They assist participants get setup properly and get their foot-valves in the first time or so, and teach them the ropes. They are available with help or to answer questions everyday. Education offers classes in many areas of gold prospecting, or gold processing, everything from fine gold recovery to dowsing. For those who have not been bitten by the “gold bug” there are classes in garnet picking, flower identification, and other rock identification and geology. The Dredge Crew on Arctic Creek runs an eight inch dredge getting gold for the Friday Gold Draw, and they have several four inch dredges to check out to participants who want to dredge for their own gold. The Trommel Crew also on Arctic Creek but up a ways, run a large trommel operation also getting gold for the Friday Gold Draw. There are also high-bankers there that can be run Tuesday –Thursday, by schedule so that participants can get coarser gold or pickers and nuggets. The Chow Hall Crew keeps the shelves stocked in the chow hall, the tables sanitized, and the floors and windows cleaned. The Cook Chip cooks great meals that are a treat to eat, and her ladies serve them to hungry people that willing and able to do them justice. The Entertainment Crew runs games during the week nights, bingo, cribbage, poker, and more, and rehearses talent for the Friday Night Saloon Extravaganza. This is important as you can not mine or prospect 24/7, you need some fun and relaxation! The Early Crew gets to Cripple River long before camp is open and set about repairing winter damage and fixing up the camp, they do what ever needs doing to help the Cripple River Camp come to life again, year after year. They are also responsible for constructing new buildings when needed. These hard working men and women pay their airfare and some towards their meals and volunteer to work part of the time they are here for the gold camp at wherever they are needed most. Most crew loves it here so much they come back and work year after year, and remain loyal to our great camp! Thank you all for all your hard work, and all you do, you are very much appreciated!

Matching wits with “Long Tom Gold” Massie, the treasure hiding pirate is Mr. Keith Leady from Weston, Ohio. Mr. Leady has planned his trip to our gold camp for three years. He made his decision at a gold show in Primm, Nevada and here he is! Keith admits to shoveling on the beach for a few days, and to getting good gold, but there are so many exciting things to do that for Keith, the gold is just a fun extra. “So far I have spent twenty-one hours treasure hunting and I have found three of these treasure cans. I am searching for numbers four and maybe five to set a new camp record. I have found numbers 7, 54, and 72 and ??” A five year G.P.A.A. member, Keith joined the L.D.M.A. in April 2008, and enjoys prospecting all over the country between Key West and Nome, Alaska. Once he retires, Keith will prospect full time. About his time here, “I Had a good time, food was excellent, camp is exactly as advertised, crew was helpful and always looking to help. I plan to come back, but not for a year or so. My suggestion to you is, come up here and have a good time too!”

Chip Yorde from Merrill, Illinois, Cripple River’s answer to “The Galloping Gourmet” has been asked for copies of several of her special recipes so many times this year that I am proud to re-print them here in the Chronicle for all you food loving people out there. Give them a try and I am sure you will see why Chip is one of Cripple River’s truly golden treasures that won’t fit in a snuffer bottle!

Chip’s Special Veggie Delight
1 broccoli
1 cauliflower
½ red onion
½ cup raisins
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup cashews
Top with a mixture of:
½ cup sugar
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons vinegar
Eat!!!

Chip’s Cherry Fluff
1-8oz cool whip---thawed
1-20 oz crushed pineapple---drained
1-21 oz cherry pie filling
1-14 oz sweetened condensed milk
½ cup coconut
¼ cup chopped pecans
Mix well in large bowl and chill over night makes 12 servings!

There is a slight difference of opinion going on in our camp, those of us on crew as well as hungry participants, have discovered that eating Chip’s food causes our clothes to shrink! Chip states that our clothes are shrinking because Cripple River now has clothes dryers, and the dryers are shrinking our clothes not her scrumptious recipes. You decide for yourself, but my clothes back home never see a Cripple River dryer and they too have shrunk after I eat my way through a summer here.

Our new and improved Trading Post has been a real asset to our camp this year---bright, light and airy, and ran by friendly store keepers it stocks a good selection of T-shirts, soda and candy bars, and a few necessities, like bug dope, fishing lures, flashlights, batteries, post cards, stamps etc.

Sunday, a plane landed on the beach, and surprised the camp as it wasn’t the fish cops, (Alaska’s Department of Game and Fish) who come out to Cripple River to check fishing licenses on a regular basis.

Jerry Lees and his son Thomas from Fairbanks, Alaska were flying to Kotzebue (cot-sah-boo), looking for Musk Ox. They had flown over our camp before and decided to drop in for a visit, since this time we were “home”, and see what we were about. They ate a meal with us, shared experiences, and then, taxied down the sand and took off for farther north and above the Arctic Circle.

The weather has been warm and sunny, with the Bering Sea smooth as glass, and beach mining has been very popular and the gold recovery has been quite good. The fishing is excellent and the Silver Salmon are running now, and they are big fish to catch. Most are catch and release, but a few are dinner! Camp is just beginning to wind down, but already plans are in the works for next year, this far north you have to plan way ahead!

News Flash!!!!!! Mr. Keith Leady has found his fourth just hours before going back home! He claims the camp’s unofficial record for “The Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire”, or maybe newbie pirate in training? Not all the treasure have been found Mr. Leady, you left a lot still hidden! See you next year?

Seasons over, got to go home, for a day or two, then off to the mountains to look for a lost gold claim outside a ghost town in the mountains of New Mexico, who knows, maybe I’ll find it! Until we meet again, may your life and the bottom of your pan be golden.

Your Friend Arctic Annie

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