National Park Service officials in Alaska are reviewing a proposal to develop unpatented placer mines in Eldorado Creek in the Kantishna region of the park, near the Kantishna Roadhouse and about two miles from Camp Denali/Google Maps

Three decades ago there was talk that the only discussion of mining for gold at Kantishna in Denali National Park and Preserve would be done in the vein of interpretation, but now an Alaskan man is seeking permission to develop his placer claims in an operation that seems daunting but holds the potential for a large payday if U.S. Geological Survey estimates are accurate.

Mining for gold in the Kantishna area goes back to 1903 when Judge James Wickersham, having failed to summit Mount McKinley, now known as Denali, found some gold in Chitsia Creek in the northern Kantishna Hills and staked four claims. 

Alaska, having experienced both major and minor gold rushes for the previous twenty years, was primed and the news of Wickersham’s discovery spread. By 1904 numerous prospectors were picking and panning the creeks draining the Kantishna Hills. The Kantishna stampede was the result of relatively simultaneous gold discoveries by Joe Dalton on Eureka Creek and Joe Quigley on Glacier Creek. News of these discoveries in June of 1905 brought thousands of prospectors into the area. Towns such as Diamond, Glacier City, and Roosevelt were quickly established as supply points along the northern river routes used by the stampeders to reach the gold fields of the Kantishna Hills. In very short order, most of the creeks in the Kantishna Hills were staked from beginning to end.

This gold fever preceded the 1917 designation of what was then Mount McKinley National Park. Fast-forward to 1980. Congress in that year, expanded the park and established the Denali National Preserve, redesignating the entire unit “Denali National Park and Preserve.” Among the areas that were included in the expanded park was the Kantishna area. This action was taken under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which provided that the federal lands within the Denali National Park and Preserve were withdrawn from future location, entry, and patent under U.S. mining laws, subject to valid existing rights. Any remaining mining and mining-related activity associated with patented and valid unpatented mining claims were to be regulated pursuant to the Mining in the Parks Act and related regulations.

In 1985 a judge, ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, shut down mining operations in the parks until proper environmental studies on the impacts of those operations could be conducted.

In response to the ruling, the Park Service undertook a Cumulative Impacts of Mining Environmental Impact Statement in Denali. The decision that flowed from the Environmental Impact Statement was to develop an acquisition plan to acquire all patented and valid unpatented mining claims in Denali. The agency concluded that such an approach had “the least potential to cause damage to the biological and physical environment, and would provide the highest level of protection, preservation and enhancement of park resources.”

However, the Park Service lacked the financial wherewithal to implement that strategy. It does retain the authority to review mining plans, though, and approval, disapprove, or suggest changes to them.

According to a news report from 1987, from 1903-1987 roughly $24 million in gold had been recovered from the Kantishna region...and as much as $1.2 billion in gold and other precious minerals might still be in the region. Kris DeVault hopes to recover some of that gold. He has notified the Park Service that he wants to act on a series of unpatented placer claims he holds on Eldorado Creek at the southwestern end of the Kantisha Hills.

National Park Service officials in Alaska are reviewing the proposal and preparing an environmental assessment on it. That EA could grant approval for the mining as proposed, or set down specific conditions under which it would be allowed.

Steve Carwile, the agency's compliance officer in Alaska, said Friday that Mr. DeVault's claims are the last unpatented claims pending in Denali.

"If no plan could be approved on this claims, or if the claims were bought, there would be no more mining in Denali," he said during a phone call.

All told, the claims encompass about 118 acres of streambed along the creek, according to Mr. Carwile. Under the proposed mining plan, suction hoses would be used to remove 4-6 feet of gravel that overlays the bedrock where Mr. DeVault hopes to recover gold flakes trapped in cracks and crevices, the Park Service official said.

"The operation needs to uncover the loose gravels and cobbles on top of the bedrock, so they have to dig down, essentially, with their hands and the use of the suction dredge," said Mr. Carwile. "So all of this work just to get to the level they want to work at in the streambed. Sometimes it's deep enough where you have to have scuba gear or snorkeling gear at the very least to be able to deal with the water level. And of course by the time you get five feet down, you are essentially in scuba gear.”

The compliance officer said the impacts associated with the operation are fairly negligible in the stream itself.

“The amount of impact, the turbidity, the impact on macro invertebrates, is very temporary. And the impact to moose and bears and caribou is kind of negligible," he said. The bigger impact, he said, would be the need to improve the road into the area to handle pickup trucks, at least.

The mining claims date to the late 1990s, according to Mr. Carwile.

“The claims were obviously declared valid by the Park Service and BLM. We’ve had a mineral report written on the claims. I think it was signed back in 1999," he said. "So they are valid, but that’s a pretty low bar. Using the prudent man test, you only have to find in your report that the return would be five cents more than the expenditure.”

While the Park Service offered to buy the claims, Mr. DeVault declined the offer.

"Our appraisal was less than what they wanted to accept," said Mr. Carwile, who declined to say what that appraisal was. “It wouldn’t hurt our feelings if somebody made them a better offer than we could.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the creek probably holds about 0.02 ounces of gold per cubic yard. 

"The possible gold resource remaining in the creek ranges from about 2,000 to 20,000 ounces, depending on the actual grade of the deposit," the website report stated. "Assuming an average grade of about 0.02 ounce of gold per cubic yard, there are about 6,000 ounces of gold remaining in the creek."