North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

MINERAL RESOURCES: MINING

Other Mining Areas

Although never developed on the scale of the major mining districts, several other areas within the North Cascades National Park had mining claims which were developed at various times and to different degrees. The physical remnants of some of these smaller operations are visible today. On the western slope, along the Cascade River about ten miles east of Marblemount, the Crescent Marble and Mining Company held six mineral claims on a large marble deposit along Marble Creek from as early as 1899. [175] Very little work was done at this site, and the only improvements were open cuts in the deposits and a trail to the mine. [176] Along the Skagit River in the vicinity of Bacon Creek and farther upriver, talc mines were operating in the early twentieth century. Gaspar Petta, an early Marblemount resident, recalled how the mined talc was lowered down to the river via a tram, where it was then carried downstream by boat for processing and marketing. [177] Farther upriver, in the northern reaches of today's park, in the area of Silver Creek a miner named Darrow filed eleven claims in 1913 in hopes of mining galena. The unpatented claims remained undeveloped and were relocated in 1929 by H.P. Davis for molybdenum. Davis made some improvements, building a bunkhouse and driving a 75-foot adit into the mineralized zone. The deposit was again relocated in 1958 by Donald and Archie Lyon and Russell Perry who undertook mineral exploration and assessment work. Today, the ruins of possibly the original Davis cabin and a storehouse can be found at the site approximately 1-1/2 miles from the west shore of Ross Lake. [178]

Concurrent with large-scale mining in the Stehekin basin, more modest mining activity also occurred on Company Creek, Agnes Creek, and Flat Creek.

Ledges of sulphide were first discovered in 1889 on Company Creek but not located until 1894. [179] A trail was built by miners following the creek, and maps from 1902 and 1913 show a cabin sited at the trail end. [180] Agnes Creek also had similar showings of ore and, by 1899, the North Star group of eight claims was being worked. [181] Four claims existed by 1899 on upper Flat Creek, and it is possible that the remnants of a log cabin found several hundred feet south of the Stehekin valley road near the Park Creek Pass trailhead may have been associated with these mining efforts. [182]