Underground mining at Gold Hill, ca. 1898

• Main Author: Hegg, Eric A., 1867-1948
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Gold miners; Gold mining; Gold rushes; Men > Employment; Yukon; Hegg; Bonanza; Klondike River; Gold Hill; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/imlsmohai/id/6992

In Alaska and the Yukon, placer gold was found along ancient stream beds, some of which were twelve to forty feet underground at bedrock. The gold was frozen in the dirt or gravel. Miners chopped away at the frozen earth with picks or tried to thaw it with fires or steam machines. They "drifted" all winter, digging in the direction that seemed most promising for gold. This photo, taken around 1898 by Eric Hegg, shows a group of miners working underground at Gold Hill, above Bonanza Creek. They were digging on the fourth tier, opposite the fifth strike at Bonanza Creek. Original title: 4th tier, Gold Hill, opposite No. 5 Bonanza. Original photograph: Hegg, E.A., ca. 1898. Copied after 1902 by Webster & Stevens. 1 photographic print mounted on cardboard: gelatin, b&w; 19 x 24 cm.