Today the patented claims along Woodchopper Creek exist as a private inholding within Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and the dredge and mining camp serve as reminders of the ingenuity and grit of placer miners along the Yukon River corridor. Private interests used the dredge in 1962 and by 1971 Joseph Vogler of Fairbanks purchased the Woodchopper mining claims and continued mining periodically until his death in 1993. The dredge at Woodchopper Creek operated until 1960 when diminishing returns and high operating costs spelled the end of an era. Woodchopper Creek got its name because it served as a refueling stop for paddlewheel steamboats needing wood along the Yukon River. By operating non-stop under the midnight sun, McRae’s company, Alluvial Golds, Inc., could make relatively poor ground pay handsomely. Soon the price of gold rose from $24 to $35 per ounce and McRae’s enormous dredges were doing the work of hundreds of men, processing 3,000 cubic yards of gravel every day. In 1935 the Canadian investor General Alexander McRae was scouting for locations for mining on an industrial scale, and with the help of Ernest Patty of the Alaska School of Mines, he selected both Coal Creek and Woodchopper Creek. File: BLOCKS AND TACKLE - Gold Placers Incorporated, Coak Creek Dredge, Near Coal Creek and Yukon River, Eagle, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, AK HAER AK,19-EGL.V,4A-10.
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