Gold Creek is a creek in

Stevens County, Washington Stevens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington along the Canada–US border. At the 2020 census, its population was 46,445. As of July 2021, the population was estimated to be 47,426. The county seat and largest city is Co ...

. Gold Creek flows into

Sheep Creek Sheep Creek is a geographical place name. With variations, the name is given to hundreds of bodies of water, roads, canals, reservoirs and populated areas in the United States and other countries. It is the name of a tributary to Lockyear Creek in ...

, a tributary of the Columbia.N.L. Barlee, Gold Creeks and Ghost Towns of Northeastern Washington., Hancock House Publishers., 2004 The Gold Creek Basin is located around Gold Creek.

Lost Doukhobor Ledge

In the fall of 1929, a lightning strike caused a fire in Gold Creek Basin. The area is beyond Hubbard Ridge, north of Flagstaff Mountain. A crew of twenty-five men was sent from

Rossland, British Columbia Rossland is in the West Kootenay region of south central British Columbia. High in the Monashee Mountains, the city lies immediately east of the intersections of BC highways British Columbia Highway 3B, 3B and British Columbia Highway 22, 22. The f ...

to help put the fire out. Most of the men were

Doukhobor The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (russian: духоборы / духоборцы, dukhobory / dukhobortsy; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia an ...

s. The fire jumped the fireguard that the men had built and the men’s camp was engulfed in flames. The firefighters ran for their lives. Later, after a headcount the men realized two of their crew were missing. In the morning the two Doukhobors who were missing joined their crew. The Doukhobors related how they managed to keep ahead of the flames. They spent the night at the base of a rock slide and discovered a vein of galena. The Doukhobors took samples back with them. A workman named Ray Wiley remembers, "it was fine-grained

argentite In mineralogy, argentite (from the Latin ''argentum'', silver) is cubic silver sulfide (Ag2S), which can only exist at temperatures above 173 °C, 177 °C or 179 °C. When it cools to ordinary temperatures it turns into its monocl ...

– high-grade silver ore." The ore was assayed at CM&S Co. assay office in

Trail, British Columbia Trail is a city in the West Kootenay region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Landing, and the name was shorten ...

. The ore assayed at over 1,000 ounces of silver a ton – bonanza ore. In 1930 the Doukhobors accompanied with geologists returned looking for the rock slide with the rich silver ledge of galena. They were unable to find it. Since then many prospectors have searched Gold Creek Basin for the lost Doukhobor Ledge. All attempts to find the silver ledge have failed.

References

External links

* {{authority control Rivers of Washington (state) Rivers of Stevens County, Washington Doukhobors