Pioneers of Alaska Fairbanks

 It was a common practice for miners to bring their gold in for assay in Fairbanks. The assay test used a small bit of the gold to test its purity and different creeks produced gold of different purities. Today’s 1913 newspaper article is about an assay performed on a mysterious nugget brought in from the Manly Hot Springs area:Fairbanks Daily News Miner- October 29, 1913

NOT A SUCKER WOULD BITE

Some time ago a Hot Springs miner brought to town a most peculiar nugget which he said he had found on his claim in the Hot Springs district. It looked as though it had been melted and dropped from a high place, forming a freak nugget in its fall, but of a most peculiar shape.

This nugget was placed on exhibition at St. George & Cathcart’s, where Falcon Joslin was offered the chance to buy it. Before it was placed on exhibition, it was handed over to the American Bank of Alaska for purchase, but after Paul Hopkins applied the acid test to it, the bank did not buy. It was a fine imitation, and a curio of the right stuff.

By the last mail from the Hot Springs we received an assay certificate of that nugget, and it assayed as follows:

Brass oil cup, 30 per cent.
Brass hose clamp, 30 per cent.
Brass form nut, 30 per cent.
Silver, 10 per cent.

Probably the assay is entirely correct.

Note: H. St. George, Wallace Cathcart, and Falcon Joslin were all members of Men’s Igloo No. 4, and this history nugget has been proudly brought to you by Men’s Igloo No. 4 and Women’s Igloo No. 8 of the Pioneers of Alaska.