Album of Photographs Showing the Pioneer Commercial Company's Mining Operations in Ophir Creek, Near Golovin Bay, c. 1897-1901

Alaska, 1901. Oblong folio, 12 ½ x 9 inches. Twelve leaves with 89 photographs rebound in modern cloth. Binding in fine condition, photographs generally excellent, some leaves with clear tape repairs. A well preserved album of photographs showing mining operations in the Golovin Bay region, about fifty to seventy-five miles northwest of Nome, during the tail end of the Klondike Gold Rush period in 1900-1901. The album shows the operations of the Pioneer Company in Alaska in great detail, including the travel by boat and the camps along Opher Creek, as well as many photographs of the mining operation itself. According to a caption in one of the photographs, (truncated) $12,000 worth of gold was taken out of the "Discovery Claim" on Ophir Creek. The album also includes several photographs of the indigenous population. The compiler of the book appears to have been a student at a mining college at some point, as some of the photographs show a "Class of '04'" sign. The photographs are dated from 1897 to 1901. Interior scenes and a particularly broad portrayal of mining life and operations make this an uncommonly informative photographic document of Alaskan mining operations during this period.

Lowny, J.D. The Golovin Bay Region of Northwestern Alaska. In: The Engineering and Mining Journal Vol. 71, pp. 781-782. June 15, 1901. Accessed online, 6/23. (Inventory #: List2108)