Letter discussing the potential mineral development of Lost River. The writer, is clearly a geologist involved in exploring the potential profitability of the area for tin mining, he comments on the climate, topography and condition of the Native population. The area was mined early in the 20^th century, but commercial mining was soon abandoned.

       Lost River is a waterway on the Seward Peninsula of the U.S. state of Alaska. Rising in the York Mountains, the river empties into the Bering Sea, 10 miles (16 km) west of Port Clarence. It is located 10 miles (16 km) east of Cape York.

       Lost River has a length of about 10 miles (16 km) and drains the central part of the York Mountains. Its two tributaries, Tin Creek and Cassiterite Creek, enter from the east about 3 miles (4.8 km) and 1 mile (1.6 km), respectively, from its mouth, and tin ore has been found on both of these creeks. Cassiterite Creek, which is really the larger fork of Lost River, has a length of about 3 miles (4.8 km). Tin Creek, about 2 miles (3.2 km) long, heads within about 1 mile (1.6 km) of Cassiterite Creek, and, flowing parallel with it for about the same distance, turns westward and enters Lost River through a canyon cut in the limestones of the York Mountains. Lost River itself flows in a comparatively broad valley cut in these limestones. The bed of the river is not deeply gravel filled, and the valley floor is practically cut out of the limestones and not to any extent built on them. The mouth of Cassiterite Creek is about 100 feet (30 m) above the sea. Between Tin Creek and Lost River, there is a stock of granite intruded into the limestone, which outcrops in a nearly circular area, probably 0.5 miles (0.80 km) in diameter.

In 1898, a party of disappointed prospectors, returning from Kotzebue Sound, were shipwrecked a few miles east of the mouth of Lost River, and were obliged to camp at that point during the winter. A cabin built largely from wreckage of their schooner is known as the Kotzebue cabin. These prospectors probably first applied the name Lost River to this stream. In the succeeding summer a mining district was organized by survivors of this expedition, with headquarters located on King River, which enters Bering Sea between Lost River and Cape York. The Lost River region was included at that time in the King River recording district. No discoveries of gold were made, however, and the region was abandoned by prospectors. In the winter of 1902, prospectors again turned their attention to this region in the search for tin ore. Granite porphyry dikes, which occur in the limestones near the mouth of Lost River and also near King River, first attracted their attention, and many specimens of this were mistaken for "tin crystals," were sent to various assayers, from whom widely divergent reports were obtained. Early in the summer of 1903, Charles Randt, Leslie Crim, and Y. J. O'Brien discovered minerals in Tin Creek and made a thorough search for tin ore in that vicinity. They made a large collection of minerals, which was sent to Teller in July, 1903. Metallic tin was readily obtained from one small specimen by aid of a blowpipe, while the larger part of the collection was shown to contain minerals of no value. The collection was of sufficient interest to tempt an examination of the locality in detail where there was evidence of tin ore which had been seen in Teller to the granitic dike on Cassiterite Creek, and also to obtain specimens of stannite ore from Tin Creek. Since this examination the dike described has been called "Cassiterite ledge" in location notices, and it has been definitely traced through a group of four claims. A crosscut trench has been made near the Cassiterite Creek end of the ledge, which, it is reported, shows that the ledge has a width of 100 feet and that cassiterite is disseminated throughout the rock.

      “My Dear Percy,

            … Briefly, we are in the York range of hills, which run E-W and form the backbone of this part of the Peninsula. They are of probably Ordovician time, have been uplifted, intruded with dikes & bosses from a granite magma, which also furnished the range of minerals, and subsequently eroded and dissected to their present rather rugged condition. On the north, a long expanse of tundra fronts the Arctic, where the land is being up-built, resulting in the formation of a succession of lagoons.

            Between here and the “Cape” are only a couple of low passes in the range, and this coupled with the naturally windy nature of the Arctics, and the S winds associated with the Japan current near the Aleutians produce an unending conflict and variability of wind and weather of which we get all the benefit.  It has been stated that (by the U.S.G.S) that this Peninsula is probably the windiest in America & perhaps in the world.

           Hence we are nearly always sure of a local wind through this local chimney due to a stratum of cold air on one side or the other, when 5 miles away or 1500 ft above may be a s calm as a picture.

            If you chance to look thru Bull. 358 you will see that this section is credited with many unusual minerals some of which are sometimes fairly valuable gem stones, such as tourmaline and topaz. They are only in massive form however and seldom distinctive. The fluorite however has many attractive gradations of pink, amethyst  &c and the cassiterite & wolframite sometimes occur in very beautiful crystals, eagerly prized by mineralogists.

             Difficulties of operation are considerable though perhaps not so great as might be surmised. The ordering of supplies needs great care & foresight and perhaps the greatest difficulty is to secure a diversified supply of men of the right experience, perseverance & temperament. To compute a formula for the correct mixture of nationality age, religion, experience & lymphatic, phlegmatic, nervous murderous or other temperament would be sufficient to overtax the energy of even the omniscient Hoover, and to bring him prematurely to the verge of acute melancholia.

             My own work however has been altogether more cheerful; I have not been saddled with the managerial or operative end, but concerned solely with the technical problems. What the future program will be will probably be decided upon at the forthcoming arrival of the officials who are expected on the same boat that will take this letter out. Much development remains to be done before the final outcome can be predicted. The technical situation of the tin market is very strong, which is encouraging.

             The natives have had a very prosperous winter catching fur, which brought fabulous prices. With the proceeds, like many a fairer skinned brother in these great U.S.A., they proceed to live high on white man’s grub, to buy his shoddy woollen & cotton garments & to indulge in perfumery, talcum powder and what not evidence of civilization and culture.

             The ordinary personal effluvia of an Eskimo is such that he can be approached with impunity only from the windward side while the aggravation of aromas in their winter huts is said to beggar description. When on top of this is piled the haunting fragrance of “Mary Garden”, or the sweet dreamy elusiveness of “Djer Kiss” laid on a substantial sub-stratum of rancid seal oil, the effect ought to paralyze the olfactory nerve to say the least.

            Alaska is now in a “betwixt & between” condition, at least this part. The richest workings of gold & copper and most successful enterprises have been exploited and in the case of placer gold are largely on the decline. Reindeer herds flourish here and develop amazingly & could do much supplying the U.S. with cheaper meat. Fisheries can be extended, and the large scale patient development & enterprise of large concerns substituted for the former hasty skimming methods. Drained of population by the economic hardships as well as the direct demand induced by the war – I look for an influx of young blood to go ahead, not so gorgeously successful as some in the past, but with more permanence …”