Published in Goldstream magazine June 2006

This story was originally told by Barry Clay and is embellished here by Walt Larson

(Names of the bad guys have been changed)

Steve and Gary had been best friends since high school. After graduation both had trained as heavy equipment operators. They had come to Alaska looking for adventure and the big money to be made working on construction of the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline

The hours were long but the pay was excellent. They worked hard in miserable conditions. There were biting bugs in the summer and biting cold in winter. When they got some time off they headed for Fairbanks.

With past Alaska gold rush booms those who mined the miners were never far behind and so it was with the pipeline boom. The influx of men with money in their pocket brought out the con men, drug dealers and women of ill repute.

Their time off was usually spent in bars or strip clubs spending money on women, drugs and booze. It wasn’t uncommon for a man to cash his several thousand-dollar paycheck in a bar and wake up the next morning with nothing left but a hangover.

As the pipeline construction was completed the men were laid off. Neither had saved much money. Gary returned to the lower 48 to look for work. Steve found a job working on some short-term construction projects and eventually was hired by a mining company with claims in the Ruby District near the Yukon River. When the mining outfit needed another heavy equiment operator Steve recommended Gary and the two friends were reunited at a gold mine in the Alaska wilderness.

This was a big mining operation recovering hundreds of ounces of gold including many large nuggets. The mining went on twenty-four hours a day during the short Alaska summer. Three different shifts were able to work around the clock with the continuous daylight.

A D-9 dozer operator would push the pay dirt into a pile near the trommel. A front end loader was used to scoop the dirt from the pile, raise it up and feed it into the trommel. A drag line would pull away the tailings from the outlet of the twenty-foot long sluice box. A fourth man would monitor the trommel. Checking its rotation speed and water flow as well as watching the sluice box for buildups that would disrupt the flow.

The town of Ruby was some fifty miles to the north by a narrow, winding, rutted dirt road. It was rare that the men would go into town as the mine had it’s own airstrip. A large amount of fuel was barged up the Yukon and trucked to the mine from Ruby at the beginning of the season. Then additional fuel and supplies were flown in from Fairbanks every two weeks. Men taking time off would be flown out on the return flight. Before they boarded the plane their gear was thoroughly searched to keep anyone from getting sticky fingered with the gold nuggets; a condition they agreed to when taking the job.

Now it turns out that Gary and Steve had sticky fingers. When either worked the trommel, watching the sluice box, they would occasionally grab a nugget from the riffles and slip it into a pocket when no one was looking. They had accumulated a large pickle jar full of stolen nuggets that they kept hidden in the brush behind the cook tent.

They had no idea out how they would get the booty out of the mine. Then luck smiled on them. Lightning caused forest fires had been burning in the Yukon River region putting large clouds of smoke into the air. The supply planes could not fly because of the reduced visibility.

It had been almost four weeks since supplies had come in. Fuel for the equipment was almost exhausted and food was running out. The Forman decided that to keep the operation going they would have to get some fuel and food from Ruby. By chance Gary and Steve were selected to take the company truck into town. As Steve loaded empty 55 gallon drums onto the back of the flatbed Gary slipped away and retrieved the jar full of nuggets.

On the road to Ruby near the intersection to the Midnight Creek Mine turnoff Steve stopped the truck. They hurriedly grabbed the heavy jar and a shovel. At the base of a tree near the side of the road a hole was dug. The jar placed in it and covered up. Gary rolled a large rock over the hole while Steve used his pocketknife to scribe a mark on the tree that would help them locate the exact spot when they returned for the gold.

The season ended with the two men riding an airplane back to Fairbanks while thinking about their gold hidden along the Ruby Poorman road. They were going outside for the winter; returning home to Southern California to visit friends and family.

Over the winter Gary was killed in an auto accident. Steve got a good job, met a girl, was married and they started a family. With his newfound responsibilities it would be two years before Steve could return to Ruby to retrieve the hidden gold.

As he drove a rented 4X4 south from Ruby he couldn’t help but notice that the road had been improved. What had been little more than a trail was now a graveled road with culverts instead of creek crossings. When he reached his destination he was shocked! Not only had the state workers upgraded the road surface they had pushed back the vegetation to create wide shoulders. His marked tree was gone!

He searched the area for hours before reluctantly giving up empty handed. Fate had played a mean trick.

In the bar at the Fairbanks airport, on his way back to California, Steve encountered an old friend. He and Barry Clay had worked on the same construction job. Barry would later claim fame by finding the largest gold nugget ever discovered in Alaska, 294 ounces, in 1998. At this point in time though he was just a gold miner on his way home to Ruby.

As Steve had given up on ever finding the hidden cache himself he revealed the reason for his trip north and gave Barry details about the jar full of gold nuggets. The two talked until the boarding announcement came for Steve’s flight and they parted company.

No one in the North has heard from Steve for many years. Barry still mines his Swift Creek claims every summer. If you ever happen to meet Barry Clay you’ll want to ask him about hidden gold at the Midnight Creek turnoff.

Some of my other stories: Bear On, Mining Fish