An invasion of the Liard River and some of its lesser known tributaries
by prospectors in airplanes is reported by T. A. Perry, the Hudson's Bay Company's post-keeper from Liard Post, who arrived in Wrangell from Telegraph Creek, says the Wrangell Sentinel. Perry is well known, having taken part in several mining expeditions to
the Interior.
Canadian airplanes based at Fort Simpson and Fort McMurray have been making periodical trips into the upper Liard with men and supplies. Most of the men are "enlisted prospectors" serving the various companies on a monthly salary basis, with bonus for valuable discoveries.
Late last fall, Perry says, airplanes began coming into the country, landing their passengers at Sayer's Creek, a tributary of the left branch of the Liard about 75 miles above Liard Post. This was one of the first creeks to be worked by Cassiar miners in the early days, and is said to have produced close to $100,000 before MeDame's Creek was struck.
Sayers Creek has a peculiar history and the sombre, moss-grown spruce
trees which fringe the lonely waterway have looked down on more than one wilderness tragedy, it is said. Sayers and Hyland, the first white men to visit the creek, worked within hailing distance of each other but maintained a grim silence. They would not speak or fraternize. Later when the creek became known, a few other prospectors took up ground. A number of them died of scurvy and the creek was thereafter known as Scurvy Creek.
Nobody seems to know when or why the creek was deserted, but it is presumed that other rich strikes such as McDames, Thibbet's, Dease and later, Dawson, drew men out of the Sayer's country. Soon its dark tales passed into legend. Sayer's Creek for half a century was forgotten.
In 1930 the myth of rich diggings on Scurvy Creek was revived. A man
named Hamilton who claimed to be a survivor of the party whose members had died of scurvy, made an effort to return to the creek. He cruised the country in an airplane but failed to locate the old diggings. His story started others on the quest, however, and two more tragedies were added to the sinster records of Sayer's Creek. An airplane, piloted by Renahan, disappeared shortly after passing Prince Rupert, and was never seen again, although pieces of wreckage were discovered in the vicinity of Ketchikan. The ill-fated Captain Burke, who died of hunger and exposure on the upper Liard the same winter, was the last to succumb to the lure of Sayer's Creek.
In the winter of 1931 an Indian arrived in Atlin from a place called Stone Ax Lake with several hundred dollars worth of coarse gold, which he claimed to have dug from the rim of a small creek. Stone Ax Lake is some distance north of Sayer's Creek
but its proximity to the gold diggings has revived interest in Sayer's Creek. Last summer the Mitchell outfit explored the country with four Eastman flying boats. They failed to make any discoveries and the party broke up in the fall. A short time afterward, Perry says, planes from Edmonton began making trips into the upper Liard, concentrating on Sayer's Creek where the men wintered. Thus far no rich strikes have been reported, although some drilling has been done.
More miners are engaged in bar mining along the Liard than ever before, but as bar diggings can only be carried on during the low stages of water, the recovery of gold by these primitive methods is slight. Several outfits are at work along the Hiland
also. The Dominion of Canada is paying around $30 an ounce for gold, which is about $10 more than the standard set by the United States.
Liard Post has come to be a well known landmark for round-the-world fliers, according to Perry. It is situated in a broad valley at the junction of the Dease River, and is on a direct line from Dawson to Edmonton. He had the pleasure of seeing
Post and Gatty as they soared above his lonely outpost last summer.
Perry will have charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at McDame
Creek, relieving Mike Larson, who is retiring after 30 years of service.
