The Scribner Creek Claim is a claim on Scribner Creek in the Klondike, the Yukon, Canada. It lies near the confluence of Scribner Creek with Indian River. It is located a 3-hour drive from Dawson City. It is owned by Tony Beets. Parker Schnabel leases the claim for season 4. Prior to Parker, two other mining crews have worked on the claim. The Parker Crew start at it in season 4. Parker buys the Hoffman Crew's D10 Dozer and Little Blue washplant for the claim. He also gets 363 YAO hopper feeder to feed Little Blue. It is located 35 miles from the Indian River Claim, with the 2000-ft tall Quartz Hill on the road inbetween. It lies 10-mi east and upriver of McKinnon Creek Claim, 27-mi or 1.5 hr by road. After Little Blue is pushed past is limit, by running 100yd/hr and breaking the shaker drive shaft, Parker moves Big Red washplant from Indian River to Scribner Creek, renting it from Fred Dodge who now holds title to it after season 3's end.
By season
Season 4
In season 4, Parker opens 3 cuts, Scribner Creek Claim cut 1 near the creek, Scribner Creek Claim cut 2 farther from the creek, and needing to be thawed out, and Scribner Creek Claim cut 3 "Fantasyland" on the other side of the creek. FantasyLand is further inland from the creek as the land close to the creek has already need dug up. Fantasy-Land lies under the old tailings from the old cut, as the tailings were piled atop of virgin ground. Fantasy Land is 1.5 miles away from the first two cuts and the washplant by road, required to transport paydirt in rock trucks over the bridge over the creek, taking 20 minutes a trip. Because of the time involved in transport, the crew can only process 1/3 the load from Fantasy-land that the closer cuts can provide. Late into the season, Parker's crew breaks the ripper on the D10 Dozer, and has no time to get a replacement in the time left in the season, so instead he obtains a monitor to melt ground by pressure washing it with water. They end the season in October.
Season 5
In season 5, Parker returns to Scribner early, to start melting permafrost in May. The season 5 contract signed by Parker from Tony Beets requires that Parker install hydraulic riffles into Big Red. Parker continues working on the Scribner Creek Claim far cut from season 4, but it runs out as he hits permafrost at the start of the season. He then goes to the Scribner Creek Claim Swamp Cut, a cut that was abandoned 20 years prior by previous miners on the concession. The swamp cut is 1-mi from the Far Cut. The returns from the Swamp Cut are lean compared to other cuts from the claim. Due to the distance of the Swamp Cut from the wash plant, the fuel used to run the rock trucks eats most of the profit from the recovered gold, so they move Big Red closer to the cut, 1/2-mi from the old location. Within a month, Parker processes the Swamp Cut, and needs to open more ground. The Swamp Cut lies off Indian River (Scribner Creek confluences with Indian River) To get back to the far cut, Parker acquires a new Caterpillar D10N dozer, to strip the frozen ground, which cost $300,000 with the 28,000lbs blade. As the swamp cut runs out, the Parker Crew stumbles onto a hotspot, but Parker decides to go back to the far cut, as hotspots easily run out. As the far cut runs out, Parker starts stripping FantasyLand on the other side of the creek, where old miners once dumped overburden, needing to clear 30ft of overburden to reach paydirt on the unmined portion of Fantasy Land.
The north extension of the far cut was still frozen on August 21 (at 4 weeks left in the season), with 10 feet of frozen ground overburden until paydirt. The Fantasyland cut is still frozen. The berm cut (island in mid creek) is still frozen. At the end of the paydirt, with 1508oz mined under contract since the beginning of mining, Tony Beets' cut went from 15% to 20% of gross gold, due to the contract stipulating that at 1500oz it would do so.
After running out of thawed ground, they divert the creek and start digging out the creek bed. Park assumes that main pay paydirt lies under the creek, while they've been mining side pay in the other parts of the claim. At the end of the season, they end up over their goal of 2000-oz. But with royalties running at 20% when 2000-oz is reached (15% when 1500-oz is reached; 10% before that) , Parker wants to find a new claim. To buy a claim on Eureka Creek, he needs $2million, to get the downpayment on the claim, the needs another 500-oz over his goal. In order to get the needed gold to buy a claim, after shutdown, Parker has the crew go back and mine out whats left of the berm cut, and start clearing the dogleg cut. They start mining the dogleg cut as the last of the season. He gets nearly 500-oz on the final cleanout, for a total over 2500-oz, clear over the 2000-oz goal for the season, and enough for Parker's new goal of enough gold to buy a claim. He would pay 25% on gold over 2500-oz.
Season 6
The Scribner Creek Claim Berm Cut is worked out, and the new Scribner Creek Claim Treasure Island cut is opened. To open ground for the rest of the season, they open the Scribner Creek Claim Boundary Cut, which is larger than the Hoffman's Supercut. The Boundary Cut runs from the Creek to the Claim boundary to the territory previously mined by old miners. At mid-season, Parker rents Goldzilla to add washplant capacity.
Season 7=
Parker acquires a brand new washplant for season 7, that isn't used equipment.
Equipment
Season 4, they used 1 dozer, 1 loader, 2 excavators, 4 rock trucks (of which 2 ran at a time, due to staffing levels)
Season 5, they used 1 loader, 2 dozers, 3 excavators, 4 rock trucks (all running, with full staffing levels)
- 2x 460 Excavator ; 1x 700 Excavator