Location
The Meadow Creek mining district, with about 105 square miles of area, is the second smallest district in the county. It lies just east of the Railroad Creek district, between Lake Chelan and Okanogan County. It is bounded on the north by the ridge just south of Little Boulder Creek, on the south by the ridge south of Prince Creek, and on the east by Sawtooth Ridge. The topography is very rugged, and no roads have been built within the district. However, passenger and freight boats make regular trips to and from Stehekin at the north end of Lake Chelan in the northwestern corner of the district.
Geologic Section
The district is largely underlain by Mesozoic plutonic rocks, but it is known that the older gneiss occurring immediately to the west in the Railroad Creek district is present here, and it is probable that the younger intrusive rocks which appear in that district occur here also.
Ores and Ore Minerals
The ores of the Meadow Creek mining district are of copper, gold, silver, and lead. They occur in the minerals chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, tetrahedrite, native silver, pyrargyrite, and galena. Of these minerals, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and pyrrhotite are by far the most abundant, and their metals copper, gold, and silver are the district's most important ores.
Ore Deposits
The deposits of the district are of two mineralogical types. The first discovered, but probably less important, are the silver-lead deposits found near the Jake shore. These are quartz veins containing narrow high-grade seams of pyrargyrite, tetrahedrite, and galena. The second type, whose iron-stained outcrops are prominent features on the steep-sided mountains rising from the lake, occurs in gneiss as wide porphyritic dikes with well-defined seams and irregular masses of solid sulphides on each side. The sulphide seams in some places fill fractures across the whole width of the dikes and also extend out into the wall rock. These are the copper-gold-silver deposits, the minerals of which are pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite.
Timber and Water
There is an adequate supply of timber and water for mining and milling purposes in the near vicinity of the mining properties, and the steep gradients of the streams afford abundant opportunity for developing water power on a small scale.
