Cripple Creek

If you were present in the area now known as Fairbanks in the early 20th century, you would find a place sandwiched between hills to the north that eventually lead to the White Mountains, and southward you would find the vast expanse of the Tanana Flats, an area of marsh and bog that stretches 100 miles to the Alaska Range. Fairbanks itself is awash with the boreal forest, a mix of spruce and leafed birch, at the base of the sprawling Chena River watershed. Along the banks of a creek, you might see beaver ponds, otters swimming through the water, or moose wading across, nibbling at the willow growing near the edge.

In the early 20th century, you could hear the shouts of workers in the hills and near the creeks, the groan of piping, and the roar of water blasting against the earth. You can find similar sounds near the town today, for much the same reason: mining. A century ago Fairbanks was the center of gold mining activity, which caused significant disruption to its ecology and habitat. One such disruption was to Cripple Creek. Cripple Creek is a tributary of the Chena River, close to the mouth of the Chena where it enters the Tanana River.

But in 1935, water was pumped from the Chena River over the ridge to be used in hydraulic mining, which uses water to blast the hillside to remove sediment. An artificial ditch or drain was dug to carry the excessive wastewater from hydraulic mining away from the mining site, bypassing Cripple Creek’s natural channel. This left the lower part of the original creek dry with no water flow. The only water to be found in it was stagnant, filled with the whining drone of mosquitos.

For eighty years, the natural channel of Cripple Creek remained, amazingly intact and although hydraulic mining activity ceased decades ago, the drain persisted. But in 2017 a restoration project began to renew the original creek and watershed, returning it to a form resembling its original. As of summer 2023 there is water flow back in the historic creekbed.

You slip through the water, sunlight shifting over a bed of gravel and sand, the speckled back of you and your fellows blending with the rippling shadow. You dart to the surface to swallow an unwary insect before a large shape suddenly looms and you dash away, hiding in the embrace of the roots near shore. The larger fish makes a meal of another who wasn’t quite as fast. These waters are dangerous, but then again, everything is. You were not born in this stream, but it is where you seek shelter until you are large enough to follow the pull downriver toward the ocean.

The Cripple Creek watershed is a habitat for Chinook “King” salmon and many other species of aquatic and terrestrial animals, from beaver to pike to countless numbers of insects. In the case of Chinook salmon, they spawn further up the Chena River watershed and then young fish then spend their juvenile years growing in size in tributaries downriver, like Cripple Creek. The shoreline of Cripple Creek is filled with trees, whose roots reach down to the shoreline, creating a sheltered habitat from predators for Chinook salmon to grow.

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The water is thick, dark. Everything is a haze of brown, a fog in which anything could hide. Where are the insects? Is that a predator? Your gills burn with silt and sand as you cautiously swim, fearing what lies in the gloom.

Before the Cripple Creek drain was dug, the offwash from the hydraulic mining was sent into the original historic channel. Just like how smoke and smog can fill the air, reducing visibility and making it hard to breathe for humans, this offwash would have a similar impact. It clouded the water and would have made it difficult for fish to see and capture prey, as well as keeping an eye out for predators. A lot of sediment in the water can also affect oxygen levels, making it more difficult for fish to breathe.

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You dart into the safety of the creek, away from the cold and dark waters of the larger river. But these waters are… different. The roots and grasses do not stretch with their warm embrace, there is no comforting bed of gravel and sand, the waters are deep and not quite so shallow and clear. Where is the creek? This cannot be it.

Ahead the water is dark, the maw of something large that wants to swallow you whole. You do not go near, even as it remains, unmoving, for days. Even once you dare to approach the cavern, you find the water flows fast, too fast for you, pounding the surface above you. You know the creek continues, but for all you try, you cannot find it.

After the Cripple Creek drain was constructed, the water no longer flowed through the lower part of the original creek bed, leaving it little more than dried mud or filled with stagnant water. While salmon and other fish could live in the drain, it did not offer the same habitat for these fish that the original creek did, nor the same protection from predators. 

Once culverts were constructed for the roads built over the drain, including what is currently known as Chena Ridge road, they were another barrier to the fish. Many culverts were made of repurposed oil barrels and are difficult for fish to bypass. The culverts are typically above the height of the creek bed and even above the water level, meaning fish must jump to get inside. Furthermore, the small size of the barrels creates a strong current through them that young fish are likely unable to overcome, and the culverts are dark inside so fish would be wary of entering them.

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The waters have been filled with noise and sound, but the noise is gone now. Cautiously, you swim back towards the cave, wondering if this time you’ll make it through. Some of your siblings could make it, but you could not. You swim through familiar reeds and over the silty bottom, but no cave opens its cavernous maw to swallow you whole.

Part of the Cripple Creek restoration project involved putting in fish passage culverts, special culverts that enable fish to swim through them. These culverts were placed at several road crossings, first in the Cripple Creek drain and then in the historic Cripple Creek channel, which was still dry at this point. These culverts are over 8 feet in diameter and a fish, human, or even a moose could pass through easily. The culverts are designed so they have gravel and sediment lining the bottom, giving fish the illusion that they have never left the channel.

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Something has changed… the water flows slowly, sunlight ripples across silt and gravel, roots offer their sheltering embrace. You swim further and further and find the others of the creek are here, your siblings. Other fish swim in the channel — grayling, sculpin, pike, long-nosed sucker, lamprey. All have found their way back home.

As of summer 2023, the Cripple Creek restoration project was successful in returning water flow to the historic channel. While it remains to be seen how the ecosystem will react, numerous fish species including grayling, sculpin, pike, long-nosed suckers, and lamprey have been found in the creek, though no Chinook have been recorded as of yet. In this new creek, clouds of mosquitoes hang nearby, their whining drone a constant just like the breath of the wind and the distant sound of car traffic along Chena Pump Road. As for the water in the creek? Well, it moves slowly, in no rush to make its way down. It always gets there eventually.

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Dena'ina names for plant species came from the text: Turner, N. (2014).  Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America  (Vol. 1, Appendix 2). McGill-Queen’s Press - MQUP.

Yupik name for bluebell (Dena'ina name could not be determined) came from the text: Garibaldi, A. (1999).  Medicinal Flora of the Alaska Natives . University of Alaska Anchorage.

Interior Alaska Land Trust. (2021, March 3). Cripple Creek Restoration Project. Interior Alaska Land Trust. Interior Alaska Land Trust.  https://interioraklandtrust.org/land-and-projects/cripple-creek-restoration-project/ 

Information on the history of the site and salmon comes from discussion with Bob Henzey and Mitch Osborne of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, who were lead partners on the Cripple Creek restoration project.

Watercolor artwork by Grace Veenstra.