Juneau gold belt only slightly different would be valueless." In 1895, southeastern Alaska was the first part of the Territory of Alaska to have its mineral resources researched by the U.S. Geological Survey. It surveyed the gold deposit areas of Juneau and Sitka. Systematic surveying began in 1902 which included a topographic map of the gold-bearing area adjacent to Juneau. In the following year, a detailed map of the Juneau region's geology was mapped in detail. A reconnaissance of almost the entire Juneau gold belt was carried out from Port Houghton to the boundary with Canada; in 1904, another reconnaissance, this time of
Pitt Lake's lost gold mine Peter's Cemetery in Sapperton. Slumach is mentioned for the first time as the first discoverer of the legendary gold of Pitt Lake by Wilbur Armstrong, a Washington prospector, in an interview in 1915 article in a Wisconsin newspaper reprinted in the US by other newspapers. In Canada the first mention of Slumach in association with Pitt Lake gold was in a 1926 article saying: “Slumach died and with him died the secret of a great gold mine somewhere up in that wild Pitt Lake country.” Evidently the story of Slumach and Pitt Lake gold was circulating among prospectors at that