Last Chance Mine
William D. ‘Willey’ Cruikshank’s gold discovery of March 24, 1887 — the first truly paying mine on the coast, at the head of Alder Creek in the Los Burros Mining District. Sold later that year to seven investors who renamed it the Buclimo (BUrman, ULrich, CLinton, LInderman, Isenman, MOrey, OLsen); it shipped an estimated $62,000 in gold ore. The town of Manchester grew a few hundred yards downhill. Position approximate: derived from the townsite coordinates and the contemporary description; no surveyed public coordinate is published.
gold mines
The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester
Organized 1876, transformed by Willey Cruikshank's Last Chance strike in 1887 — and gone by 1897, burned and grown over. The rise and fall of the coast's gold district, and the lost town of Manchester.
gold mines
Willey Cruikshank Discovered the Last Chance Mine
The boy who watched Chinese miners pan Salmon Creek grew up to strike the Last Chance mine.
gold mines
The Buclimo Mine - Named for Seven Partners
Burman, Ulrich, Clinton, Linderman, Isenman, Morey and Olsen — seven partners, one mine name: Buclimo.
mabel article
Willey Cruikshank - Mining Was His Life
The boy who watched Chinese miners pan Salmon Creek struck the Last Chance mine — and vanished into the Lucias in 1937. His life, told by a woman who knew him.
story
Willey Cruikshank Skeleton Found After Six Years
Willey Cruikshank walked out of the New York Mine in 1937. His bones were found six years later.
Everyone the family archive records in the story of this place. Descendants: if one of these is yours, we’d love to hear from you.
- William D. "Willey" Cruikshank 1862–1937 · 5 stories
- James M. Krenkel 1862–1943 · 3 stories
- Alice Dutton · 2 stories
- Ed Dutton · 2 stories
- Margaret Voss Krenkel 1874–1964 · 2 stories
- William Cruikshank Sr. 1835– · 2 stories
- Alvis Davis
- Augusta Stringle Cruikshank
- Byron Gianavil Plaskett 1846–1911
- Dave Moro
- Dudley Plaskett 1869–1949
- Edward Abbott Plaskett 1881–1973
- Francis Marion Plaskett 1854–1906
- Henry Kilsdonk
- Henry Melville
- Joe Moro
- John D. Cruikshank
- Lawson McKern Plaskett 1883–1966
- Leonidas Hamlin Plaskett 1848–1918
- Linwood Mitchell 1860–
- Reason Alpha Plaskett 1852–1933
- Roy Mitchell
- William Lucas Plaskett 1818–1909