The Harris Creek placer deposit is located about 6 kilometres southwest of Lumby. The Bluebird veins (082LSE003) are located nearby.
At the turn of the century, small quantities of gold were found in Harris Creek and its tributaries. In 1893, "a considerable amount (of) prospecting work" was done. In 1936, a former channel was discovered and worked. In 1936, leases covered the lower 13 kilometres of Harris Creek, the ground between Harris and Jones creeks and a considerable portion of the valley flat at the mouth of Harris Creek.
The bedrock in the area consists of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Devonian to Triassic Harper Ranch Group which have been intruded by granitic rocks of the Jurassic Nelson Intrusions. The creek gravels are resistant, gneissic and granitic with a high proportion of lava. The valley likely contains at least 6 metres of gravels.
The original discovery is on the east side of the creek at the head of the small canyon and just below the mouth of Nicklen Creek (Bessette Creek). A recovery of 373 grams of gold is reported from amongst large boulders at and near irregular bedrock over a 4.6 by 15 metre area. A channel exposed in cross-section on the west side of Harris Creek produced 435 grams of gold. Gold was recovered in a pay streak 3 to 7.6 metres above the lowest gutter and to a lesser extent in the uppermost 4.6 metres of rather cleaner and smaller sized gravel.
Test-work was concentrated in the lower or northern section, but a small amount of testing has also been done for 8 kilometres up the creek. In the uppermost working on the southwest side, 7 kilometres from the mouth of Harris Creek, a drift has been driven 3 metres in weathered semi-angular gravels. Some gold is reported from 6 metres above the creek. Six or more pits were sunk at the mouth of Harris Creek on the valley flat, in some of which "interesting values" were reported.
About 1.2 kilometres downstream from this locality, similar gravels are present. The width and extent of this section of channel is not known and it is not known whether gold occurs in good quantities.
Other test holes are scattered along the margin of the creek bed, none of which were conclusive. Testing in the bed proper has consisted of surface panning and no pits have been sunk deeper than a few feet.
The gold is primarily light colored and occurs as fine rough particles, frequently with quartz adhering and considerable black sand. In one or two localities the gold is coarser, darker and well-worn. The short section of pay gravel contained gold of high purity and coarse nuggets (fineness 870 to 878).
Production for the period 1936 to 1945 totalled 14,150 grams of gold (Bulletin 28, page 63).