In either the late 1920s or early 1930s, several shafts were sunk at the junction of Criss Creek and Deadman River by the Branch Ranch Mining Company; one of these is stated to have reached a depth of 10.6 metres. Thompson River Mining Company sunk shafts in the same area to depths of 10.6 to 12.2 metres without reaching bedrock. Gold is stated to have been obtained by Chinese miners a short distance up Criss Creek. All of this work was instigated by the theory that the original channel of the Thompson River crossed the country about 8 kilometres up Criss Creek, and that the placer gold, if any, would be concentrated somewhere in the lower reaches of the creek (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1933).

In the part of the creek from 3.2 to slightly more than 4.8 kilometres above its mouth, four men worked the gravels in 1940. Bedrock lies at a depth of from 2 to 3 metres. The overburden probably deepens above the workings, as no outcrops were found along the sides of the creek for a considerable distance. The stretch of creek that had been worked is narrow and steep walled, and the gravels contained many boulders. One man, Fred Morris, stated that he had worked there at intervals for 6 years. He reports his maximum winnings to have been $7 for a single day and as much as $65 a month obtained by steady work (ca. 1940; Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 249).

About 2 kilometres further upstream from the work done in 1940, an old cabin existed at 737 metres elevation. Work done near the cabin some twenty odd years previous to 1934 consisted of a shaft sunk to 10 metres to bedrock and a drift extended to an unknown distance. A little upstream a dam was constructed and sluicing operations carried out by hand methods. In the early 1930s, several shafts were sunk south of the cabin. South of the dam an adit was driven into the bank (Report on Criss Creek Placers, 1934).

Total recorded production from Criss Creek is 1586 grams of gold.