Placer mining operations were fairly extensive on French Snowshoe Creek for a distance of over 800 metres downstream from the mouth of Dutchman Creek. Small, shallow hand-diggings also extend upstream from Dutchman Creek for about 2.3 kilometres. More recent hydraulic mining operations apparently also took place about 2.0 kilometres upstream from Dutchman Creek. Bedrock geology comprises quartzite of the Upper Proterozoic-Paleozoic Snowshoe Group.

Drilling in 1991 by Yanks Peak Resources Ltd. outlined an intermediate channel from 0.8 to 13.1 metres and a lower, possibly Tertiary channel, from 15.2 metres to bedrock (George Cross Newsletter #134, July 12, 1991).

Recorded production from French Snowshoe Creek for the intermittent period 1876 to 1895 amounted to 12,751 grams gold.

The source of the placer gold is most likely the gold vein deposits hosted by the Snowshoe Group metasedimentary rocks. Supergene leaching of gold, dispersed by Tertiary deep weathering and followed by Cenozoic erosion, is the likely explanation for the occurrence of coarse gold nuggets in Quaternary sediments (Exploration in British Columbia 1989, page 147).

The first placer mining in the Quesnel mining district was along the Quesnel River, and on Horsefly River in 1859. In 1860, new discoveries were rapidly made - Keithley, Snowshoe, and Harvey creeks were discovered and a large amount of gold was produced before the earliest production was recorded in 1874. Fully one-third of the total production of the Quesnel district is believed to have been mined between 1860 and 1873 (Bulletin 28).