Placer gold deposits of the Quesnel Highland region, including the former rich producers of the Barkerville Camp, have accounted for a large proportion of British Columbia's alluvial gold production. With the exception of a few producers in the Wingdam area, which are underlain by Upper Triassic Nicola Group sediments, almost all the deposits are underlain by the Upper Proterozoic to Lower Paleozoic Snowshoe Group. These rocks have been metamorphosed to greenschist facies and are predominantly metasedimentary.

Placer gold deposits in the region are generally found in relatively young Pleistocene gravels. The morphology and mineral associations of the gold suggests that it was derived locally, the most obvious sources being the numerous auriferous veins in the Downey succession of the Snowshoe Group.

Placer mining of bench gravels has taken place in the narrow upper part of Summit Creek and in a few places in the wider, lower part. Operations have also taken place on the Sisters Creek and Hobo Gulch tributaries. Mining has been done by ground sluicing, hydraulicking and deep drifting. Gold occurs mainly in surface gravels overlying glacial drift. The area is mainly underlain by basaltic rocks of the Mississippian-Permian Antler Formation (Slide Mountain Group) although the uppermost part of the creek is underlain by Snowshoe Group rocks.

Between 1891 to 1945, intermittent production from Summit Creek totalled 19,189 grams gold. From 1894 to 1896, production from Big Valley, Pinus (Pine) and Summit creeks was recorded under Shepherd Creek (093H 045)(Bulletin 28).

"Data from the Cariboo mining district indicate that supergene leaching of gold dispersed within massive sulphides by Tertiary deep weathering followed by Cenozoic erosion is the most likely explanation for the occurrence of coarse gold nuggets in Quaternary sediments" (Exploration in British Columbia 1989, page 147).