The Rock Creek Placer occurrence is located along Rock Creek at about 868 metres elevation, about 2 kilometres north of its confluence with McKinney Creek. Bridesville, British Columbia lies 5 kilometres to the southwest.

Placer gold was first discovered on Rock Creek in 1860. The first recorded production occurred in 1875 but a considerable amount was mined prior to this date. The creek produced well for a few years but work almost ceased entirely by 1900. There was a small resurgence of work from 1930 to 1935. In 1930, activity is reported for the Frank Wilson lease on a north fork of Rock Creek. Work was done from two open pits about 61 by 152 metres. Fine colours of gold were panned from certain parts but no continuous strata were found. Most of the gold was coarse and rusty. Occasional lemon-yellow nuggets were found. Gold was mined in Rock Creek below this lease in former years. In total, 152,905 grams of gold were recorded produced between 1874 and 1945 (Bulletin 28, page 37).

Placer gold was recovered from the bed and small benches of Rock Creek. A little drifting was done to explored abandoned stream channels with little success. Some platinum was recovered with the gold. As of 1931, the Quaternary stratigraphy of Rock Creek was determined to consist of recent gravels, followed by about 1.2 metres of slum, 0.61 to 2.4 metres of sand, 0.61 to 1.8 metres of cemented gravel, followed by variable widths of pay gravel on bedrock. Bedrock was gneissic or schistose rock of the Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group and Middle Jurassic granodiorite and granite of the Nelson intrusions. Chlorite schist, greenstone, limestone, chert and minor ultramafics comprise the main lithologies of the Anarchist Group. A total depth of 10.66 to 12.20 metres was estimated. Rim rock along the creek was also found to contain good pay, at about 45.7 metres above the 1931 creek level.

Progressing upstream, gold became coarser and more jagged suggesting the source was not far. For an excellent summary of the Rock Creek Placer refer to Minister of Mines Annual Report 1938, pages D26 to D33.