Otter Creek flows north into the west end of Surprise Lake about 17 kilometres northeast of the community of Atlin. The main part of the creek is about 10 kilometres long with a 5-kilometre-long west-flowing spur at its southern end. The creek has been worked more or less continuously from the discovery of gold in Pine Creek in 1898. Approximately 688,445 grams of gold were recovered from the creek between 1896 and 1945 making it the sixth largest producer in the Atlin area (Bulletin 28). Most was taken by hydraulic and underground operations near the mouth of the creek.

The lower section of the creek flows over mafic volcanics of the upper Mississippian to Permian Nakina Formation (Cache Creek Complex) and upper Mississippian to Permian ultramafic rocks (Cache Creek Complex). The ultramafic rocks are often highly altered to talc and serpentinite with silicification and iron carbonate alteration. These rocks are overlain by primarily chert and argillite of the Mississippian to Triassic Kedahda Formation, also of the Cache Creek Complex, which are exposed further up the stream. The creek is located right at the southern margin of the Late Cretaceous Surprise Lake batholith (Surprise Lake Plutonic Suite).

Three pay channels were mined at Otter Creek, one on bedrock, one 10 metres above, and one 20 metres above. Like many creeks in Atlin, the richest pay came from the first 1.8 to 2.4 metres of gravel above bedrock and from a metre or so of the often highly altered and weathered bedrock itself.

Work was concentrated in the lower section near Surprise Lake and in the west flowing upper branch. Only exploratory drilling has been done in the middle sections. The creek received little or no work in the late 1940s and 1950s. Some underground work has been done on the creek.

Minstral Resources has conducted large-scale operations on the lower portion of Otter Creek.

In 2003, a seismic refraction investigation was carried out on behalf of Riverhall Resources Ltd. The survey included five separate lines totalling approximately 860 metres in length. In 2008, Blind Creek Resources Ltd. focussed work in the lower Otter Creek and lower and upper Spruce Creek areas. Work included geological observations, geochemical sampling and a reconnaissance magnetometer survey.

In 2015 and 2017, DeCoors Mining Corp. and Gray Rock Resources Ltd. respectively, conducted exploration in the Otter Creek area of their Surprise Lake property. The geological setting of the Otter Creek placer deposit was investigated and a property examination mainly comprised a reconnaissance style-mapping program to examine the phyllite hostrocks in the Otter Creek placer pit and a program of sampling specific rock types; a total of 16 samples were collected.