The Alaska prospect originally was known by the name Jupiter Mars prospect after several claims and fractions bearing that name. The prospect was discovered prior to 1910 by which time the Jupiter Mars claim was being explored by a 70-foot adit and a 50-foot crosscut (Brooks, 1911). Work continued in 1911 and by 1912, seven or eight claims in the area had been purchased by the Jupiter-Mars Consolidated Gold Company (Brooks, 1912; Smith, 1913; B 525). This company owned the Shamrock, Emerald, Gladstone, Richman, Henchman, Chatham, Jupiter, Mars, and Jupiter Mars Extensions Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Times Publishing Company, 1912). Work was concentrated in two short adits on the Goldstone claim. These adits intersected a northwest-striking, shallowly south-dipping shear zone from which several tons of custom milled ore returned values of about $30 per ton (1.45 ounces of gold per ton) (Smith, 1913; B 525, p. 175). Sulfides make up only a small proportion of the shear zone. Gold is associated with white-quartz vein material (Smith, 1913; B 525, p. 175). The shear zone is cut off in the northern tunnel by frozen fluvial gravels indicating the material in which the tunnel is driven may be part of large slump block. A 66-foot deep shaft had been sunk to the east of the adits by 1912 to prospect along the shear zone (Smith, 1913; B 525). Work continued in 1913 when the shaft was deepened to 125 feet and 112 feet of drift were driven from the shaft (Chapin, 1914, p. 337).

The area was restaked as the Alaska, Alaska #2 and Alaska #3 claims by Fred M. Wackwitz on July 1, 1931 (Hill, 1933). The prospect subsequently became known as the Alaska group and was first prospected with large ditches cut by ground sluicing to remove surface debris. A scorodite-stained quartz-bearing shear zone oriented east-west with a 30 degree north dip, was exposed in this manner; it measured 3 to 5 feet wide and averaged $0.43 per ton (0.02 ounces of gold per ton).

In 1979, Placid Oil began surface trenching, diamond core drilling and geochemical sampling of the shear zones which had been discovered previously. Between 1979 and 1986, Placid Oil drilled 5,137 feet of diamond core and cut several thousand feet of dozer trenches on the prospect, primarily on the Christina shear zone north of the adits and shaft previously driven on the prospect (Porterfield and Croff, 1986).