One of the problems that stymied development was water, or specifically the lack thereof. Efforts were made to bring water from Willow Creek, but that was fraught with problems—litigation over water rights. Then there was another dilemma, of finding water in all the wrong places. In the tunnels miners experienced a tremendous amount of water seepage, compounding an already difficult task. The author can attest first hand having had explored the Golden Eagle mine with water dripping everywhere.