![]() ![]() Please allow at least two hours between the time your land excursion begins or ends and your flight. After a brief overview of the pipeline, we boarded a train which took us out over the goldfields to the big gold dredge. The tour starts out at the Alyeska pipeline. Its probably not a tour I would have booked on my own, but we enjoyed it very much. Guests need to make sure they do not reserve Land Excursions on the day of cruise tour arrival or departure that will conflict with their air schedules. The Gold Dredge 8 was one of the tours include with our Alaska Land and Sea cruise. By the time it was being closed down in 1959 the dredge had produced well over 7.5 million ounces of gold. ![]() It reopened in 1946 and continued with production until 1959. It was operated between 19 closing down briefly due to the Second World War. Have your gold turned into a memorable keepsake while you enjoy complimentary coffee and fresh homemade cookies before boarding the train for the return back to the station. Gold Dredge Number 8 was one of the most productive in Alaska. Once the train arrives at the camp, local miners will give a brief but informative course in mining, and then you will try panning for yourself! You will find gold- we guarantee it! Nothing beats the thrill of grabbing a sack filled with pay dirt and getting your chance to strike it rich.įinally, explore the dredge camp and visit the gift shop where you can have your gold weighed and find out the dollar value based on the current market price. The train ride takes you to Gold Dredge 8, a National Historical Monument, where you will see first hand how the dredge worked the gold fields. As the train chugs out of the station, the conductor will play songs from days gone by and tell tales of prospectors who arrived by the thousands during the gold rush. Then you and your family hop aboard the hand-built replica of the narrow-gauge Tanana Valley Railroad that delivered supplies to the gold mining camps scattered throughout the area in the early 1900s. Today it remains a typical example of the machines that mechanized Alaskan placer mining, providing more than a third of the production for the state.Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.īefore you board our train, enjoy a close up view of the TransAlaska pipeline and a presentation about the history and operation of the pipeline. During that time, it cut a 4.5-mile track from which miners produced more than 7.5 million ounces of gold. ![]() Over its 32 years of operation-from early 1928 until operations ended in 1959-it boasted a reputed 95 percent efficiency. The dredge crew worked in three shifts a day for about eight months each year, until the dredge pond froze solid in the fall. The dredge itself was operated by the Fairbanks Exploration Company (part of USSR&M) and powered by electricity from the large coal-fired generating plant in Fairbanks. Fully loaded, its 7.75 foot draft displaces 1,065 tons, including the ballast of steel machinery and on-board equipment. The dredge vessel has a steel hull, 99 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 10.5 feet deep. The gold was trapped on the riffles of the gold tables.ĭredge Number 8, manufactured in 1927-28 by Bethlehem Steel Company, Ship Building Division, is one of the last mammoth gold dredges in the Fairbanks Mining District. The gravel was scooped up in buckets, carried up the ladder, and deposited at the top of the dredge for sorting. Using water to warm the ground, the ground was thawed at an average 9 inches a day. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company (USSR&M) brought water to the area via the 90-mile Davidson Ditch. Ladder dredges came to Alaska in the early 1920s, after the U.S. ![]()
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