Page 180 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

178  ALASK A AREA B Y AREA

P Gold Dredge No. 8
1803 Old Steese Hwy N. Tel 479-6673,
(866) 479-6673. Open mid-May–
mid-Sep: tours daily at 10:30am and
1:45pm (advance booking required).
& 7 - ∑ golddredge8.com
A brief taste of the Fairbanks
Gold Rush of 1902 can be
experienced at Gold Dredge
No. 8, which gives visitors
a two-hour long tour that
faithfully explains gold-mining
methods used in the early days.
The tour begins with a ride on
a replica of the Tanana Valley
Railroad, with commentary and, Historic Manley Roadhouse in the village of Manley Hot Springs
if longtime conductor Earl is on
board, old-time country songs pannings can be encased in a At the tiny village of Livengood,
along the way. First stop is by locket if you wish, while every- the Dalton Highway (see
a section of the Trans-Alaska one enjoys complimentary pp222–3) turns north toward
Pipeline, which carries approx- coffee and cookies. Prudhoe Bay while the Elliott
imately 15 per cent of the This attraction is run by the Highway continues westward.
nation’s oil production. (Top tip: Binkleys, a fifth-generation At Mile 87, the road begins
stand under the pipe, raise your Alaskan steamboating family to climb to the trailhead
arms and have your photo taken who also operate the Riverboat for Tolovana Hot Springs,
“holding up” the structure.) Discovery trip on a picturesque 11 miles (18 km) off the
The train then moves on sternwheeler (see p175); the two highway to the south east.
to Dredge No. 8 – a huge, tours can be combined in a day. Pre-booking is essential for the
mechanical gold pan which springs and lodge. At Mile 98,
between 1928 and 1959 } Elliott Highway the view opens up to take in the
extracted over 7.5 million Starts 11 miles (18 km) NW of lake-studded Minto Flats, and a
ounces (210,000 kg) of gold. Fairbanks, off the Steese Highway. few miles later, a long side road
Miners demonstrate the use Tolovana Hot Springs 100 miles turns south to the Athabaskan
of a sluice box and also give a (160 km) W of Fairbanks. Tel 455-6706. village of Minto.
brief history of mining in Alaska. & ∑ tolovanahotsprings.com The Elliott Highway ends
Prospectors then demonstrate Manley Hot Springs 152 miles at the pretty village of Manley
panning and washing gravel (245 km) W of Fox. Tel 672-3171. & Hot Springs, which boasts
to extract the gold, and the Connecting Fairbanks with the Gold Rush-era Manley
guides encourage visitors to try Manley Hot Springs, the wind- Roadhouse. The village’s
it themselves using “pay dirt.” ing, undulating Elliott Highway growth dates from 1902,
Any gold found is weighed to is a 152-mile (245-km) wilder- when the site became a supply
determine its current value, and ness route through some of center for the nearby Tofty and
can then be kept by the lucky Interior Alaska’s finest scenery. Eureka Mining Districts. Today,
finder. Exit is, inevitably, through The landscape it passes through the hot springs consist of
the gift shop, where your gold is especially lovely in early three tubs in a spring-fed
September, with the fall colors greenhouse filled with
of the birch and aspen forests. tropical plants.
Dredging for Gold
After early prospectors had taken most of Alaska’s easily available
gold, large mining companies employed mechani cal dredges,
which resembled massive houseboats beset with machinery.
To get at the gold-bearing quartz, water cannons
blasted away soil and gravel permafrost
layers. Upon reaching the bedrock, a dredge
was brought in, usually to a streambed, to
gouge out the rock using steel buckets on
a conveyor belt. The rock was then sifted by
screens of diminishing size until it reached a
riffle board, where mercury was introduced to
bind with the gold. Dredges crawled slowly
upstream, creating dredge ponds in front of Steel bucket used in
Gold Dredge No. 8 moored along the them and leaving artificial moraines behind. gold dredging
Old Steese Highway
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p244 and pp254–5

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