WOW! What a difference a 100 years makes in the way GOLD is mined…. We toured the El Dorado goal mine which operated in the early 1900s and after seeing how the present day GOLD mine, Kinross, operates, we realized we had literally gone back in time for a few hours. You know, for what it’s worth, we liked the El Dorado mine with all its charm. We know it was hard work and the living conditions were bad; however, panning for GOLD was exciting, mainly when we found over $31 in GOLD. Not bad for about 10-15 minutes of panning. Ever feel like you have been had or set up, we went inside to have our GOLD cleaned and weighted and when we left our gold was encased in a locket that cost us about 40 bucks. We took our $31 dollars of GOLD? and wound up paying the 40 bucks… Who won this game??? Anyway, we can definitely see how you could catch GOLD fever, did I mention we bought our own GOLD pans and will be hitting the creeks later today… no fever, at least not us, just trying our luck again. You never know when you may hit the BIG GOLD VEIN. However, if you are ever in Fairbanks, the El Dorado Gold Mine is worth a visit, from the train ride to the actual area where they are demonstrating the methods used to mine GOLD in the early 1900s. “Yukon Yonda” and her husband, Dexter Clark are local miners who provided a tour and demonstration of sluice box mining and a crash course on how to pan for GOLD. This is another activity that is in the Alaska Tour Saver Book with a 2 for 1 offer. We saved approximately $35.
For those of you on your way to Alaska just a few logistics: Gas in Fairbanks is 3.99/gal and diesel is 4.32/gal at Safeway. We are doing laundry in Fairbanks and it costs 6 dollars/load and drying is a nickel a minute at a local Laundromat. We stayed one night in The Chena River Recreation Area for $17 a night without any hook-ups and $28 per night with water and electricity.
NOTE: We are presently at Denali National Park and catching up on our blog. Just a reminder, you can double click on the pictures in our blog to enlarge them.
Ready to board the Tanana Valley Railroad.
We're off to the mines with high expectations.
Going through a permafrost tunnel where gold and fossils from prehistoric animals were found.
The early days of gold mining.
We watched as dirt and rocks were dumped into the sluice box.
Our crash course in gold panning.
What every miner looks for... GOLD and more GOLD!!!!
Our turn... Our GOLD
How do you make a lady smile? Lay one of these nuggets in her hands!!!
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