Tag: gold mining

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #199 – Mechanical/Industrial

Posted in Alaska, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , 25 Comments

For this challenge, John asks us to feature mechanical and/or industrial images.

The discovery of gold is an important part of Alaska’s history. Several year ago, as we traveled around Alaska, old abandoned dredges and rusty machinery gave us a glimpse of some of the old machines that were once used to mine for gold.

Dredge 8 in Fairbanks is a popular tourist attraction. Other mining equipment is on display and at the end of the tour visitors can pan for gold.

The Pedro Dredge in Chicken shown below is a National Historic Site. The rusty machinery in the header image is on display at the Chicken Post Office. We drove by an active mining operation near there.

Many thanks to John for the challenge Lens’Artists #199: Mechanical/Industrial

Day 48: Gold Fever in Fairbanks

Posted in Alaska, Historic Sites, Tourist AttractionsTagged , , ,

Day 48: Tuesday, July 2, 2013

To get up close and personal with the Alaska Pipeline we stopped at a park on our way to  tour the Gold Dredge 8.

At a section of the pipeline in Fairbanks
I can’t reach!

The tour started with a train ride with demonstrations of gold mining techniques and a stop to learn about the dredge before we got off the train to pan for gold. We got to keep our gold!

Gold Dredge 8
We got off the train here to pan for gold
There was old equipment from the mining days
Another large group panning for gold
Henry struck gold!
Henry’s gold. He got $12 worth, I only got $9.

As we were leaving the tour we stopped at a section of the pipeline to learn a few facts about it.

We passed under the pipeline as we finished the tour. You can see where it goes up the hill in the distance.
A cross section of the pipeline showing cleaners called pigs
Inside the pipe