Fantasy Caravan Day 28 part 1 - Gold Dredge #8

On Friday, Fantasy had arranged another bus trip for us, this time to Gold Dredge #8 (https://www.golddredge8.com/#about).

On the way, the bus driver noticed something along the road -- you can barely see its head...

... and there it goes off into the woods -- a moose! Our first moose (others on our trip have seen some, but Carl and I had not to this point).

One of the parts of the Gold Dredge visit was information about the Aleyska Pipeline. Carl and I had visited another location where the pipeline could be viewed (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/08/fantasy-caravan-day-25-part-1-tok-to.html) but we got more information at this stop.

Map and facts about the pipeline

An example of the heat pipes that we could see

It was pretty rainy, and we were waiting for an explanation to start.

Cut-away example of pig in pipeline

Pipeline with heat pipes to preserve the permafrost

Hmmm... "Please do not <something> on the pipeline" -- Carl said that it said "climb"

Just on either side of the elevated portion to protect the permafrost, the pipeline went back underground at this location.

The area where it went back underground was just to the left here.

A sample of a pipeline "pig"

We headed for the train...

... and then our guide gave us the lecture that he would normally do at the pipeline, but using the video monitors so we could be out of the rain -- which we all appreciated!

After learning about the pipeline through the displays, lecture, and video, we started our train journey back in time to gold rush days.

A rocker sluice

There was an example of a mining camp type of setup -- it was interesting because the digging in the mine would happen in the winter when everything was frozen because it was safer (than working in the thawed material). They would collect the dug up material on the surface, and then process the dug contents in the summer.

The dredge required electricity, so there was a wire run from Fairbanks to the site to provide electricity (a very, Very, VERY large extension cord).

Gold Dredge #8.

This was much like the dredge that we had seen in Chicken (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/07/fantasy-caravan-day-23-part-2-chicken.html), but the buckets are in place so you can possibly see them (like a chain saw blade of buckets).

Our guide talking to us from over on the dredge. You can see in the dredge pond that it was raining pretty steadily.

The train engineer, our guide, and another helper demonstrated panning for gold...

See the gold flakes at the top of his panning pan?

The train continued on over to the gold panning village...

We were each given a "poke" of dirt to pan...

Poke next to our pan with film canister for our gold flakes

We all set to work panning.

One of our Fantasy Ambassadors took a picture of us panning for gold.

We didn't take a picture of our pan with our gold flakes... Carl dipped up another pan of mud from the trough to see if he could find any flakes from what others had already panned, but no luck with that!

Carl demonstrating the wave-action cleaning technique:

After we finished panning, we headed into the gift shop...

Lots of interesting things!

A 19 ounce nugget that we could pick up and handle

Some smaller nuggets for sale

We could have our gold flakes put into a piece of jewelry.

Or we could purchase jewelry with gold flakes in it.

We took our two canisters with gold flakes to get our haul weighed and valued!

It turned out that Carl had $12 of gold that he had panned, and I had $13. (Mine may have been a little more because my first poke had just a couple of flakes, so one of the assistants got me another poke and I got more from the second bag.) We decided to just keep our flakes in our canisters and not spend additional money on jewelry, but a number of folks in our group did have their hauls put into jewelry.

They had hot coffee, tea, chocolate, and various cookies to keep us energized while shopping!

I thought that these socks were funny... it may require a moment or two of thought.

There were a number of information boards in the gift shop -- I have included them -- I think you can click on any that you might have interest in and get a larger version of the picture to be able to read the content.

Rocker Box

Sluice box

Various materials used in sluice boxes, as well as a portion of a trommel screen.

Gold panning supplies that we could have bought to bring home with us (purchasing an additional "poke" cost $35 -- and we got $12 and $13 out of the ones we panned).

Lots of items in the gift store

Additional information that you can click on and read more if you want.

One of the many electric motors that were around the area.

Leaning wheel grader

Furnace of some sort (heat bricks inside, made to seal)

Train ready to take us back to the parking area

Outside of the shopping area

All the shopping area associates came out to wave good-bye to us.

Tim, our guide

Mileages to various places "not exact but close enough"

The concrete half-circle would be used to hold the pipeline underground/underwater for rivers where it was not bridged across.

The bus that the campground provided to take us around to various places in and around Fairbanks.

The Gold Dredge #8 was operated by the same family as the Riverboat Discovery. In a similar way, the tour was very scripted, but also very well done.