Panning the Old Way

Pay dirt...that gold stuff at the top of the pan is what any miner wanted to see.  The small amount here is easily $60 worth at today's prices.

Gold panning amounted to putting about a hand-full of gravel/earth into the pan and then loading the pan with some water and swishing the water/gravel mix around while discharging light material out of the lower edge of the tilted pan until the only remaining material was the most dense material remaining in the pan...gold.

There's a lot more to panning than this brief description above but we all had the opportunty to practice the skill with a bag of dirt which we got at Gold Dredge #8 after a brief panning tutorial.  

Between Mary and me, we got about $18 worth from our 2 bags.  Everyone got something to show for his work and someone from the dredge admitted to me that "some salting" had taken place to keep the guests happy at their last chance opportunity to pay back the cost of the cruise.  Nobody actually broke even!

Gold Dredge #8

The very last stop of the land cruise was at Gold Dredge #8 which was designed and built by the Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding Division in Pennsylvania.  This dredge is called a "bucket line" or "ladder dredge".  The dredge is built upon a barge platform and floats along and employs a vertical post anchoring system to hold it in place to enable the buckets to dig into the earth in front of the dredge up to a depth in the ground of 28 feet.  

The dredge has a total of 68 buckets of 6 cubic feet capacity each.   The machine was powered by a 150 horsepower electric motor.  Since it moved slowly it basically used a humongous extension cord to deliver electric power to the barge which was moved and extended as the dredge advanced.

The "monster gold pan" in front of the dredge is strictly an ornament to show the primitive device used initially for gold panning.

The basic concept of the dredge employed the removal of earth and its transfer to an elaborate weir system which employed running water to separate gold from the rest of the material on the basis of differences in specific gravity.   Other tricks such as the use of mercury to combine with the gold particles to form an amalgam was also a part of the dredge design intending to leave no gold particle left behind...to the extent that was imaginable.

This particular dredge operated between 1928 and 1959.  Dredges of this design were sometimes moved during winter months by sliding them over the snow covered ground with teams of bull dozers attached to the barge.

Alaskan Oil Pipeline

No trip to Alaska would be complete without seeing the oil pipeline.  This part of the pipeline in the photo passed by Fairbanks.  The pipes are not rigidly attached to the support structure and rest on slides which permit for motion from thermal expansion.  Careful design also insulates the pipeline from the vertical supports in order to avoid transmission of heat into the support columns with the undesired effect of the melting of the permafrost and the certain sinking of the support columns into the ground.  

The vertical units visible on top of the dark support posts are radiator units which are attached to heat pipes which transfer any heat in the support column to the surrounding air to further guarantee that the posts are not warmed and sink into the permafrost.  

The pipe line is a collection of 40 foot long sections of 48 inch internal diameter pipe.  The line is laid out in a zig-zag to permit linear expansion.  At start up, the thermal expansion produced a growth in line length of 4 feet per mile.  This pipeline now accounts for 20% of all US production.  It is owned to the order of 70% by BP.

Oil comes from the ground at 180 degrees F and averages about 60 to 72 degrees F inside the pipeline.  There are a total of 5 pumping stations over the entire length.

The estimated cost of construction was $900 million.  The actual cost was $8.8 billion with a total of 2000 contractors working on the job.  The cost of the pipeline was recovered by the oil revenues collected from the first 14 months of operation.

The problems confronting the pipeline construction:

1)  Mountain ranges

2)  Perma frost

3)  13 major rivers to cross

4)  3 earthquake faults to cross

 

Sled Dog University

At the Chena Indian Village stop on our riverboat Discovery tour, we got the opportunity to hear from a real sled dog breeder, trainer, and musher.

We even got to rub the fur on a couple authentic Alaskan Husky puppies.  Alaskan Huskies are the marathon sled dogs which have resulted from a wide variety of dog breeds which came to Alaska with early settlers and eventually produced the non-AKC recognized breed.

This breeder/trainer/musher keeps about 60 dogs in order to build a competitive racing sled dog team.  Sled dogs must be over 3 years old to qualify for racing since that length of time is required for proper body maturity and stamina.  Iditarod sled dog teams have a maximum starting dog team of  16 with a minimum of 12.  At least 6 dogs must be on the tow line at the finish.  In order to build a capable dog team of 16, it is easy to see why a serious musher would have 60 dogs at a time. 

The leading dogs on the team are called the "lead dogs",  followed by the "swing dogs", followed by the "team dogs", followed by the "wheel dogs", and finally the sled and musher.  See the real details here:  ultimateiditarod.com

The towline or gangline is the basis for the tandem hitch on which pairs of dogs work from either side of the line to tow the sled.  A number frequently mentioned is that a single dog can tow a 60 pound load.  Not knowing any other details such as conditions, time, etc this is only a ballpark number for the sake of conversation.  A lot of careful thinking and strategy as well as love for the dogs on the team factors into grooming a competitive dog team.    

Riverboat Discovery

The riverboat "Discovery" was our vehicle for a great trip on the Chena River in Fairbanks.Not only that...there were free donuts and coffee...real nourishment! 

From the open decks we got to see a dog sled demonstration, dog sled puppies in training and learning to "follow the leader", how to catch salmon with "fish wheels",  how to prepare smoked salmon, and view bush pilots landing both on the river as well as on a sand bar.

Along the riverboat ride we stopped at a demonstration village, the Chena Indian Village, where native Athabascan Indians demonstrated their cultural skills and explained how their ancestors lived prior to the advent of "westernization".

I found it interesting to learn that the wood mostly used for smoking salmon for feeding sled dogs is generally done with birch or spruce which are more abundant.  The wood of choice for smoked salmon for human consumption is alder. 

Diner on the Alaskan Railway

Dinner on the train on the way to Fairbanks provided both an opportunity to finally eat a relatively great meal, sit down on a comfortable seat, see some great scenery, and discuss what we had seen in addition to what was passing the windows.

Since most of our traveling group companions all had diverse interests, we would discuss what we had done earlier on our optional tours along the planned tour route.  

Not everyone shelled out $250 a person to get a 15 minute helicopter ride or a bush pilot ride.  I suspect our biggest outlay was the $125 a person to go horseback riding on the tundra which seems in retrospect to have been worth the money considering the experience and likely prospect that we my never return to that place to get a second chance at it.  Overall, we elected to see things up close and touch them rather than see them from far away.  Thus, hiking was what we usually picked on for the chance to see and hear about the vegetation and see what was on the ground.  

Alaskan Railroad

The Alaskan Railroad starts in Seward and ends in Fairbanks which was our last destination on the land cruise prior to our departure and end of the cruise and land tour.

We boarded the train at the Visitor's Center in Denali Park and spent about 3 or so hours riding through the changing landscape which was mountainous to start and relatively flat by the time we arrived at Fairbanks.

Weather in Fairbanks is amazingly mild by comparison to other places in Alaska.  The sun was actually shining there most of the time since we were considerably inland and away from the rain forested coastal areas.

Most descriptions of cruises to Alaska fail to belabor the fact that rain gear had better be a key issue when you pack your bags.  Dressing in layers of clothing was mentioned but relatively continuous  rain and overcast conditions would not make fair-weather people overly exuberant to sign up for a cruise if it were a prominent issue in the promotional literature.   

As with most vacation trips we have taken, the most truthful thing that one should keep in mind is the fact that "a place is what it is, and not what one would necessarily like it to be".  Most of the natural beauty and wildlife in Alaska results from "what is there" and not "some docile paradise which accommodates flatland tourists".