Fair weather Fairbanks

With gorgeous sunny skies and 70 degree weather, I can understand how university of Alaska Fairbanks recruits students. It was a beautiful day and perfectly warm.

We started with a hotel breakfast buffet that included eggs, bacon, ham and even reindeer sausage (yum). It wasn't too bad, although they could have offered little more fresh fruit. Coffee was good, though.

Our first trip of the day took us north towards the town of Fox. After a little trouble, we found the entrance for Dredge 8, an old mining operation. The Alaska oil pipeline runs through this property and it was fun to see it up close and personal. The guide explained that it spans over 800 miles and is 48 inches in diameter. It is designed to withstand earthquakes with a magnitude of 8 and is insulated with several layers to survive cracking in the 40 below weather. He also talked about how each alaskan resident is given money from the oil every year.

After a brief orientation,  we joined 4 tour buses full of people and hopped about the Beaver Creek train. The 25 minute ride included a lot of narrations and information about how dredge mining works. We learned that a dredge operation uses 9000 gallons of water a minute, requires significant amount of electricity and is one of the most efficient way to mine in permafrost.

Once we reached the actual dredge itself, we saw a bohemith of a machine (4 stories) with all kinds of conveyor belts and buckets. The machine floats down a river, collecting dirt in buckets and digging up to 28 feet deep. It sucks in the dirt, pushes it through a giant filter and spit out the excess materials. Meanwhile, the gold sinks as it is spun through the giant washing machine.

Colby wants to tell about the gold mining we did:

Like she said , we went to dredge number 8. When we first started we got on a train that was crowded. The conductor played the guitar and sang some Johnny cash music.  On the way he told us about the history of the dredge, like it opened in the 1920s and closed in 1959. Coincidentally this is the same year Alaska became a state. Since there was more government control over gold prices, and regulation, they shut it down. Dredge 8 was one of the first to go. The last one to go, in 1967, was dredge 10. When we got past the dredge, they let us pan for gold. It was very fun. Later, we got to weigh it. Moms was $18 worth, mine was $9. Dad gave me his and Grady kept rocks in his so he didn't weigh it. It was really fun!