Alaska Adventure #6 - Gold Dredge #8

[Blue_In_AK]

The one touristy thing we did on our trip was tour Gold Dredge #8 outside of Fairbanks. The dredge actually operated on this site from the early 1900s, and unlike most of the other abandoned mine sites around Fairbanks was bought by Holland America tours as a destination for their cruise ship passengers and preserved as a kind of museum. The guide takes you through the dredge, and lets you wander around the site by yourself after the official tour to explore the bunkhouses, warehouses, and other cool old stuff. Our guide said that there's so much old stuff laying around on the grounds that most of it has not been gathered, but has been left where it was many years ago.

Anyway, HullBoss was fascinated by the engines and whatnot, having been a marine engineer. I don't understand any of that, so I just took pictures. We lucked out and had the guide to ourselves.

This is the way the dredge looks from the outside.



These are the buckets that scooped the earth out of the ground, each one weighing 1500 pounds.



This is just some cool-looking engine stuff.





This room held some of the old office equipment. I couldn't pass up this light.



These are just a tiny fraction of the prehistoric animal bones that have been dug up at this site. Most of them were just tossed away by the miners as unimportant (i.e., not gold).



Here is our handsome young tour guide demonstrating to HullBoss how it's done.



And here's what all the hubbub is about. :)



Some old equipment laying around



There is still plenty of gold in the Fairbanks area. We were told that the Fort Knox open pit mine operating up there currently produces over 400,000 ounces of gold annually.

I took a lot more pictures here because I have a "thing" for old stuff, but this will give you a flavor anyway.

[RagingInMiami]

1. The first thing I thought when I saw the first picture was ...

"That's a touristy thing?"

It looks like something you would see in a very industrial -- and non-touristy -- area of Miami.

But then i read what you wrote and understood. It's an Alaskan thing.

I like the shot with the phone and the light. And I like the shot of HullBoss and the tour guide. It's very western.

[Maestro]

2. Love that office pic.

And those bones. Wow! What a geek I am.

[priller]

3. I'm stunned by the bones

Are there really that many around? I had no idea.

[bvar22]

4. Gold Dredge #8 is now on my list of "Things to See"....

when I finally take my trip to Alaska.
(I was on my way to Alaska when I was distracted by Minneapolis 7 years ago!)

(Need I say, "Love the pics!")

This thread plus my fascination with photographing (or just gazing at) old machinery prompts me to post an "Old Machinery" challenge thread.

[JeffR]

5. The pic of the office area immediately made me think of

"Photographs and Memories" from the May contest.:)

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Yes, I had that same thought. :-)

Walking around this place really was like a step back in time, especially since they had everything so preserved as it was. One thing that was fascinating that I couldn't photograph too well because it was so dark inside was the giant warehouse which contained all kinds of replacement parts for the dredge and the other mechanical equipment. Also there were stacks and stacks of old dishes, pots and pans, big old Hobart mixers, and silverware -- because of course the miners lived on site and had to eat. The photographs of the crews at work and play, which were displayed on the bunkhouse walls, were pretty cool, too.

I was astonished by the bones, as well. There was this pile and a couple more bigger piles of bones outside in fenced in enclosures surrounded by chicken wire. I like to think of what the Fairbanks area must have looked like back during the last Ice Age with all those big critters running around all over and the ancestors of today's Alaska natives hunting them down to survive.