The passion for gold ignited 100 years ago by the arrival in San Francisco of millions mined at Dawson City still exists today in the Yukon and Alaska. From the time we entered Dawson City, locals were thrilled to discover we were from Ohio because Marion is where Dredge #4 was manufactured. Since we had no clue we decided to visit the Dredge and take the National Parks tour. It’s pretty amazing what people did to mine gold! Dredge #4 is the largest of about 20 dredges that were built, shipped in pieces, and re-assembled on location around the Yukon and Alaska.
A dredge is actually a floating boat with large buckets (66 on dredge #4) attached to a chain that pulls dirt & rocks up to dump into a big trammel which is like a revolving flour sifter. The gold falls to the bottom of the sluice box while the rocks and dirt are dumped out the back. As new areas are dug, the water moves forward and dredge is re-staked in a new spot, leaving large piles of rocks behind called tailings. In Dawson City, tailings from Dredge #4 run for miles, in many directions. In fact, now small subdivisions are being built right on the old tailings. Dave thought that would be really cool – no lawn to mow!
We were amazed that it took only 4 people to operate the monster! But, due to permafrost, it required over 150 more people to prepare the ground in front of the dredge. The first hydroelectric dam was built here (Dawson city had electricy before San Francisco!) to supply the power needed to drive the dredge, and a massive aquaduct snaked 100’s of miles north to supply the huge amounts of water needed to sift thru all the gravel in search of those elusive nuggets of gold. Amazingly, that water was also run thru pipes in order to thaw the permafrost. In fact they worked for 2 -5 years — Yep – that’s years! — to remove the topsoil and thaw the earth ahead of The Dredge. Fortunately, it didn’t move very fast – only about 1/2 mile in a season. For those who want to find out more check out this website. They also needed a way to move the equipment and gold, so a railroad was built, too!
When you return, I can show you a picture of Dredge #4 taken in 1965. When spent part of an afternoon picking our way over the tailings and imagining we were finding nuggets of gold missed by the miners. We were, of coure, fools, and found only fools’ gold.