This is up the Taylor Hwy, at Chicken , Alaska Long ago stopped mining, the buckets on the ladder are gone. Presumably someone got them for home,business decorations. They make nice flower planters. It has an interesting post mining story, the dredge has since been moved. http://explorenorth.com/library/mining/pedro_dredge.html
Post Mining Operation Here's a most interesting history, the sale and the relocation of the dredge to it's current site. http://touchngo.com/sp/html/sp-5752.htm
Northart, The second link made for great reading. Can't really figure out way the new owner wanted to stop K&K from removing the dredge. It couldn't of had much value beyond it scrap price. Glad to see it's now a local tourism magnet? Is their still a lot placer mining in the Chicken area? Thanks for the post, John
Court actions ? Hello John, Looks like Emotional ties to me . For a lack of further research into it. I haven't been up to Chicken and Eagle in many years. Just assume there is some activity going on. Especially now with Historic Gold prices, even marginal ground can be mined profitably. Yeah, I know fuel hauled in cost BIG $ . Still, gold has tripled.
Nome , Alaska Gold Dredge Here's one of the gold dredges operating in Nome. There is several over there. The last one shut down finally, I heard. The largest one, had a digging ladder going down 90'. Another one(abandoned) burned up in a fire. There's one by Fox, outside Fairbanks that is resurrected as a tourist draw. Another one at Chatanika. Fascinating bits of machinery history.
this is what it looks like 'behind" the gold dredges.
above picture is near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.
Great pics. Who has to restore the land after mining, or don't you bother? Restoration is a most important subject in Australia these days........C ya.......Ray
been left like that for decades already...
Been there several times and those pictures don't do show any ware near the destruction to the land that was caused by turning it upside down. Today they would have to reclame the land but most of that work was done in the early to mid 1900's. There are some areas that after 50 years still don't have a twig growing on it. And yes there is still a lot of mining going on up north. There are 2 new mines trying to open here around Juneau but the environmentalists have held them up for years. 1 tried to open about 10 years ago and after investing over 20 Million in it decided it was not cost effective to fight them so it just quit trying.
Tailings Piles ? Hello Ray, The dredges operated in the 20's-30's-40's , when NO Reclamation Laws existed or were even thought about. The price of gold them days was $35 and less. WW2 brought a halt to most gold mining when the Gov't outlawed private ownership of gold. Pegged it at an artificial $35, as the Gold Standard, backing the $US . Alaska was still a US Territory, did not become a State till 1959. President Richard Nixon took us off the Gold Standard an we no longer even have anything, even Silver Certificates, backing us except "Federal Reserve Note" which is fiat money. Only then when private ownership was allowed, did Gold start to rise in value, and make Gold mining feasible. The exisitng tailings piles still contain lot of valuable gold waiting to be reprocessed again.
Neat pics Northart, as always. Thanks for sharing. Trbo
Pedro Dredge, Chicken Alaska Nice pictures Northart....I took them though (some credit would be appropriate). They are from our website: http://chickengold.com . I also wrote the story you mentioned at explorenorth.com. The dredge is now a National Historic Site and available for tours. The buckets are still together in a string and will be replaced some day. This dredge is in very good shape, probably the most complete dredge open to the public in N.A. And, yes, there is plenty of mining activity in the Chicken area...some of which is the recreational mining that we are providing on our claims in Chicken. Mike
Photo Credits ? Hello Mike Busby, Sorry for the lack of due diligence on my part , for not securing your permission and giving credit. The website of explorenorth, led me onto it and further . The Chicken , Alaska Pedro Gold Dredge photos are by Mike Busby, from the Chickengold.com I apologize for any misconceptions . Thank you Mike for bringing that to my attention.
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums chickengold! :drinkup For future reference to all members: If you pull a picture, story, etc. from the internet, we need to credit the photographer and the site from which the picture originated. If this information is not available, atleast leave a link to the site where you found the picture. People abroad take pictures of anything and everything and most are proud of their efforts. In respect of those efforts, we should provide credit where credit is due, to the best of our abilities. This will help to cover all bases in respect to copyright laws. Thanks