Gold Mining

We boarded a train and the entertainer sang and played for us. He apparently had been the starter act for Johnny Cash's last visits to Alaska.

After the singing and short talk, the entertainer got off the train and was replaced by our guide. The entertainer waved as we drove past on the train.

Our gold mining guide explained how they mined gold with the different pieces of equipment.

Here the miner is hauling buckets of dirt out of a hole he is digging. He will then sift through the dirt for gold.

This miner is using a rocker box to mine gold

Mining began to modernize. Here is a water cannon used to cut the dirt off the side of a hill to be mined for gold. Think this was also known as strip mining

This "miner" lady works inside the large operations that had buckets that bring the dirt up and a huge washer that helps to extract the gold. The guys here will show us how to pan for gold.

This young man showed us step by step how to pan for gold.  Look at that gold left in the pan. See that large find at the top of the pan?

The stop included us getting a poke sack with gravel in it for us to pan. Here is Tina's large gold find.

We rode the train back and then went on to other fun things, stay tuned.