Wednesday, May 20th
Today we went on one of "those" guided tours and learned about the Alaska Pipe Line and some of the history of early gold mining in Fairbanks. The tour started off right next to the pipe line. This pipeline starts in Prudhoe Bay and runs 800 miles south to Valdez, where the oil is loaded aboard tankers and sent to places like Anacortes for refining. The pipe is 48" in diameter, spans three mountain ranges and more than 30 major rivers and streams. It cost over $8 billion and required over 515 federal and 832 state permits.
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| Pat and a miner standing under the pipeline |
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| This is the reason Alaska has no sales tax |
After that we boarded a small train and rode it out to the old gold dredge #8. Along the way there were guys reenacting different gold mining jobs. When we got to the dredge we got a quick lesson in gold panning, and everyone got off and were given a small bag of dirt ( a poke) and a gold pan. We sat down at some large water troughs, poured the dirt into the pan, and swirled water around in the pan until all that was left was some fine sand and a few gold flakes. Pat and I combined ours together and we watched as they made them into a necklace.
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| A reenactment of the old days |
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| Which way do we go?? |
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| Gold dredge #8 |
We actually really enjoyed the whole thing and they did a very good job, as we learned a lot.
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