Panning for Gold post 2 of 16

We took an excursion to try our hand at panning for gold. The first stop on the tour included an informative presentation on the pipeline. That's a section of actual-size pipe in the lower left. The presenter stood on one of the cement "collars" used to weigh down the pipeline as it traverses open water. There were also major engineering problems needing solution relative to the challenges of permafrost. You can see from the lineup in the background that we were almost the only souls here.

Almost:

 The gold story in Alaska is pretty well known. It was interesting to be given a small sack of rocks and dirt, a pan, and water, to recreate the mining back in the day:

 Obviously they were set up for hordes of panners. And of course, one must have an authentic local character for color and panning tips:

Yes! We hit gold!!! The flecks you see leftmost in the pan, at nine o'clock.... that was weighed and is worth $26.  They use recycled plastic 35mm film containers (you sharp-eyed folks saw them in the pans in the first panning photo above) to transport the booty:

We had the nuggets ensconced in a pendant for the lovely Linda.

Here's a shot of the nugget that was not among our collection:

Prior to our panning experience, the little tourist train took us past the dredge machine, which is how the big boys pan for gold. The lecture here (and a quick intro into panning techniques) was delivered by this fair maiden. I suspect her spouse was the talent/local color guy up at the panning shed.

This floating apparatus was set in a pit, often dug but sometimes natural. Material was dredged up via the buckets attached to the arm at the stern, and inside the water was mostly returned to its prior spot, but the gravel mix went forward to the white chute at the bow of the vessel, to then be "panned" in a more industrial fashion.

This type of mining is not in play today. Too dangerous, and too injurious to the environment.