Today we woke up to a beautiful day-started out at 55 degrees and got up to 72. Sunshine and no humidity. We have lucked out with great weather since the trip began. We really only have 2 hours of semi-darkness-1:30-3:30 a.m. and it's like dusk but not dark. It is very hard to get use to it. We have met 3 people from Texas Tech-a couple that saw my Tech sweatshirt and came up to us in Whitehorse and a former Tech professor of Geography who retired in '98 that over heard us talking yesterday about Tech in the lobby. The young couple are Army and he has been moved to Fairbanks for the next 3 years. They began the drive from Ft. Worth and have made their way through the U.S., & The Yukon. They have been on the road for 2 weeks. The teacher now lives in Colorado, but her son is in Lubbock. They did the trip in reverse order from us. Everyone we have met has been friendly.
Well, today we decided to stay with the Gold Rush and visit a mining Dredge built in the early 1900's. These huge dredges were in operation from 1905 to 1960. It was amazing how they worked and how they were built. The metal parts, wheels, gears etc. were manufactured in Ohio and then transported by ship around Alaska, to the Bering Sea, and then on the Yukon. The entire engineering, building and operation of it was amazing. This was an isolated freezing place in1900! The bad thing was it ruined the valley and left mounds of tailings (rocks and dirt debris that was sifted as the dredge dug for gold) for miles. Now any mining must leave the land reclaimed. After the park ranger gave us a tour of Dredge 4 (no longer in operation) which took an hour, we saw a film made in 1930 of a dredge in action. We then drove to Dredge 5 which was operating and then went to Claim 6 along the Bonanza Creek and learned how to pan for gold. Our guide was a teacher in the fall and a Husky Van tour guide in the summer. We panned for gold and actually got a few flakes which are now in a small vial of water. Gold is much heavier than water & drops to the bottom. Panning is very tedious work. I certainly couldn't do it hour after hour, let alone day after day! We now know alot about the gold rush, panning and industrial gold mining. After our mining tour, we walked around town and did a historical walking tour and visited shops. After a 2 hour rest in the room, we hiked a trail along the side of the mountain and took pictures of the town and river from the cliffs. We are headed back to Diamond Tooth Gerties again for the 10:30 pm show. They have 3 shows a night and each is different. Last night was the 8:30 pm. Check out the pictures from today. Tomorrow we are taking a steam paddle ferry ride on the Yukon and then we will board the motor coach, roll on to the ferry for cars, and cross the river to travel on the sky top highway to Tok! We will be back in the US.