June 7 – Fairbanks Excursion


Fairbanks Excursions
All good things do have to come to an end and today is the final day of our Alaskan adventure.  We started the day by going to the Gold Dredge 8 site.  Here we took a “train” to the dredge site  
where gold was mined 

using the dredge, which was a floating “ship” that clawed out earth using a bucketline of digging buckets with a giant trommel, which is a revolving cylindrical screen set at an angle and used for sizing rock and gold ore, and a series of sluice-boxes.   
These sluice-boxes, which separate heavy gold from lighter sands, also contained mercury to amalgamate the last traces of gold. Gold Dredge 8 operated from 1927 until 1959 when profitability dropped.  Much of what was done to get the gold would never have survived OSHA or EPA regulations.  I don't want to think about the mercury contamination in the area.  We had a gold panning demonstration and then received poke sacks, which we used to pan the gold contained in the crushed ore sample.  

The gold flakes were collected and then weighed.  I collected $22 and Bev, $12, in gold. 
We then had lunch at the Riverboat Discovery site before boarding the Discovery III steamboat 
for a trip on the Tanana River to a reconstructed Athabascan Indian “village.”  We traveled on the river, which is banked by boreal (taiga) forests.  We saw several caribou at the village 
and visited three sites where high school and college-aged Athabascan descendants described Athabascan life before and after the gold rush.   
We also saw salmon being dried and smoked.  

One student modeled a hand-made parka that was very gorgeous.   

On the return trip, we were treated to snacks of a salmon-cream cheese spread.

For our final dinner, we had a wine pairing dinner were several wines were paired with Alaskan food.  Dinner consisted of mixed greens salad, broiled cod over asparagus, filet Mignon with smashed potatoes, and ice cream.
Tomorrow morning, we leave Alaska on a 6:20 am flight for Birmingham with plane changes in Seattle and Dallas.  We are to arrive home at 10:15 pm.
This has been a fabulous trip with a number of great people we have met during these 2 weeks and an excellent tour guide, Sandy Malen .


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