The Gold Fields

July 28, 2009
Bonanza Creek, Dawson City, Yukon Territory

Once we were settled into Dawson City, it was time to check out the local area. Since this place is all about gold, it made the most sense to check out the gold fields. Since most of the land is privately owned, there are only a few ways to get a sense of the way things played out here.

Basically, as the story goes, gold was discovered on Rabbit Creek (soon to be renamed "Bonanza Creek") in 1897. As word spread, something like 30,000 Stampeders headed for the Yukon, only to find that a) it was difficult and time-consuming at best to get there and b) all the claims had already been staked by the time outsiders arrived. The population of Dawson City swelled by thousands and then diminished just as quickly once the newcomers realized that there were no claims left -- and another strike was reported in Nome, hundreds of miles away.

Over time, individual claims were consolidated and technologies improved, and by the 1920s commercial mining companies controlled everything. They built huge "dredges", essentially land-locked barges floated in a man-made pond along a creek bed with a proven claim. They had three sections: a arm with large scoops and a conveyor belt to dig up the ground, an on-board mill that ground everything up and sifted/washed out the gold, and a trailing arm that deposited the ground up "tailings". They drove a giant spike (a steel pole 8" in diameter and 40' tall) into the bottom of the pond, and started swinging the dredge around in a semi-circle. When they finished an arc, they winched it forward 4 feet and did it all over. They even processed the tailings left behind by original prospectors because improved methods yielded more gold. Suffice it to say that the various tour companies claiming to help you pan for gold these days ("...and you get to keep the gold!") are mining the tourists, not the ground. The gold's long gone.

Anyway, we had an informative tour of an original dredge, and learned quite a bit about the history and the process of gold mining.

Click here for pictures.

I'll post more about the hardships of the Gold Rush journey in subsequent entries. We're kind of doing the path the Stampeders took backward, so we're seeing the gold fields before the trail they used to get here...