Searching for gold-Where Gold Panning and Prospecting Alluvial and small nuggets gold In Alaska Rivers and Mines

PLACES

1 Fairbanks, AK. Home to some of the most famous mining attractions in the state, Fairbanks has a range of locations for gold panning. Just north of Fairbanks, the country side is dotted with hundreds of small backyard gold mining operations and thousands of gold mining claims notices.

2 Hope, AK. Located in the Kenai Peninsula, Hope is a small town of about 200 people. You can do a demonstration-based gold tour at Indian Valley Mine a few miles south of Anchorage, then continue another hour onto Hope where you can pan in Resurrection Creek.

3 Girdwood, AK. This resort town is home to CROW CREEK MINE, a place to learn all about gold mining and find some gold!

4 Juneau, AK. The capital city of Alaska, Juneau has a rich history that involves gold. There are some very popular gold panning tours.

1834 Party of Russian-Americans under Malakoff reports finding gold in the Russian River drainage of the Kenai Peninsula.1867 Alaska purchased from Russia and officially handed over to the United States in a ceremony at Sitka.1880 Gold discovered near Juneau, both in the Silver Bow Basin and on Douglas Island.1886 Gold found in the Fortymile River, the first major gold discovery in the interior of Alaska.1893 Gold discovered on Birch Creek in an area that later became famous as the Circle Mining District1896 George Washington Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Tagish Charlie find rich deposits of gold on a tributary of the KlondikeRiver in the Yukon Territory of Canada, starting the Klondike Gold Rush. 1898 Miners from the Klondike continue down the Yukon to Alaska’s Seward Peninsula and find gold at Nome. Others makefinds in other parts of Alaska. 1902 Felix Pedro finds gold on a tributary of the Tanana River at the site what is now the city of Fairbanks

In 1896, George Washington Carmack and his Native American brothers-in-law, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie, found rich deposits of gold in the sands and gravels of a tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Their discovery started the stampede that became famous as the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. In the summer of 1898, tens of thousands of would-be miners struggled over Chilkoot and White Passes into the Klondike re- gion only to find that the gold-rich streams al- ready had mining claims staked along their lengths. Some of these fortune-seekers turned back in disappointment, but many pushed on down the Yukon River into the nearby Alaskan interior in their quest for gold.

Most gold mined in Alaska comes from the sands and gravels of streams and rivers. Sands and gravels that contain accumulations of gold or other minerals, such as platinum, diamond, ruby, and sapphire, are called placers. When rock ma- terial is broken down and transported by water, minerals such as these, which are heavier than other rock particles, tend to lag behind and be concentrated in placers. As much as two-thirds of the gold ever mined may have come from placer deposits; the rest has come from bedrock ore deposits, called lodes.

Gold is found and has been mined throughout Alaska; except in the vast swamps of the Yukon Flats, and along the North Slope between the Brooks Range and the Beaufort Sea. Areas near Fairbanks and Juneau, and Nome are responsible for most of Alaska’s historical and all current gold production.