After reading that there was an abandoned gold dredge near the Steese Highway, North of Fairbanks, we decided to take a look. Dredges were constructed to process gold bearing material; rocks, sand, gravel, etc. much faster than the traditional water sluice method. Dredges were huge machines powdered by gigantic electric motors. Material was scooped by a bucket ladder and brought inside the dredge. There it was turned in a massive steel drum called the trommel. The trommel had small holes in it and the finer material, with the gold, fell through these holes. The silt and gold was then passed through riffle boxes separating the heavier gold. Rocks and unwanted material was taken by conveyer belt and deposited at the back of the dredge in huge piles called tailings. We arrived at the dredge site and after scrambling over massive piles of tailings….
there it was; an abandoned, graffiti scared, rusting monster, the second largest dredge ever built in Alaska. After exploring inside….we wondered what in sounded like while it was working. Rocks clattering in the trommel, belts, gears and winches, motors humming and water flowing through the riffle boxes.
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