Saturday June 14, 2014
WE SURVIVED FRIDAY THE 13TH. HOORAY. Actually, we had a good Friday at the Alaska Antique Car Museum and we told you about that yesterday.
Today we struck it rich, sorta, at the Gold Panning Company just north of Fairbanks and close, sorta, to Fox, anyway, it's in between to two. We eagerly paid our admission and were rareing to get rich quick.
A panning trough.
We met two up and coming entrepreneurs who formed the company for their first year and it appears they will do well. Ilaura Reeves (no I didn't misspell her name) and Jordan are the two enterprising young ladies who have ventured out on their own. My congratulations to them. Their family owns the real estate which gives them the best contract (lease) a person could ask for They share the same philosophy and I compliment them for that. Having spent 22 years in retail business, I know the value and importance of their harmony and accord.
Ilaura
Jordan
Panning for gold isn't what you would think. You know, watching the old Western "Gold Rush" movies you just don't really pay attention to what they're doing . You just assume they know how. Wake up! there's an art to panning correctly and we ask Ilaura to demonstrate it for us. She's a professional . Jordan offered her expertise and believe me it was welcomed. She quickly found many specks we missed. And, she even gave them to us .LOL
We start with this small bag
Get everything wet (&muddy)
Start rinsing out the stones
Rinse it down to sand
Pick out the gold specks
Gold today is valued at $1, 276 an ounce. At our speed in finding the fine particles, I figured we could get rich in about 100 years. Forget about finding a "nugget". they got those at the gold mine before bringing the excess dirt to the company for "tourists" like us to pan through. But here is our glee for what we found:
Nita showing her "vial" of gold
Mine is still in the pan
There was a truck (van) on the lot that contained
some petrified animal bones. Jordan didn't know the story behind the big white one, someone had left it there. We couldn't tell what animals they came from but were told that they find them all over the place & its no big deal. OK, guess we're closer to all the prehistoric animals here in Alaska.
looks like a whale bone
Hard to tell bones
your guess
guess again
There was a lot of antique (ancient) mining equipment strewn about the place. Here are a few
This one is an artist (John Reeves--land owner) creation
these folk didn't get rich today either
Time to say good bye
Oh! I forgot. We haven't really seen any animals yet but here is some Moose Poop we found next to our picnic table this morning
Super
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