El Dorado Gold Mine

When we got to Fairbanks, Michael suggested going to the El Dorado Gold Mining site, where not only do you get to tour the old mine and see how mining was done years ago, but you get to pan for gold, too! The consensus was, it was worth a try, so why not? I called and made reservations for their 9:30 tour, I nagged Ian enough to leave by 9:00 in case there was trouble on the road, which there was. We’ve learned the hard way that road work is done in the summer up here, since winter isn’t the best time to be laying asphalt. Although, we did learn at the El Dorado Mine that the mining is done in the winter so the earth is hard (frozen is more like it) rather than in the summer when the ground is soft and muddy, ideal for cave-ins. The miners bring up the dirt and rock to be sifted in the winter and make piles and piles of it. Then during the summer, they sift through the dirt to find their gold nuggets. But, I digress.

Anyway, after getting around the orange cones and traffic back-ups due to the road construction, we got to the mine site just in time to get our tickets for the short train ride. Everyone boarded an open-air train typical of amusement park rides. Up front was a man dressed in black, sporting black sunglasses and a guitar, sitting on a stool. He welcomed everyone on board, asked where we all hailed from (the lady sitting behind us came from Helena, Alabama, just down the road from Yvonne’s house), then proceeded to tell us how in previous years he played the steel guitar for such hunks as Don Ho, Johnny Cash, etc. I wanted to, but didn’t, find the chance to ask him how Don Ho was in person, as when I met Ian in Hawaii back in 1971 for his R&R from Viet Nam, we attended one of Don Ho’s shows. While he was talking to the audience during a break in his singing, he asked for a show of hands from GIs there on R&R. Ian and I were sitting in the second row, so he pointed to me, asked if I was that GI’s wife, and when I said yes, he said I deserved to come up on stage and get a kiss from him! So, I did. Well, it was a thrill for me, but a bone of contention for Ian all these years. Basic jealousy, really. Yeah, like I was going to run off with Don Ho to his Honolulu paradise because he just happened to peck me on the cheek. (I related this story to Sheilagh later in the car, and she suggested that maybe Ian was jealous because Don Ho didn’t ask HIM to come up to get a kiss! Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that!)

Anyway, once the train was boarded, Earl (that’s the music guy’s name) proceeded to give us the rules of the ride (keep hands inside, etc.), and serenaded us with “North to Alaska” and imitations of Johnny Cash. He said that when he played for Johnny Cash, Johnny didn’t talk much, but did tell him to always thank his audience for their support, so he did just that. As the train meandered around different sites of the mine, actors dressed as early minors explained their part of the process of mining gold, both back in the early 1900s and now. It was very well done, very professional, and I marveled that their sound system never hissed or caused the speakers’ voices to waver in and out. We eventually made our way to the store (ahhhh, Sheilagh and I were in Heaven now), to find all sorts of souvenirs made with gold flakes or more expensive memorabilia made with gold nuggets, but best of all were the warm, fragrant, FREE, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, macadamia nut, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies set out for everyone. Set up next to the cookies, and also free, was coffee, tea and hot chocolate. What a marketing ploy, and man, did it work! Our wallets were ready to work overtime.

After getting our fill of cookies and coffee and having a good look around the gift shop, making note of things we wanted to check out later, we made our way to the gold panning area. The husband & wife team of owners of the property demonstrated how they commercially pan for gold using a ditch digger and big shoots of water to wash through what they dug up, then how astro turf and shaking grates sift the dirt out, leaving the valuable gold. After getting our small poke, or bag, of dirt guaranteed to contain some gold flakes and our panning pan, we joined the others on long benches stretching down both sides of a long channel of water. We poured our dirt in our pans and proceeded to shake, rattle and roll. We had to ask for help from the high-school aged attendants walking around, keeping their eyes on all of us, making sure we were both happy and not picking out a gold nugget and hiding it under our tongues (yes, that’s what they said!). Anyway, they showed us how to swirl the water around, gently pouring the dirt out with the water, dipping the pan in the water once more, swirling it around and pouring once again, over and over, ‘til all that was left were a few flakes of yellow gold. Ian and I combined our flakes and put them into a little black plastic tube that came along with the poke, then stood in line to have our find weighed. We ended up with $23 worth of gold, so I got in another line to have dangly earrings made with the flakes displayed in them. I’m not sure who got the better end of the deal, them or me, but I’m real happy with my earrings. Of course, then to alleviate my guilt at spending so much on myself, I had to find something for Ian in the gift shop. He soon became the proud owner of a nice, egg-shaped paper weight that has gold flakes flaking around inside. Mike liked it so much, he got one also, but a different shape. Sheilagh didn’t want earrings, but she was wearing a heart-shaped locket given to her by her parents, so she had her gold flakes put in the locket, behind the glass. It looks really pretty when she opens it, and has a nice story to go along with it now.

One lady in our group of about 100 “miners” actually found a nugget in her pan, worth about $52. The cynic in me wants to say it was “planted” there by the owners to keep the enthusiasm up. I’d guess they make sure someone in every group gets a nugget, but of couse, not one worth way too much. The lady who found it was feted both at the panning area, then once again on the train, so no one could have missed what had happened. Either way, we had a good time and are happy with our minute, flaky finds. It was a good idea of Mike’s, and we were all glad we went along with it. Before returning to the truck, we got our fill of free cookies and coffee, so even if we didn’t get the $52 nugget, we ate as much in free cookies! Ha – there’s more than one way to skim that gold!