Day 11 Gold Bottom Tour in the Klondike

On another fine day, we decided we wouldn’t need our jackets either for warmth or rain protection. We walked a short distance to Westmark  Inn and joined some American retirees on holiday. Some had done the gold mine tour the day before and some would be joining us for a bit of prospecting. A bus and a van carrying 20 people in all set out for 3 hours of adventure. Our driver, James, is from Lake Watson, Yukon  but he lives on the mine site in Summer and can speak from first hand experience about the mining process.

James pointed out the site of the confluence of the clean Klondike river and the dirty Yukon river in front of Dawson City. The Klondike was dredged for 60 years until 1967 and the tailings from that period of gold mining still line the side of the main road. While it looks like huge mounds of disused rock, the Canadian Government has declared most of the area as a national monument to commemorate the gold rush era. Now the Klondike is a beautiful green colour while the Yukon picks up so much dirt in its long meanderings that it is a brown colour when the 2 rivers meet .

We left the main highway and turned into Hunter Creek Road on which there are 80 active mine sites and 190 mining claims. There are strict rules about the way water is returned to the creek after it is used in the mining process with most miners passing the water through 2 settling ponds before it goes back into the creek which then join the clean Klondike. Generally the claims stretch from the water of the creek to the mountain area behind it. There is an old mining shaft still there from the gold rush days. It was frozen in the permafrost so it has been stored in immaculate condition.

Goldbottom Mine is like most other claims in the area; they are worked by families. Most mines have only 2 or 3 people working them but there is one very large operation which employs about 15 men. At the Goldbottom site there were 5000 people living there during the peak of the gold rush but now there are only 7 people and 2 dogs there. The house in which the owner’s son, mother and the tour organisers live was built in 1907 and it has been continually lived in since that time. The original owner died in 1972 after making a fortune and travelling the world and he left the mine to his son, David.

The permafrost freezes things rather than fossilizing them so there are lots of bones in the material which is excavated. They have bones and ivory from woolly mammoths. It is legal to collect mammoth ivory because they are extinct. We held a piece of a mammoth’s tooth. It was big and heavy and looked a bit like white wood.

In order to stake a claim you need 2 posts to place on the site and then, within 10 days you have to get back to Dawson City with $10 to register the claim. Now that journey only takes 20 minutes but in the days of the gold rush it took days. That claim payment gives you 1 year to work the ground but every 12 months you need to complete $200 worth of infrastructure around the site to keep your licence.

The mining process involves water, gravity and agitation and the bigger picture is one of stripping, sluicing and clean up. They dig through to the permafrost with a claw bucket on an excavator  and use powerful water spouts to help loosen the permafrost so that they can remove all the black dirt to get to the gold which is just above the bedrock and below a gravel layer. They keep the gravel and the black dirt for the restoration of the land after mining is finished. They get about $3000 per week for the gold they retrieve from May to September and from that they pay wages and fix equipment so you can see that gold mining is not a way to become wealthy these days. However, they keep going because one day they may find a new rich layer of gold (and also the tours augment their incomes). In winter, even the water freezes so they can’t work the mine. Also you would need a dog sled team to get to the site over the snow and ice in winter. Apparently the population of Dawson City is about 5000 in summer and 1500 in winter as more than half the businesses close down for the winter months.

Now to the news you are all waiting for: Neil worked hard at panning for gold. He followed all the instructions and stood in the cold water to secure our future financially but…he didn’t find any gold!! Some people did come out of the water with specks of the mineral (less than a pin head in size) but I don’t think those treasures will make an difference to their future financial security either.

The day was not a disappointment though because we met a new friend. He was 13 months old; a cross between a german shepherd and a rotti and he thought it was great to talk with all the guests. His name was Zeus but he had a little red spot on his nose so he is sometimes called Rudolph. He seemed to know that Neil was an expert at playing tug-of-war with Milkshake because he pulled and pulled on his rope toy while we were listening to the guide. I threw the rope for him and he loved to play fetch. James said that they often see bears, moose and foxes in the area but when the dogs bark, the other animals tend to retreat so Zeus is a working dog as well.

We had a great morning and spent the afternoon walking through some of the unusual shops in town on our way back to the hotel. We found some used number plates from which Neil chose one for his collection. They were used ones and obviously the cars here have a rough time. One even had a bullet hole in it. Tomorrow we have a relaxing morning and then head off to Fairbanks which is very close to the Arctic Circle.