Take your pick - black, bubbly gold! or the shiny hard stuff! We found both today as we explored parts of the Alaskan pipeline....and later panned for it at a historic gold dredge.
Alyeska is an archaic spelling of the Aleut word Alaska meaning "mainland", "great country", or "great land". Since 1977, seventeen billion barrels have moved through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The pipeline extends 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska (pipeline diameter 48" inches). The pipeline was designed to incorporate underground and raised crossings for caribou and other big game, gravel and styrofoam insulation to prevent permafrost melting, automatic leak detection and shutoff, and other techniques.
Pictured above is a cutout of the pipeline...showing how they remove the "cholesterol" from the inside walls. Did you know?....Alaskans receive annual dividend checks to account for all the public revenue created by the pipeline ($800-$2500 per person).
The only way we were going to "cash in" on Alaskan gold is if we found some at the bottom of our pans later in the afternoon. We headed off to Gold Dredge 8 to strike it rich. An original gold dredge was like a floating chainsaw using water and mechanical "buckets" to extract gold from the sand, gravel, and dirt.
I quickly learned that gold was 19x's heavier than water. So, therefore....when I started panning for gold, I had to shake the sediment and water in the pan and all the gold would eventually sink to the bottom. Once I sifted and drained the sediment out of the pan....hopefully, I would be left with some gold!
Jenesa lost patience trying to sift through her dirt....and I wound up panning her gold too! Grab a chair! You need to be sitting down for this.....I discovered a whopping $36 worth (combined) of gold. If you look at the picture below, this is what you're left with once you get rid of all the sand, gravel, and dirt. Drinks on us when we return home!!!
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