North to Alaska: Panning for Gold

TAM FINALLY GETS HER GOLD!!

As you may know from a previous blog, one of Tam's goals was to pan for gold in the streams of Alaska. We did stop at one stream and splashed around a bit in the water, but without success. Looking through our pamphlets on the Kenai Peninsula, a "business" was located in Cooper Landing which is on the west side of the Kenai Range on the Sterling Highway.

Here is Prospector John's "gold mining" operation just off of the Sterling Highway!

We planned a day trip to drive towards Seward and stop in Cooper Landing which is on the Kenai River about an hour east of Kenai/Soldotna. Two reasons: a potential guided salmon fishing spot for the guys, and gold panning for Tam. The guys elected not to do any fishing--we enjoyed watching the gold panning operation!

We studied the sluices at Prospector John's trying to determine just what the operation entailed.

Soon Tam was signed up and scooped a pail full of dirt, rocks, and gravel--hoping, of course, that there was "gold in them thar rocks"!

Then it was over to the sluices to get instructions from Prospector John. He had a gift of gab, for sure, and made a wise-crack about Tam being a "gold digger". Cute, John, real cute!

Prospector John begins his sluice washing lesson for Tam.

"See here? This is were the gold will appear as you wash down your scoop of dirt."

"And that, my dear, is all there is to it! Now get after it and find your gold!"

"See that? That's a flake of gold right there! You've struck it rich, girl!"

So Tam set about washing down one little scoop of dirt after another, and looking carefully at the sluice to see if it had yielded any more flakes. Prospector John had carefully explained that gold is 18 times heavier than water, so it wouldn't wash down the sluice like the pebbles and dirt would do--it would hang up in the first "sieved" pad in the sluice bed.

"AHA! There's another one! Grab the tweezers and pluck it out!"

Soon Ray came over to help out...as Tam washed down the scoops of dirt, both of them studied the first sieve carefully for signs of the yellow stuff.

Prospector John was soon back for a little remedial instruction and technique refinement!

And Betty wanted to get in the watching to see how it all panned out....Uhh, bad pun!

Finally, Tam's pail of dirt was empty--all had been washed down the sluice. Now it was time for Prospector John to go through one more instruction: taking apart the sluice, John washed out the sieves and poured the dirty water into a panning dish, catching all of the remaining sand and grit--and any gold flakes that may have escaped Tam's watchful eyes--in the dish. He escorted Tam over to the washing trough and showed her how to rinse the dirt and sand out to leave any remaining flakes of gold in the pan.

After a pleasant morning of sluicing and panning, Tam had her gold! Prospector John was lavish with his praise and "estimated" her haul at "more than $35 dollars worth". Of course, that was more than he had charged for the dirt and the lessons--maybe he was a used car salesman in an earlier time!

Thar's gold in that there dish, yessiree!

After our gold excursion, we drove to the Kenai Princess Lodge for lunch out on the patio overlooking the Kenai River. All in all, a most pleasant day in Alaska!