Exploring Boundary and Top of the World Highway
Boundary Roadhouse in 2000 When the military road from Fort Liscum in Valdez to Fort Egbert in Eagle was “completed” in 1900 it was little more than a rough trail suitable only for...
Tagged: mining history
Ambitious Davidson Ditch brought water to Fairbanks dredges
Davidson Ditch inverted siphon across U.S. Creek “Ditch” is such a mundane word and certainly doesn’t accurately describe the Davidson Ditch, the 90-mile long system of open earthwork canals, steel pipe and tunnel that...
Old mining camp on Sourdough Creek
On Monday of this week we drove to Sourdough Creek, about 70 miles up the Steese Highway. We have friends whose family owns an old mining camp up there. Borough land records say the...
Old steam dragline at Central, Alaska
Here is a photo of an old steam dragline at the Circle Mining District Historical Museum in Central, Alaska. I couldn’t find a manufacturer’s name or model number anywhere. I’m thinking maybe it’s an...
Gold Dredge No. 8: A giant that helped save Fairbanks
The Fairbanks Exploration Company’s Gold Dredge No. 8 at Fox (shown in the drawing) is perhaps the most visible and well-known dredge in the Fairbanks area, but the FE Co. actually operated eight of...
Vintage tractors in Pioneer Park at Fairbanks, Alaska
Here are some photos I took a few days ago of vintage tractors in the mining valley at Pioneer Park. Allis Chalmers HD7 Cletrac Model 15 Caterpillar Twenty-eight Caterpillar Sixty Fordson F Trackson Fordson...
Bucyrus steam shovel at Pioneer Park, Fairbanks, Alaska
This is a photo of the old steam shovel at Pioneer Park here in Fairbanks. It was used in the 1920s to build the Davidson Ditch, a 90-mile long aqueduct that brought water from...
Mining camps merge to form Livengood in 1914
Livengood garage buildings as they looked in about 2000 In the spring of 1914, two Ester miners, Jay Livengood and Nathaniel “Teddy” Hudson, tramped off to the headwaters of the Tolovana River (about 60...
Ester’s assay office: A little building that survived
Ester Assay Office in 1993 Many people are familiar with the hotel and Malemute Saloon at Ester Gold Camp. But how many have paid any attention to the small frame-building on the northeast corner...
Fairbanks Exploration Company machine shop kept the dredges running
FE Company machine shop as it looked in the early 1990s When you are in the resource development industry, the infrastructure to support your business needs to be in place before your operations begin....
