Gold Dredge #8 is located North of Fairbanks. The Gold Rush that overtook the nation attracted miners and business people into Alaska's frontiers. Gold Dredge #8 was put together near Fox, Alaska, at the head of the Goldstream Valley in about 1928 and was closed in 1959. The dredge provided jobs and an economic base for Fairbanks residents who lived nearby. The miners who used the equipment were able to produce over 7.5 million ounces of gold from the Fairbanks Mining District. The last dredge ran until the 1960's. Gold Dredge Number 8 is now an attraction for visitors.

Gold Dredge Number 8 is powered by electricity from Fairbanks in a large coal-fired generating plant. A coal fired boiler creates steam that powers up the air compresser, generators, and pumps on board. The dredge vessel has large steel hull, 50 feet wide, 99 feet long, and has the depth of 10.5 feet. When totally loaded, its draft displaces 1,065 tons, taking in the on board equipment and the ballast of steel.

The dredge buckets are 6 feet wide and can hold a lot of gravel. The seventy steel buckets on the forward end each have a capacity of 6 cubic feet and they weigh 1,583 pounds. The steel buckets are placed on a digging ladder that is 84 feet long. The digging ladder then unloads the items in the buckets into a dump-hopper at a rate of 22.2 buckets per minute

Dredges are able to float on the tops of ponds formed in the river beds, so it is easier for them to scoop out the gold in gigantic buckets with the help of the stacker. Next, frozen muck is removed with huge water nozzles called hydraulic giants. It takes about three seasons to remove it all. Then they drill driving pipes or thaw points into the ground to thaw it and force water down them. The dirt goes to the stacker and throws out some of the extra junk in the buckets. The belt-driven stacker conveyor belt is 32 inches wide and is operated at a rate of 262 feet per minute. The dirt is then put into a big sluice box where the gold sinks and the dirt keeps on floating. They go through several sluice boxes that get smaller. The reason gold panning and sluice boxes work is because gold will sink because it is 19 times heavier than water. Afterwards, the gold is sent to mills to help extract more gold. There, in the mills, the gold is matted and then mixed with mercury to make it become amalgam. Gold is restored from the amalgam where the mercury is separated from the gold. It then is nearly pure gold. This entire development picks up almost 97 percent of gold from the ground.

When visiting the area you can learn to pan gold and keep any gold you find. George found about .25 oz in about an hour!

The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (IATA: ANC, ICAO: PANC, FAA LID: ANC)[2] is the major airport in the state of Alaska located 4 nautical miles (7 km) southwest of downtown Anchorage.

Fairbanks and Juneau are the next busiest airports. Anchorage traffic peaks during June, July and August when passenger numbers are twice as high as between October and April.

Some of the most popular destinations in Alaska are: Anchorage, Denali Park, Fairbanks, Seward, and Talkeetna.

We would suggest flying into Fairbanks, renting a car, and then driving to the Gold Dredge #8.

We have placed links to Priceline.com on this page so you can arrange your flights into and out of the various places in Alaska; as well as hotels, and rental 4 wheel drive vehicles; when visiting this beautiful State.

Priceline.com can also arrange very nice Alaska Cruises; which we highly recommend.

Cruises are usually taken during the warm late spring through early fall seasons, due to the freezing temperatures of the winter.