Just finished a very interesting week or so in Central Alaska. We literally helicopter hopped from one gold placer mine operation to another looking for links and clues for the mega-lode! Getting permission was a little tricky … some we called in advance and others we asked for permission by ‘dropping’ in. Placers miners are a little jumpy – always on the alert for people out to steal their gold. On the first day it was raining cats and dogs (yes we are working in the wettest and coldest summer in Alaska in about 17 years I believe. It has been cold and wet for at least a month and apparently no one thinks we will actually get a summer. Berries are low and the bears hungry.). The rain has no significance to our placer mining stories; just picture 5 bedraggled geologists in rubber boots in the mud, lots of mud. Because we arrived at the lodge at midday the helicopter hadn’t yet arrived and we decided to drive to look at the first placer workings. After receiving a warm welcome from several miners we drove through an unlocked gate hoping to find the owner, shortly after we met an oncoming truck. In it were a husband, wife and dog. We stopped to ask permission and introduce ourselves and the guy had a cocked pistol at the ready! We asked if we could look at his dumps and he said, “No!” One of our group replied “Well that’s an answer”. Fortunately the guy gave us an opening by asking “What were we hoping to find?” we mentioned Livengood in (the company’s big drilling project) and the guy changed tunes instantly. He knew someone connected with our drilling project and had been told that we were the “good guys”. He put the gun away, backed up, and gave us a good tour of his mine. We noticed that the riffles hadn’t been cleaned out that day so he was probably more than a little worried about his gold production for the day been stolen.
The second “incident” occurred a few days later. We were using the helicopter and landed at some old workings. Keep in mind that we all have radios that are using line of sight. This day a placer mine operator was on the same frequency. Not everybody in our group could hear all the dialogue, but below is fairly representative of how the conversation went. The helicopter first dropped of Dan, Ed and myself and then went back to get th others. As they were landing …
Wife of placer miner “Hey xxx, do you hear the chopper? It’s circled camp twice.”
Placer Miner “Get the shotgun ready! Can you see who they are?
Wife “Looks like the statetrooper!”
Us “Helicopter to camp do you copy?”
Wife “ Yeah, we copy”
Us “Can we come in and talk to you?”
Wife to husband “They want to come in an talk can you come over?”
Husband “Do I have to? Can’t you talk to them?”
Wife “I’m busy boiling pickles, can’t leave them!”
Husband “OK, I’ll come over and talk to them.”
Th others had already landed where we were, which was about ½ mile from their camp. When the helicopter landed Tristan jumped out so fast – no way he was going to face the wife with a shotgun and boiling pickles. It turns out they are the nicest people. We are welcome anytime & she’ll make sure the shotgun is put away and will trade us pickles for a newspaper!
We did spent the day wondering if she was really ‘boiling pickles’ or if that was code for trouble brewing!
Another day we had a prior appointment and got a 5 hour tour of placer operations. It was like being back at school on a field trip. Very interesting and fascinating operation. We also got to see his 2.8oz nugget and a bunch of mastodon bones dug up during mining!
We stayed at a place called Lost Creek Ranch. The owner, Les Cobb, homesteaded it in 1970. His wife at the time was the last woman in Alaska to homestead before the law was changed. They moved up here with 5 children ranging in age from 1 year old twins to a 9 year old. Les had to go off for months at a time to work leaving his wife, Norma, and the kids … often in winter. Les became a very successful placer miner and currently has operations in Nome and Mongolia. He and his wife have parted ways and he is now married to a Chinese woman who looked for us during our stay. Norma Cobb wrote a book called ‘Arctic Homestead’. I’m hoping to buy a copy when I get back to civilization. I read the introduction and it promises to be a good read making our adventures this summer look very tame.
I’ve posted some of extra photos from the summer. They are from the Alaska Range area that I’ve already covered, but they show some different perspectives. Mostly bad weather days.
We spent a night at the Livengood drilling project. For results go to
http://www.ithmines.com/ The camp is in an old Atco trailer camp originally used for the building of the Alaska Pipeline in the 70’s and housing about 1200 people during contruction. I think our camp only has about 30 people but most of the trailers are still there. Still raining. In the evening Robert (who had about 1 week left of cutting core before his last year of school) and I visited the camp he lived in last year. Got some good photos of rusty trucks and ate ripe raspberries.
The core recon crew drove to Delta Junction. 2 days of soil sampling. The holes were miserable to dig ranging in depth from 0.8m to over a meter. The sun did come out today so at least there was some good in the day. Apparently my season will end with a week more of soil sampling. Just can’t wait! Only good thing is that we will be using 4-wheelers to get to the project. Not that I know how to ride one or have ever been on one!!
Anyway, we are back down at the place we started out at to follow up on our anomalies. I think people are getting tired, most of the crew watch movies by themselves in the evenings and so things are a little quiet. Good thing I have a book to read.
The hills are beginning to change color so I hope to get some interesting photos before we leave.
Fall in Livengood
Livengood
Robert's first helicopter ride!
