The North Pole, the El Dorado Gold Mine, and a brief Glimpse of the Alaska Pipeline

As we left Tok, we had the public reading of the top three moose poems, the voting, and the awarding of prizes.  My prize was the little guy at the left, who became my trusty mascot for the rest of the trip.

Once again, we were trundling down the road, this time heading for Fairbanks, with a couple of planned stops along the way.  And one unplanned stop.  Our coach pulled in to the North Pole.  North Pole, Alaska, that is.

Did you ever write a letter to Santa Clause when you were little, get your mom or dad to address it and stick a stamp on it and then drop it in a mailbox?  Mom and Dad probably thought you'd be terribly disappointed if they told you it just ended up in the dead letter office, so they didn't tell you.  They let you keep your dreams.

Well, it turns out you were right.  Your letter went straight to the North Pole, just not to the one up there inside the Arctic Circle, or even the magnetic north pole.  Those letters wind up here.  North Pole, Alaska might be just one gigantic gift shop and filling station, but its real charm is in the letters.  Take a look.

From the North Pole, we continued on to the El Dorado Gold Mine.  The El Dorado used to be a working gold mine but now it's a piece of history that earns its keep by boarding folks on to a little train that runs next to an old dredging machine, alongside a stream, through a gold mine tunnel, and winds up at a huge shed full of sluice-ways.  At that point, the passengers disembark and learn to pan for gold.

Dredge cross section

Inside the dredge

Dredge Close-up

During the train ride, we passed this reenactment of a Klondike miner, panning for gold

Our panning experience was more on the 'community' level -- several rows of would-be miners seated alongside several sluices.  After the water flowed into the sluice, we did our own panning.  I found $32 worth of gold.

 As with any tour, the train left us stranded at the gift shop for quite a while.  Once the El Dorado had finished 'mining' the tourists, we boarded our coach and headed off toward Fairbanks, with a brief stop at the Alaska Pipeline.

The permafrost that covers much of Alaska prevents the pipeline from being buried underground.  Were it to be underground, the annual temperature fluctuations would quickly break it apart.  After walking under and around the pipeline for a bit and reading the information signs, we headed toward Fairbanks.

Our stay in Fairbanks was brief and I took no pictures -- hotel rooms really do take on a sameness after a while.  So, next stop Denali!