Last post I published a drawing
of an old building at Little Eldorado Creek and talked about the area’s history.
This time I’m putting up some photos from my hike out there a few years ago.
 |
| Chatanika Gold Camp |
 |
| Dredge No. 3 |
As I said in the last post, the
area I was headed for (about half way between Chatanika on the Steese Highway
and Olnes on the Elliott Highway) is boggy and almost impossible to get to in
the summer. Winter snows would have obscured the building I wanted to see, so I planned to hike
out after the first snow in mid-October. No-one lives in the area and there were no
roads.
I drove the 25 or so miles from
Fairbanks to Chatanika and parked at the Chatanika Lodge. The Chatanika Gold Camp is on the hill above the highway just before the lodge. It was a
support camp for Gold Dredge No. 3, which is located just beyond it.
 |
| Old Chatanika Outhous
|
 |
| Log Cabin at Old Chatanika |
The trail in to Old Chatanika begins
right across the highway. Old Chatanika is what’s left of the early townsite,
located on Lower Cleary Creek before it empties into the Chatanika River. The
Fairbanks Exploration Company bought up the town in the 1920s and moved its dredge
in, digging up most of the town. The dredge now sits where the town used to be.
Old Chatanika is about a mile
across the tailings, on the hillside above the dredged area. There isn’t much
left, just a few log cabins, some collapsed frame buildings, and various bits
and pieces of equipment.
From Old Chatanika I followed the
abandoned right-of-way for the Tanana Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge operation
that shut down in the 1930s. The right-of-way is still used as a winter trail
but since it had just snowed I beat the snowmachines into the area. (In Alaska
they’re snowmachines, not snowmobiles.)
 |
| Old car near Ruby Creek |
 |
| Disturbed area near Ruby Creek |
About a half mile beyond Old
Chatanika I neared Ruby Creek, which was another mined-over area. There’s lots
of evidence of mining activity, abandoned equipment, etc. One of my favorites
(although the photographs never turned out) was a 20-foot tall birch tree
growing up through the bottom of a rusty white-enameled pan.
 |
| Ore bucket and gin pole |
 |
| Bunk house upstream from gin pol |
At Ruby Creek is
the old Sampeii drift mine. The bunk house, boiler shed and gin pole are on one
side of the creek. The old ore bucket sits on the other side.
The land beyond Ruby Creek starts
to get muskegy so that was about as far as I had gone on previous hikes. From there on it was
new territory for me. I had the trail all to myself, and the only sounds were
of my boots crunching through the snow and the chickadees singing in the trees.
The sky was clear, it was about 15 degrees above zero and I didn’t have a care
in the world. Well—almost no cares. I was by myself and there were probably
moose in the area. There had also been reports of wolves near town, so I was
packing a 44 magnum revolver.
 |
| EldoradoStation from the
front |
 |
| Side view of building |
About
three miles later I finally arrived at Little Eldorado Creek where the building
that may or may not have been a train depot was located. I’ve shown the front
and the side of the building so you can see how it leans, and the poles
propping it up. I didn’t dare go inside. I spent as much time as I could there but the
days are starting to get short by mid-October so I reluctantly retraced my
steps back to civilization.
I just want to finish by saying I had permission from the land owners to cross their property. Before going on jaunts like this make sure to check land status and get permission.
0 comments:
Post a Comment