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More Land Opening To Prospecting In Alaska


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The Secretary of the Interior is releasing 9.7 million acres of previously closed federally administered Alaskan land to prospecting and claiming.

The land rush begins February 18th.

Read all about it.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/19/2021-01111/public-land-order-no-7899-partial-revocation-of-public-land-orders-no-5169-5170-5171-5173-5179-5180

Is it cold in Seward in February? šŸ˜¶

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Alaska is a funny place. Still a frontier in some ways, it has not been fully surveyed, and to this day that has delayed land transfers that were promised in 1957 when Alaska became a state. My brother-in-law works in BLM directly on federal to state transfers, and usually when the land finally goes to the state it is opened for development.Ā There are huge federal withdrawals for all sorts of other things, and sometimes these get released on review, which seems to be occurring here. The areas involved can be huge, but remote travel and long winters make taking advantage of this sort of thing a task better suited to locals with airplanes. But sometimes it is near the road system where regular folks can get access, but that is a rare occurrence as most land near the road corridors has been sorted out already.

Before people get too excited, despite all the pictures of mountains you see, Alaska is actually mostly swampy tundra ā€œwetlandsā€ and oftenĀ the tracts are nothing but mosquito breeding grounds. But still... opportunity lurks!

A quick look and I think this is as far away in Alaska as you can get, in the extreme northeast corner of the state. The area is notedĀ for gold, copper, and zinc,Ā and also things like jade and huge quartz crystals. And the shortest summer you can imagine, with ground frozen year round.

The land releases if I am correct are in the area highlighted below, but do not represent the entire area highlighted. Iā€™m sure there is a map of the released land somewhere but Iā€™ll leave that for interested parties to track down. Bases of operation would be Nome and Kotzebue.

0564E587-DA12-41F3-9A47-D17993717263.jpeg

Ā 

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  • The title was changed to More Land Opening To Prospecting In Alaska

So true Steve. Even if the most beautiful and comfortable spot is right next to a major highway there is no guarantee it's worth mining.

I'm guessing with 9.7 million acres being opened there are a few sweet spots. Those are almost by default going to be claimed by knowledgeable locals. Nothing wrong with that. šŸ‘

As far as "frontier" even modern California is mostly unsurveyed. That's really more about politics than surveying as it is in Alaska.

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Where that is located I really don't think I will be going, as I like the warmer areas like Florida this time of the year.

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You guys are talking a differentĀ kind of surveying, a large difference of scale. InĀ a lot of Alaska there is no accessible control, and for the longest time bringing control in via satellite stations was not considered accurate enough to be legally used. There was a push to change that for the remote parcels, but I lost track of that a while back. My father was one of the premier surveyors in Alaska, and made good change for years by leasing the inertial guidance systems used in ICBMs from the U.S. government to survey large areas that lack proper control. His name is on plats all over Alaska. I worked for him for several years as a chainman and then instrument man. I worked from the north slope to the Yukon Delta, southeastern Alaska to the Aleutian chain, and parts in between. Anyone who has not traveled Alaska from one end to the other really has noĀ idea of the scale of the place. You can fly a small plane for hours and not see a single sign of civilization in some areas.Ā 

alaska california size comparison

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Great background and information Steve,Ā  Ā On a side note:Ā  Florida has miles and miles of very easy beach sand that is filled with gold nuggets (Rings mainly) and lots of attached gems. The tide goes out every day uncoveringĀ lost treasures old and new. Keys, small change and toe rings are found in the volley ball courts.Ā  Ā No need forĀ blasting orĀ panning.Ā  Digging sand is easy on the gulf coast, but a little tougher on the Atlantic coast.Ā  Sand is white like snow, but a lot more friendly...Ā  Ā Easier to get to, just jump in the truck and head south..Ā  But, Alaska might become the new gold rush especially as prices rise.Ā 

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Alaska is big....Ā thatā€™s true Steve!

Ā I remember when I first went there on a contract with the VA that I took a trip on the weekend. I wentĀ from Anchorage up through Talkeetna and Denali,Ā workedĀ my way over to Fairbanks. Then I made my way down past North Pole Ā and onto Glennallen and slept there.
Ā 

Then I came on back to Anchorage via the road along the Matanuska glacier.

When I went back to work I was bragging on how much a Alaska I had seenĀ over the weekend.

My buddy who is a VA policeman just chuckled and took me into a board room and showed me a map on the wall. This map covered Ā the whole wall ....it was a big map of Alaska.
Ā 

When he showed me the tiny circle I had made on my trip I was amazed that my three day trip covered only about one square foot of the map!!!

Thatā€™s how big Alaska is.

Hey Steve....Ā I even ran into you up in Chicken that next year...Ā and I thought that was the end of the world from anchorage.Ā 

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Just one more asset of this site -- 'local' knowledge you often can't get without time-consuming research, even with the internet.Ā  Alaska has, for as long as I've lived, been a mysterious/intriguing, and certainly different place than any other state in the USA.Ā  The plethora of cable TV shows (adventure, homesteading, and, yes, gold prospecting and mining) in recent years exposes that many others are as intertested as I am.

Thanks for sharing that knowledge, Steve, and thanks to the many other posters from around the world who do the same.

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I was alwaysĀ fascinated with pioneer history and adventure,Ā and it always seemed like Alaska was the last and only place left here that a person go could an experience that same adventure as the people in the history books lived. I always planned to go up and spend a Walden type year out as far from anyone and anything as I could get somewhere in AK. No specific goal in mindĀ other than to wander around and live.Ā 

I could probably find a way to do it now if I sold my house. As I sit here with heat, hot showers, fresh vegetables and milk, and internet on my "remote" Arizona land, 2 hours from a major metro area. Or my "country" house in Wyoming on a paved street 5 minutes from a Loaf n' Jug. I wonder if that fire still burns so brightly inside me now, or if I've grown a little too accustomed to the accoutrements of, and proximity to city life.Ā šŸ™‚

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