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Is their gold to be found in the area of Clear Alaska and if so, what type of gold is their to be found. I have a friend who has a homestead in this area and want to visit them next year summer. Would appreciate any information of forum members who know the area and did gold prospecting over there.

I finally did something with this ugly specimen that I found during a 2004 trip to Ganes Creek. Thought I would put a bail on it and sell cheap. Then I thought about my ultrasonic cleaner. WOW price just went up!! Been wearing it myself at times. Weight 18 dwt, can't find a before photo

Not exactly gold, but needless to say the Gold Monster went crazy! No problem picking it up at 18" deep. 28 lbs. Neal

For me this was a real opportunity to help my friends get their enterprise off of the ground. There was much work to be done and everyone pitched in and fixed everything..I have a few great stories from this adventure and one terrible happening for me... My mate of 44 yrs passed away and I was almost totally devastated by this. Fortunately I had Moore Creek to come too and this work helped me pass this rough time...One afternoon during this startup time I decided to give my Minelab PI a try..I wandered away from the main camp area and walked on a road above what would be the High banking area, I was testing the berm that a dozer had kicked up years ago... Holy Smokes. Weeeee Ooooop. I dug around a little and out popped a beautiful Slug.. Needless to say after putting the gold in my pouch I hunted around to see if there was Moore lol.... I walked back to the camp, everyone was still there chatting, so I put the nugget on the table for everyone to see... He he the conversations stopped......

The two prominent Trails into the Klondike interior were originated thru Skagway and Valdez Alaska, I guess I had been inadvertently studying these trails for many years, as I was very interested in this Gold Rush, the antics of some of the characters involved and of course the many waypoints they established...After some thought I decided the Chilcoot trail was to far away for me to ever spend much time looking, but the Valdez trail basically came thru my own back yard...I poured over books written by these characters and it was quite an interesting education....I'm not going to get into that part too much as it is a lot to talk about so I will confine this into the area that is close to my home in Copper Center.. The trail came up the Valdez Glacier then turned and followed the Klutina Glacier to the beginnings of the river it formed.. At the bottom of the Glacier was Boulder Camp not much left of that area because the Glacier had receded a lot but you could see why it was called that it truly is a boulder patch. The other camps leading to the main stopping point were pretty insignificant but Sawmill camp, the place where boats were constructed to float the Roiling Klutina River to the Copper was really a relic hunters paradise. However, it is a look and don't touch now as it is part of the massive Wrangel Park.. it took a Super Cub with large tires to fly myself and companions there but we explored took photos and really enjoyed looking at the piles of gear those old timers had packed over the Glacier and left Behind.. Whomwver is interested in knowing more can find a copy of Basil Austins "Diary of. 98er" this particular book has hand drawn maps of campsites etc all the way to the Klondike. I found Basil Austins personal copy in Powells bookstore in Portland Oregon in the 70s ..I almost choked when I picked this book up and started looking thru it..lol I couldn't get to the Check stand quickly enough... Very interesting reading, however keep in mind that most of these sites are off limits as they run smack dab thru this massive park system. I just wanted to point out a few important things about history. If you want to find Things of Old, choose something and research, research, research, it carefully...for myself I spent years doing just that and unexpectedly I found a treasure map in an old bookstore.....the one site I will talk about is very close to my home in Copper Center.. Stampeders walked all over my land, some paid the ultimate price and are resting in the cemetery constructed by their mates very close to the Copper River...Lots of relics I have found are in the little museum on the bypass road in Copper Center, it is a very nice place to visit if you are ever there.. I've spent hours scouring that area listening for a golden whisper that so far has eluded me, I did find 5 coins at one of the sites all dated before 98, I'm happy with that as the Quarter, dime, nickel, and Indian heads hold a special place for me.. Hope you enjoyed my true story.....

This is a cool book I stumbled across years ago while doing some research looking for old places to hunt. You cannot believe how many of these places existed all over the State. I managed to find a few that weren't to far from me and there are old coins there and a lot of trash, which led me to make a magnetic rake tool that was very helpful....Books are very important in your research and reading the bibliographies in them will lead you to additional material....

There are few places left where you can dredge legally in the United States, especially with larger suction dredges. Alaska however is very dredging friendly. I have been updating the Alaska Mining Claims For Sale page and there are several decent dredging claim packages available now at some good prices. If you are looking for a summer long dredging adventure, this is the place to start so check it out.

This gold prospecting and metal detecting story takes us all the way back to the beginning - my beginning that is. I was fortunate enough to be born in the Territory of Alaska in 1957. Alaska was still very much on the frontier back in those days. My father was a farm boy from the midwest who headed for Alaska in the early 50's with not much more than an old pickup truck. He worked as a longshoreman offloading ships in Seward, Alaska for a time. He decided to get some education, and earned his way through college in Fairbanks, Alaska, by driving steampipe for the fleet of gold dredges that were still working there. He spent some time in Seldovia, Alaska, working the "slime line" in a fish cannery. He met my mom in Seldovia, the two got married, and finally settled in Anchorage, Alaska. I came along in 1957. My father had taken a job as a surveyor but money was tight in the early years. I was raised on wild game and garden grown vegetables, and as soon as I was old enough to handle it, I was walking a trapline every winter with my father. Dad was a hard worker, and Alaska was having one of its many booms at the time - the construction of the oil and gas fields in Lower Cook Inlet. This was the Swanson River oilfield, discovered the year I was born. The state was prospering, and my father along with it as a surveyor on the new Swanson Field. He got the bug for flying early on, and by the time I became a teenager he finally got his dream plane at the time - a Piper Super Cub, the classic Alaska Bush airplane. Super Cubs equipped with oversize "tundra tires" can land just about anywhere you can find about 300 - 400 feet of open ground. A great little airplane and the one I ended up flying to get my own pilot's license. Super Cub N1769P parked on knoll in Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska It was in this same timeframe that dad got me hooked on gold prospecting. In 1972 I saw an ad in a magazine "Find Lost Treasure" and had acquired my first metal detector, a White's Coinmaster 4. This must have got discussions going about gold, and my father did have some knowledge on the subject having worked around the gold mines in Fairbanks. He took me to a little creek south of Anchorage, Bertha Creek, and I found my very first flakes of gold! By the ripe old age of 14 gold fever was in the air, I had my first metal detector, and already wanted a gold dredge. My first dredge, a 3" Keene with no floatation, was on the way to me in 1973. Keep in mind that the price of gold had only recently been deregulated from the old fixed price of $35 per ounce. In 1972 it was around $60 per ounce, and in 1973 made it to just over $100 per ounce. The money was not my motivation at all. I already just loved finding gold, and the connection to the prospectors of old and the historical quest for gold were more compelling than any dream of striking it rich. I just wanted to find gold! My first metal detector and first gold dredge (my 3502 had the older aluminum header box & a power jet) A young man with a new detector, new gold dredge, gold fever, and a father willing to fly him anywhere in Alaska on adventure. How great is that? Now there was only one problem - where to go? There was no internet then, so it boiled down to libraries and research. In short order I discovered the United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) bulletin series and the number one Alaska title of the series, Placer Deposits of Alaska, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 1374 by Edward H. Cobb. This one book and the references contained in it became my prospecting guide to Alaska. My desired target? Remote locations with large gold nuggets! I read the book and certain places just jumped out at me. One was the Iditarod area and places like Ganes Creek and Moore Creek - tales told elsewhere. This paragraph of page 114 caught my eye: "Placer mining in the Chisana district, first of creek gravels and later of bench and old channel deposits of Bonanza and Little Eldorado Creeks, has always been on a small scale with simple equipment. The remoteness of the area, shortages of water on some streams, and the small extent of the deposits all prevented the development of large operations. There has been little activity since World War II; the last reported mining was a two-man nonfloat operation in 1965." Wow, that alone sounds pretty good. Nothing really about the gold however. The secret to the Placer Deposits series is not so much the books themselves, though they are great for getting ideas, like I did. The key is to use the references listed and in this case the main one is The Chisana-White River District, Alaska, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 630 (1916) by Stephen Reid Capps. It turns out I had stumbled over the location of the last actual gold rush in Alaska in 1913. It was a small rush and did not last long, but it did mark the end of an era. The world was on the brink of war and the age of gold rushes was soon to be history. The history of the area is covered in the report starting on page 89. It is fascinating reading, but it was this note on page 105 that really sealed the deal: "The gold is bright, coarse, and smoothly worn. The largest nugget found has a value of over $130, and pieces weighing a quarter of an ounce or over make up about 5 per cent of the total gold recovered. The gold is said to assay $16.67 an ounce." Gold nuggets a quarter ounce or larger make up five percent of the gold? And that $130 nugget at $16.67 an ounce? Somewhere over seven ounces. That's all I needed to know. Very remote, worked by simple means, and large gold - I wanted to go to Chisana in general and Bonanza Creek in particular. Even the creek names scream gold - Bonanza Creek, Big Eldorado Creek, Little Eldorado Creek, Coarse Money Creek, and Gold Run. Now all we had to do was get there. But when I said remote, I meant remote. Chisana is practically in Canada 250 air miles from Anchorage. To be continued..... Chisana, Alaska location map

I am planning on bringing my SDC 2300 or my gold bug pro with 5” coil to one of these places. I am looking for any kind of info or tips on the likelihood of finding anything in each of these places since I’m pretty well new to detecting and have had no luck in past outings. Never been to crow creek before and spent only a little time in Hatcher Pass. Every time I’ve gone out with the GBP I was overwhelmed with hotrocks, which made me purchase the 2300 in hopes of seeing through them without trouble. I still find hotrocks with the 2300 but not as bad as the GBP.

This is the latest version of the 1997 Gold Panning: A Guide to Recreational Gold Panning on the Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Alaska The guide has been newly updated for 2018 and can be downloaded here for free

Enjoy! Ig ?

Had fun flown 38 minutes out of bethel alaska and detected for 2 hours

For those Alaskans unaware, DNR has been trying to revise certain sections of the Alaska mining statutes. Our Alaska legislature is no better than the DC circus! DNR said the hell with them (my words) and has switched gears toward regulation change. I just received this notice. "Dear Recipient, The Department of Natural Resources proposes to change regulations on mining. The Department of Natural Resources proposes to adopt regulation changes in Title 11 of the Alaska Administrative Code, dealing with mining, including the following: (1) 11 AAC 86.215 is proposed to be amended to address requirements for mining locations on state-owned land. (2) 11 AAC 86.216 is proposed to be added to address overlapping and conflicting mining locations on state-owned lands. (3) 11 AAC 86.220 is proposed to be amended to address annual labor, recording and amending affidavits of annual labor, essential facts required for affidavits of annual labor, and cash payments made instead of performing annual labor. (4) 11 AAC 86.224 is proposed to be added to address penalties and eligibility to cure an abandonment of a claim or location under AS 38.05.265. (5) 11 AAC 86.541 is proposed to be amended to address conditions for termination of a tide or submerged land mining lease and to address default cures in lease contracts. (6) 11 AAC 86.590 is proposed to be added to provide definitions. Attached please find copies of the proposed regulations, the public notice and the Dear Alaskan Letter which goes into more detail regarding the Department’s proposed actions. You may comment on the proposed regulation changes, including the potential costs to private persons of complying with the proposed changes, by submitting written comments to the Department of Natural Resources, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1070, Anchorage, AK 99501-3579 or by e-mail to dnr.mining.regulation@alaska.gov or by fax to 907-269-8904. The comments must be received by the department no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, June 4, 2018. You may submit written questions relevant to the proposed action to: Joseph Joyner, Department of Natural Resources, 550 W 7th Ave., Suite 1070, Anchorage, Alaska 99501-3579 Fax: (907) 269-8904, E-Mail: dnr.mining.regulation@alaska.gov. The questions must be received at least 10 days before the end of the public comment period. The Department of Natural Resources will aggregate its response to substantially similar questions and make the questions and responses available on the Alaska Online Public Notice System https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Login.aspx and agency website at http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/hottopics. For more information, a copy of the proposed regulation changes, or if you have any questions regarding the proposed regulations, go to http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/hottopics, or write to the Department of Natural Resources, Attention Joseph Joyner, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1070, Anchorage, Alaska 99501-3579; or call 907-269-8511. After the public comment period ends, the Department of Natural Resources will either adopt these or other provisions dealing with the same subject, without further notice, or decide to take no action on them. The language of the final regulations may be different from that of the proposed regulations. You should comment during the time allowed if your interests could be affected. Sincerely Joseph Joyner, Chief, Program Support Section, DMLW, DNR"

Ha!Ha! You row in it's 1900 you gotta row out!!

Looking for information on the 345 trail from Fairbanks Alaska towards Mcgrath Alaska. Supposedly it is also referred to as the Kobi-Mcgrath trail. Have a D9 cat in Fairbanks I am thinking of moving to Mcgrath next winter and was wondering if anyone has some useful insight into this undertaking. Thanks everyone!!

End of the dredge season is coming! Temps are dropping and the river will freeze in the next few week, thought I would take a moment to share my gold take so far. Seems like a lot of work but I did manage to get about six ounces, mostly fine stuff but a few nice nuggets in the mix Hope where ever you guys are dredging the water is a hell of a lot warmer.

Forum member East Texas Chris came to Alaska last summer to do a little fishing and hunt for gold. I let him prospect on my claim at Canyon Creek in the Kenai Peninsula while he was here, even let him use a dredge to work with. Chris did a great job dredging by the bank with the 2 inch dredge I believe he ended up with about an 1/8th oz. of gold for the effort. Been really busy the last few months, but Saturday I got some free time. I decided to dredge the spot Chris worked last summer to make sure the area was clear of gold. Well about the area he had been standing wile dredging I found a crack in the bedrock, after busting it open and cleaning it up I was surprised to find about 10 G. of fine flakes and a really pretty 4 G. nugget. Really nice to see nuggets. Hope you enjoy the gold.

Just a heads up concerning the Alaska Gold Forum and The New 49'ers forum for those who may be wondering why they can't access these forums. The main servers went down last week. No one knows why and the board providers cannot be reached to fix the problem. At this time it is unknown if or when these forums will come back online. There is a very real chance that they will not come back and I am now looking at different options for bringing them back under a different message board provider. The worst part of this is not just losing the forums for the mining community and loyal contributors and readers, it is also the loss of many years of valuable information. I just wanted to let people know why they cannot access these forums any more. Many times things like this happen and no one ever knows why. What has happened is beyond my ability to remedy as the forums administrator because the board format owners and servers belong to their owners. I have no way to fix the problem.

I have just been notified by Jim Foley that that the Alaska Gold Forum is down. He is working hard on a solution but it does not sound very hopeful at the moment. The AGF is one of the older forums and has a lot of Alaska information in particular that it would be a shame to lose. Good luck Jim, hopefully something works out.

After an unfruitful couple days in NorCal (only a couple specks), heading down to Crow Creek with the GPAA guys for 5 or 6 days and hoping Steve left something behind! It's the only place I've found anything worth talking about so far, so here's to doubling it! GMT, ATX, Sluice and Pan...any other suggestions?

Well got the dredge fixed up as much as I'm gonna! Springs here and I got the fever. So in we go. Took the dredge in assembled just skidded it in on the float and pulled it with a snowmobile. That was nice with all the snow it was about a mile in. Getting the dredge into the canyon was another deal. Although not to bad lowered it in with a rope and a pulley. Made for a long day but I was glade we got it in before the snow melted, skidding everything was a lot easier than packing in. Went up the following weekend to try out the new six inch dredge! Had big plans to get in early Saturday and work late, figured I could get 8-10 hours on the nozzle. LOL! Well its been a long winter and seems I'm a bit outta shape. After four hours of dredging in the cold I was done! All in all I had a blast. The new dredge really put out compared to the four inch I've been using. Even got a few grams for the effort. May not seem like much but after being cooped up all winter and seeing all the gold post from down south and across the pond........ I was getting Bitchy ;-) P.S. Hope the snow pics helps you down in Texas.

Abstract Alaska consists of more than 663,000 square miles (1,717,000 square kilometers) of land—more than a sixth of the total area of the United States—and large tracts of it have not been systematically studied or sampled for mineral-resource potential. Many regions of the State are known to have significant mineral-resource potential, and there are currently six operating mines in the State along with numerous active mineral exploration projects. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys have developed a new geospatial tool that integrates and analyzes publicly available databases of geologic information and estimates the mineral-resource potential for critical minerals, which was recently used to evaluate Alaska. The results of the analyses highlight areas that have known mineral deposits and also reveal areas that were not previously considered to be prospective for these deposit types. These results will inform land management decisions by Federal, State, and private landholders, and will also help guide future exploration activities and scientific investigations in Alaska. Suggested Citation Karl, S.M., and Labay, K.A., Geospatial analysis identifies critical mineral-resource potential in Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2017–3012, 4 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20173012. Fact Sheet https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2017/3012/fs20173012.pdf Full Report https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20161191

Steve, you stated you installed drain plugs on your pumps. I picked up some 1/4 inch drain cox's to install on my pumps. Any words of wisdom before I go drill my pumps? Little nervous about this.