El Dorado Gold Mine Tour

One of the tours afforded us on our cruise and tour of Alaska was this fun look at the way panning for gold and the gold mining industry has changed over the years. We were taken by bus north from Fairbanks the few miles to the mines sight. From the parking lot you step onto a small open rail car pulled by a very small locomotive that takes you around the property. This is a small loop amounting to probably less than a half mile total. The first stop is inside a small tunnel where they show you how it is supposed to look underground where they find the best deposits of gold. Then they take to on out and show how an individual would pan a stream or small creek. Then on to see a larger operation and finally to the station where everyone gets off and watches as they demonstrate a large sluice box operation. You watch as staff pan and find small amounts of gold before they give you your own small bag of dirt and pan and let you find your own gold. After successfully finding a few flakes they take you inside, dry it, weigh it, and either put it in a small plastic holder or sell you some jewelry to put it in. You then have time to shop the store for souvenirs, trinkets, art, and other items of interest, while sipping free coffee and cookies. Finally, its back to the train and on back around to the parking lot. Its interesting, kinda fun, and if you are really lucky a small nugget. One person on our tour found a $40 nugget.

I don't really know the price of this tour. It was part of the full Princess tour we bought.