I don’t wait for my checked bag to appear before going for dinner at Karstens Public House, which is part of the resort, and the only option for meals without leaving the resort grounds. My room is very nice, with two big beds, nice appointments, and a view of the mountain. Our group is staying in the Ridge View building, which our Tour Director tells us most resort guests ask to upgrade to. This is a resort owned and operated by Holland America, so in their usual efficient manner, they are ready for us, so we are quickly assigned our rooms. We arrive at McKinley Chalet Resort at about 7PM. We make a stop at the hamlet of Nenana, where there is an historic train station, a grocery store, a bar, and not much else. Later in the afternoon, we board our bus and drive Highway 3 south to Denali, a 2-hour drive. The small town of Fox is nearby, where many of the miners and their families lived. This was remote wilderness, so this operation had to continue to function without much support from outside.

There are bunkhouses, machine shops, a hydro generation station – complete infrastructure to support the 24-hour a day operation this dredge was built for. The dredge is partially flooded, so we aren’t allowed to go inside – a disappointment. They give everyone a small poke bag and then everyone (except me) pans for gold, has their flecks of gold weighed, and can take them home as-is or have it made into jewelry on the spot. I’m more interested in the history of the place, so wander around taking in all the mining artifacts on display – a big old safe, accounting machines and records, clothing, equipment, and even dinosaur bones! We wait around for an hour for other tour buses to arrive before we are all taken to the main site on a miniature train. We then board our bus and are taken to nearby Gold Dredge 8 where we first encounter the Alaska Pipeline at the site entrance. Dredge bucket line and bow gantry – Goldstream Dredge No.

Gold dredge 8 fairbanks