earendel's "North to Alaska" trip - Day 11
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:27 am
[Sorry for not keeping this going but I've been OBE lately.]
After spending the night in Tok, AK (the town that no one knows where its name came from) we took a motor coach to Fairbanks. This was another day-long excursion that was enlivened by videos about the gold rush days and our tour guide's effervescent personality. It was also the first time that politics (of a sort) reared its head. One of the stops along the way to Fairbanks was at a gold dredge - a behemoth of a machine that was designed to extract gold from riverbeds via a method not that far removed from panning for gold, only on an industrial scale. Our tour of the dredge included another "miners' meal" of stew, bread and beverage (coffee, tea or water) and a tour of a mining camp, which included a video production featuring characters played by a local TV newscaster. During the Q&A that followed the video someone asked if the gold dredges (or a more modern equivalent) might be fired up again considering the price of gold these days. The person who was escorting us around the camp said that it was doubtful because of the environmental regulations that exist these days. The gold dredges were extremely noisy and belched fumes into the air, not to mention the residue that was left behind after the gold was extracted. There was some hint in the man's voice that he didn't necessarily think that the regulations were "a good thing" (although he tried to sound neutral about the matter). This issue would come up again when we stopped to see a portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which took place later in the day. While at the gold dredge we had the opportunity to pan for gold - each person on the tour got a bag of "dirt" - soil and rocks taken from a streambed - and a pan, and they had water in troughs for us to use. elwing and I managed to extract a whopping $20 worth of gold between the two of us; and for only $15 we had it put into a small vial called a "bezel". I joked that we were now in possession of "embezzeled" gold.
The pipeline (or the segment that we saw) was very impressive, standing approximately 15' above the ground on specially-designed "pylons" that were motion sensitive and helped control the heat generated by moving oil through the pipeline. elwing took pictures of me standing under the pipeline, and there was lots of explanatory material available also. Once again someone asked about whether Alaskans favored drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the bus driver said that most were probably in favor because it would bring jobs and because they believed it was possible to drill and extract the oil without major environmental impact. He mentioned that the pipeline had not suffered any major spills, nor had the migration of caribou been negatively affected. I will say that my own personal opinion about this issue has been modified somewhat as a result of my trip, which I suppose is one of the purposes of travel - to expand one's knowledge.
Fairbanks is an interesting town in and of itself. There are no really tall buildings (because of the problems with permafrost, not because of earthquakes). For one thing, it is a truly civilized place, with an actual Wal*Mart. For dinner we ate at Taco Bell while we were shopping.
After spending the night in Tok, AK (the town that no one knows where its name came from) we took a motor coach to Fairbanks. This was another day-long excursion that was enlivened by videos about the gold rush days and our tour guide's effervescent personality. It was also the first time that politics (of a sort) reared its head. One of the stops along the way to Fairbanks was at a gold dredge - a behemoth of a machine that was designed to extract gold from riverbeds via a method not that far removed from panning for gold, only on an industrial scale. Our tour of the dredge included another "miners' meal" of stew, bread and beverage (coffee, tea or water) and a tour of a mining camp, which included a video production featuring characters played by a local TV newscaster. During the Q&A that followed the video someone asked if the gold dredges (or a more modern equivalent) might be fired up again considering the price of gold these days. The person who was escorting us around the camp said that it was doubtful because of the environmental regulations that exist these days. The gold dredges were extremely noisy and belched fumes into the air, not to mention the residue that was left behind after the gold was extracted. There was some hint in the man's voice that he didn't necessarily think that the regulations were "a good thing" (although he tried to sound neutral about the matter). This issue would come up again when we stopped to see a portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which took place later in the day. While at the gold dredge we had the opportunity to pan for gold - each person on the tour got a bag of "dirt" - soil and rocks taken from a streambed - and a pan, and they had water in troughs for us to use. elwing and I managed to extract a whopping $20 worth of gold between the two of us; and for only $15 we had it put into a small vial called a "bezel". I joked that we were now in possession of "embezzeled" gold.
The pipeline (or the segment that we saw) was very impressive, standing approximately 15' above the ground on specially-designed "pylons" that were motion sensitive and helped control the heat generated by moving oil through the pipeline. elwing took pictures of me standing under the pipeline, and there was lots of explanatory material available also. Once again someone asked about whether Alaskans favored drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; the bus driver said that most were probably in favor because it would bring jobs and because they believed it was possible to drill and extract the oil without major environmental impact. He mentioned that the pipeline had not suffered any major spills, nor had the migration of caribou been negatively affected. I will say that my own personal opinion about this issue has been modified somewhat as a result of my trip, which I suppose is one of the purposes of travel - to expand one's knowledge.
Fairbanks is an interesting town in and of itself. There are no really tall buildings (because of the problems with permafrost, not because of earthquakes). For one thing, it is a truly civilized place, with an actual Wal*Mart. For dinner we ate at Taco Bell while we were shopping.
