Finally Got There

Ever since I got into Gold panning, I have seen an add in Workamper News 'Pan for gold right out the front door of your RV' and have tried to talk Judy into going to Chicken to Workamp for the summer. Her reply was always "NO WAY!!" Yesterday while we were driving from Denali to Tok, I suggested we spend an extra night at the campground in Tok and drive to Chicken without the 5th Wheel. She agreed and today we were OFF TO CHICKEN. We headed out about 8:00 AM down the Alcan to the Taylor Highway about 11 miles south of Tok. We turned up the Taylor Hwy and drove the 70 miles to Chicken. It was a rainy, foggy ride and the road is not the best. I'm sure glad we didn't haul the 5th wheel up there. The road is narrow and windy with lots of frost heaves and many gravel spots and pot holes. After a leisurely drive of about 2 1/2 hours we arrived at Chicken and not too soon. The Goldpanner Outpost was the only business still open in Chicken and today was the last day before they closed for the winter. One of the guys outside said if the rain kept up, tonight they'd get SNOW. We drove around all over Chicken and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Chicken is one of the original two locations where gold was discovered in the late 1880's that started the Alaska Gold Rush and the opening of the Alaska Frontier. Moose Pass, where we spent the summer, is rather isolated and you have to drive to a bigger city to get groceries and things but compared to Chicken, it's a booming metropolis. I guess I'd have had second thoughts if we'd have actually gone there to Workamp. It is an interesting place though. You can still pan for gold there and people do still find it as they do all over Alaska. There are still many operating Gold mines throughout the state and with the price of gold between $800-$1000 per ounce it can be very profitable. This is a restored 'Bucket Line Dredge" called the Pedro Dredge that was used to dredge for gold on the Pedro River and was moved here and restored by one of the store owners and is now on the National Historic Register of historic places and is a museum that you can tour (in the summer) and see how gold was mined in the old days. I think this dredge was actually in use until about WWII.
The area of the Taylor Highway has one of the largest Caribou herds in Alaska and they migrate across the Taylor Highway every Fall. But of course, we were either too early or too late and the only wildlife we saw was a porcupine along side the road and it was too fast for us to get a picture.They even have an airport in Chicken!! This one plane was sitting on the runway ready to ferry all the "CHICKENS" out of town for the Winter!!!