| Summary: | Caption on image: U.S.S.R. & M. Co. No. 5 Dredge Under Construction. Jacobs, Nome PH Coll 334.Jacobs 2 After completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1922, industrial giant United States Smelting Refining and Mining Co. began to purchase and consolidate individual mining claims in order to work the rich ground with a fleet of gold dredges. With capital from Boston, they built the 64-mile Davidson Ditch, hydraulically stripped thousands of cubic feet of overburden, and began an extensive program of cold water thawing. By the late 1930's the company had eight dredges operating in the Fairbanks area. The annual value of gold production in Alaska averaged $24 million, surpassing the record earnings of the early gold rush.
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