Four men digging a tunnel in a gold mine at Eldorado, ca. 1900

• Main Author: Unknown
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Gold miners; Gold mining; Gold rushes; Prospecting equipment & supplies; Yukon; Klondike River; Eldorado; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/imlsmohai/id/7020

In Alaska and the Yukon, placer gold was found along ancient stream beds, some of which were twelve to forty feet underground at bedrock. The gold was frozen in the dirt or gravel. Miners chopped away at the frozen earth with picks or tried to thaw it with fires or steam machines. They "drifted" all winter, digging tunnels in the direction that seemed most promising for gold. This photo, taken around 1900 by Asahel Curtis, shows a four miners digging a tunnel at Eldorado, Yukon Territory. Original photograph: ca. 1900. Copied after 1975 by the Museum of History and Industry. 1 negative: safety film, b&w; 2 x 2.5 in.