Northwest History. Alaska, Mines & Mining -- Equipment. United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1935
• Subjects: Seattle; iron dinosaur; gold fields; Far North; low grade ore; gold dredge; Roosevelt age; Alaska; golden territory; the interior; Tanana; Nome; Good News Bay district; Lower Yukon; Lower Kuskokwim; Takotna districts; Frank Cotter; Earle W. Knight; Eugene C. Allen; gold rushes; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Yukon; Kuskokwim; midnight sun
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/101167

Iron Dinosaur Conquering Gold Fields Of Far North: Dredges Carried In By Plane Reclaim Low Grade Ore. Iron Dinosaur Conquering Gold Fields Of Far North Dredges Carried In By Plane Reclaim Low Grade Ore SEATTLE, April 1. (/P) — The iron dinosaur is conquering gold fields in the land of the midnight; sun. Great gold dredges, mechanical miners of the Roosevelt age, that eat into the auriferous gravel, today started their open season on the gold of Alaska, biting into the earth to recover valuable ore that formerly was not worth a "Chinamen's washing." The iron monsters are dredges that are making a fortune for their owners in the Alaskan gold fields. They take ore worth as little as 15 cents a cubic yard and make it pay t profit. They rake gold from ground fortune hunters have abandoned. Move By Plane With the coming of. spring, dredges started operations all over Alaska, the "golden territory," because Northwest development of the airplane has made it possible to ship these ponderous machines, piece by piece, far into the interior. They work more ore per day than hundreds of old time prospectors, and with the current gold price of $35 an ounce, which sourdoughs hope will go even higher, they now work ore that formerly was not worth bothering about. A dredge in a gold field is regarded as efficient when it works 22 hours and 10 minutes out of 24 hours. Unlike the prospector, it never has to stop for lunch or sleep. It handles 5.000 to 6,000 tons of gravel a day. The big dredging areas of Alaska this year are the Good News Bay district, the Tanana, Nome, Lower Yukon, Lower Kuskokwim and Takotna districts. Need For Smelter "Dredges handle placer gold," said Frank Cotter, old time prospector of Alaska, "and amalgamation recovers the values without the necessity of sending the ore to a smelter. Today a dredge can be shipped to the farthest gold district in Alaska by airplane." Barle W. Knight, of the Alaska Weekly, authoritative Alaskan publication in the states, called attention to the recent development of the dragline scraper. "It can work a tremendous yardage of low grade material with great economy," he said. "And it can handle geographical situations with which the old time dredge could not cope. It works on a stiff-legged boom, and can reach the inaccessible points, making possible recovery of greater values." "With the airplane, the dragline scraper and portable machinery," said Eugene C. Allen, another veteran of the gold rushes, "anything is possible In Alaska today. We can get gold from places no one could ever reach in the days of the dogsled and the prospector's pick." Great quantities of dredge equipment are being shipped north this spring, the steamship companies say.