Nugget Gulch is in the Yukon Wilderness Arc ...

The Yukon Wilderness Arc runs from the Denali National Park to the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve, an exciting and challenging area of wilderness for the neophyte—a cheechako in Alaska-speak—as well as the seasoned sourdough. The arc is "formed" naturally by the bend in the Yukon River at Fort Yukon. The "baseline" runs from Nenana on the Parks Highway to Central on the Steese Highway. No, nature is not exact, and we superimpose our ideas on how to make sense of it. But that's a philosophical issue best left for conversation on a late afternoon after the work is done.

Nugget Gulch is located at Mile 7.9 on the Circle Hot Springs Road off the Steese Highway at Central, and a relatively short distance from the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve. It is across the road from the Circle Hot Springs airstrip that can handle fairly large aircraft.

The dig will be the weekend of the Miners Picnic!

Jim Crabb has decided. This summer's dig will be on the weekend of the Circle Mining District's Miners Picnic. The picnic is held Circle Mining District Museum in Central, Alaska, on the first Saturday of August, August 4th. The dig will run from Friday evening, August 3rd, through Monday evening, August 6th, specific times to be announced as scheduled. If you want to read up on the Circle Mining District itself, the museum, or the picnic, start with:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~jesse/treasure/akmining/picnic.html

And this from wikipedia:
Gold_mining_in_Alaska: Circle_district

And explore the results of this Google search:
circle mining district alaska



Hilding Lindquist is gofer, editor, and publisher of the Steese Review blog.
If you have any comments or questions, please contact him at:
hglindquist(at)gmail.com
or leave your comment or question below.

We expect some of the artifacts we find to be gold!

Looking ahead to summer ... an update.

There has been a change of plans since the last "Looking ahead to summer" post. We recently spent a week in Yuma, Arizona with Jim Crabb, owner/operator of Nugget Gulch. We reviewed our plans for this coming summer and decided not to have four digs.

We are going on one dig this summer in the Circle Mining District, established in 1893.

This dig is for everyone who:

• can get to Nugget Gulch or Central Corner (see locations below),
• has or has a ride on a 4-wheeler-ATV,
• and has registered,
  

Please note: There will be a small registration fee (yet to be determined) to help us to keep track of the registered participants when we are out in the bush.

Couple of items still in the planning hopper: when and where.

• We will announce when the dig will be held as soon as Jim decides. The announcement will be before May 1st if everything lines up. We are planning to hold the dig over a weekend from Saturday morning to Monday evening.
• Where is another matter. It won't be announced until the participants are ready to start out on the first morning of the dig. It should be obvious that announcing the location of the dig beforehand simply invites others to get there first and take the "low hanging fruit."

Each morning Jim will lead the "expedition" from Nugget Gulch, located at Circle Hot Springs—Mile 7.9 on the Circle Hot Springs Road from Central on the Steese Highway. Central is just past Mile 127+. He will gather the remaining participants from Central Corner, at the corner of the Steese Highway and Circle Hot Springs Road, where folks can get breakfast for themselves and gas for their 4-wheelers.

View location of Nugget Gulch in Google Maps
View location of Central Corner in Google Maps

Each evening the group will return to Nugget Gulch or Central Corner for the night.

The dig itself will be over three days and two nights. Participants can join for any part of the dig: one, two, or all three days, and in the nighttime activities at Nugget Gulch and Central Corner.

Participants in the dig will search for artifacts left behind by the gold rush miners in Interior Alaska's Circle Mining District from the late 1800's on. Besides gold, bottles, tools, and coins are some of the items we expect to find. In the process we will be guided by archaeological methods as much as practical. Please Note: You can read about Archaeology and its methods in: Wikipedia.

Jim will make a "go or no go" decision by March 31st. We will announce his decision here.

If you are interested in going on the dig if it's a "go", please contact us at hglindquist@gmail.com. We'll put up direct contact info when and if it's a go. We would encourage and welcome any inquiries from anyone interested in archaeology and its methods, such as students, amateurs, professionals, and simply those eager to learn more about it.

Looking for gold?

There is gold in Interior Alaska and the rush is on!

Each year starting in May and going through the middle of September you can look for gold along the Steese Highway from Fairbanks to Nugget Gulch with the assurance that you will have a place to relax and get ready at both ends of this 134+ mile stretch of highway and road for your adventures in the gold country of Interior Alaska.

In Fairbanks you can supply your journey north at Alaskan Prospectors & Geologists Supply as well as learn how and where to look for gold . Fairbanks has numerous hotels, motels, RV parks, and camp grounds to accommodate your stay, and is full of tourists in the summer.

Then at Nugget Gulch at Circle Hot Springs—7+ miles up the Circle Hot Springs Road from Central on the Steese Highway just above 127 Mile—you will find a place to catch your breath and experience the lifestyle of The Last Frontier in gold country. (Note: Just remember, Nugget Gulch has a limited number of lodge rooms and cabins so it is best to plan ahead—see "Contacting Nugget Gulch" below.) There is a fairly large area for RV's and camping. Here at Nugget Gulch as well as in the neighboring town of Central, you can mingle with the real miners of the Circle Mining District. These are not performances, these are authentic encounters. It's real, folks, very real. And we are inviting you—if you are ready for it—to come up, mingle far from the maddening crowd. and experience the lifestyle of The Last Frontier for yourself.

As you travel the Steese Highway you can enjoy hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and—in season—fishing and hunting as you look for gold as well as other treasures left behind by over a hundred years of mining the gold. (See Alaska Digs.) Remember to steer clear of active mining claims and private property without having explicit permission to access from the owners of the claims and property. You can learn the rules from Alaskan Prospectors & Geologists Supply and at Nugget Gulch.

Keep in mind that while Fairbanks and Alaskan Prospectors & Geologists Supply can handle large numbers of people, Nugget Gulch is limited to only a few. That is why we filter general inquiries for information about Nugget Gulch through Gus. (See "Contacting Nugget Gulch" below.) Of course, if you already know Jim Crabb then by all means contact him directly. And if you are traveling by RV or camping out then coming up and taking your chances in the RV/camping area is not too risky. Even then, because experiencing the lifestyle of The Last Frontier directly in person is not for everyone, we want to help you make sure it's for you BEFORE you wind up wasting time and money. While there are no guarantees in looking for gold, if you stay at Nugget Gulch for any length of time—one day or all summer—we will do our best to make your adventure on the Steese Highway memorable in a way that will bring you back again and again.

Contacting Nugget Gulch: Get started early by contacting the editor/publisher of this blog, Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, at hglindquist@gmail.com. If you are serious about traveling the Steese and experiencing the authentic lifestyle of The Last Frontier in search of gold, Gus will help you make contact with Jim Crabb, Owner/Operator of Nugget Gulch. You can contact Alaskan Prospectors & Geologists Supply directly—504 College Road, Fairbanks, AK 99701, (907) 452-7398— or ask Gus for help.

From The Spell of the Yukon By Robert Service

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

45 Mile: Long Creek Trading Post

This gold nugget was found at Long Creek at 45.5 Mile on the Steese Highway. Paul Potvin is the owner/operator of the Long Creek Trading Post. You can rent canoes here and have Paul take you upstream on the Chatanika River for varying distances to float, paddle, and fish (grayling) your way back to the Trading Post.