{"id":22865,"date":"2022-12-27T19:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T00:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22865"},"modified":"2022-12-27T19:41:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T00:41:01","slug":"episode-706-gold-panning-in-yukon-a-mysterious-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22865","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 706 GOLD PANNING IN YUKON …. A MYSTERIOUS DISCOVERY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 706       GOLD PANNING IN YUKON\u2026.A MYSTERIOUS DISCOVERY<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 27, 2022<\/div>\n

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We used Haggerty Creek to get up  into Dublin Gulch as I remember.<\/div>\n
Seemed the creek was the only way to reach the gold operation<\/div>\n

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Driving up creek was  bone causing adventure.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 706   ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON\u2026.GOLD PANNING IN YUKON\u2026.MYSTEROUS DISCOVERY<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 27,2022<\/div>\n

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One strange and mysterious event that happened in the Yukon was our discovery<\/div>\n
of a cache of gold that would today be worth thousands of dollars.   Not our gold.<\/div>\n
Abandoned gold in rusty barrels that Bill Dunn and I on impulse decided to test<\/div>\n
for gold content.  <\/div>\n

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Why would anyone leave these rusty barrels filled with fine gravel in a small clearing<\/div>\n
by the side to Haggerty creek in Dublin Gulch, Yukon Territory.   Beside the barrels was<\/div>\n
a kind of open ended centrifuge kind of thing that would eject light stones and pebbles<\/div>\n
but save the heavier gold bearing gravel.  Or so we thought.<\/div>\n

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So we bought a pair of gold pans from the outfitters store in Mayo Landing or Elsa and<\/div>\n
proceeded to swish some of the gravel beside the creek.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cBurn the gold pans first\u2026gets any sticky stuff off them.\u201d\u2019’<\/div>\n
\u201cAny special way to swish\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes\u2026slow and steady\u2026wash away the stones, the sand\u2026the crap.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSwish one side then the other.<\/div>\n
\u201cTiring job.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho said life was easy?\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cBy the way, this is not your gold.”<\/div>\n

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With each swish some small pebbles<\/div>\n
popped over the edge of the pans.  Eventually we had a thin deposit left in the pans.<\/div>\n
When we looked closely we saw the glitter of gold dust or tiny flecks of gold.  Just <\/div>\n
enough for me to sprinkle on black electrical tape and mail to Marjorie.  <\/div>\n

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How much gold dust  could we retrieve from those rusty barrels?  Maybe 16 ounces\u2026maybe<\/div>\n
more.  In 1961 gold sold for $35 an ounce.  A pound of gold (16 ounces) would be worth <\/div>\n
16 x 35 = $560.  Suppose there we\u2019re 10 pounds of gold?  160 x 35 – $ 16,035,   worth the <\/div>\n
effort!  at  1961 price.  Suppose  there were 100 pounds of gold?  1600 x $2,000 =$32 million <\/div>\n
at modern prices.  <\/div>\n

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Those barrels must be long gone!!!<\/div>\n

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Now suppose we go there today\u2026year 2022 to find those barrels.  I think we could do it.<\/div>\n
And then spend a few weeks panning or, better still, get a machine to do it for us.<\/div>\n
And suppose we get 10 pounds of gold.  That would be  160 x $2,000= $320,000<\/div>\n
Holy Cow!   <\/div>\n

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Suppose there were 100 pounds of gold in those barrels?  1600 x 2,000 = $32 million <\/div>\n

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Hold on, Alan, the is not your gold.  That is not your land claim.   So that is not<\/div>\n
your money.<\/div>\n

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Bill Dunn and Alan Skeoch panning for gold late one summer evening in Dublin Gulch.  Not our gold.<\/div>\n

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I have a suspicion  that  those rusty barrels belonged to Mr Acheson who held a number of <\/div>\n
claims in Dublin Gulch where he spent each summer using a small bulldozer and a hydraulic<\/div>\n
hose to wash off the overburden of glcacial gravel to get down to the the bedrock where placer gold<\/div>\n
was caught in nooks and crannies.   Nice guy.   Carried a slab of gold which he was ready to<\/div>\n
use as a nuckle duster if anyone gave him trouble.   Slab fitted neatly into his hand.<\/div>\n

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As he washed away the gravel he found something more interesting to me than gold.<\/div>\n
He found the bones of ancient mammoths.   Their tusks were lined up at his cabin.<\/div>\n
He gave me a Mammoth tooth which I valued highly.  Somebody at Parkdale Colliegiate<\/div>\n
stole my tooth in my first year teaching.  Was it a teacher o a student?  I wish Jack Acneson <\/div>\n
was alive today just so I could get another mammoth tooth and maybe do a little gold<\/div>\n
panning to finance my trip back to Dublin Gulch.<\/div>\n

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Occasionally we found the wrecks of wagons like this deep in the Yukon wilderness where <\/div>\n
there was not obvious road.<\/div>\n

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Big time sluicing operation.  Like using a giant gold pan where the heavy placer gold was caught in <\/div>\n
wooden riffles while the stones and lighter travels were washed away.  Jack had some big nuggets<\/div>\n
in his cabin.  (Do not tell anybody)  He would divert the water to check the riffles every once in a while.<\/div>\n

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Some placer miners  tunnelled into the Yukon hills to reach bed rock where gold might be found.  Using a hydraulic driven hose<\/div>\n
was labour intensive.  Jack Acheson hired us to do a seismic survey across his property .   He wanted to know<\/div>\n
how deep it was to bed rock.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 706       GOLD PANNING IN YUKON\u2026.A MYSTERIOUS DISCOVERY alan skeoch Dec. 27, 2022 We used Haggerty Creek to get up  into Dublin Gulch as I remember. Seemed the creek was the only way to reach the gold operation Driving up creek was  bone causing adventure. EPISODE 706   ESCAPE FROM THE YUKON\u2026.GOLD […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}