Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Between Earth and Sky: Chatanika Gold Dredge

Gold dredges are large multi-level machines that run up and down waterways “dredging” or digging up rock, soil, and gravel mining for gold. They create large piles of the materials they displace and it’s one of the most interesting and amazing sights we’ve seen during the production. You can barely see the dredge from the highway and after making our way through the brush we came upon a giant pile of rock and gravel. We immediately saw the ominous hulking mass of rusted steel and cable. I have not found a specific reason for it’s displacement, in my opinion it either stopped producing gold, or it ran aground. Either way it was just abandoned and in 2013 it burned. The Chatanika dredge was in operation from the 1920's to the 1950's. Read more about Chatanika here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatanika,_Alaska or more about gold dredges here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_dredge

Related Content