Fairbanks!
Alaskan Pipeline & Dredge #8
Richard in the Pipeline With the PIG!
This Section is Kept Nice and Shiny for the Tourists!
We Boarded a Tanana Valley Train Replica
and Headed Over Towards Dredge #8en a replica of the Tanana Vall
Along The Way Were Various Exhibits!
This Engine Was Fully Operational
and
Used To Pull Buckets From a Mine!
Goldstream Dredge No. 8 is a ladder dredge operated by the Fairbanks Exploration Co. from 1928 to 1959. It is located on the old Steese Highway between Fairbanks and Fox in the central part of the U.S. state of Alaska.
Starting in the 1920s, water was brought to the area through the 90-mile (145 km) Davidson Ditch for gold mining. The Goldstream Dredge No. 8 cut a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) track and produced 7.5 million ounces of gold.
The dredge was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1986. In 1984, it was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
Panning For Gold!
This is hard work!!
Joan and I found over $42.00 worth of Gold in our two pans!
Next We Visited
Next We Visited
The University Of Fairbanks Museum!
Inside we Found
Inside we Found
A BIG Bear!
Mammoth Tusks
An Outhouse!
Then We Headed For
Denali National Park!
It Was SOOO Clear!
Mt. McKinley!!
Mount McKinley, [native name Denali (Koyukon Athabaskan for "The High One", Dghelaayce’e in Ahtna)] is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,237 feet (6,168 m) above sea level. At some 18,000 feet (5,500 m), the base-to-peak rise is considered the largest of any mountain situated entirely above sea level. Measured by topographic prominence, it is the third most prominent peak after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of US state of Alaska, McKinley is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.
The first European to document sighting the mountain was George Vancouver in 1794. In 1903, James Wickersham recorded the first attempt at climbing McKinley, which was unsuccessful. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent, which was later proven to be false. The first verifiable ascent to McKinley's summit was achieved on June 7, 1913 by climbers Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum, who went by the South Summit. In 1951, Bradford Washburn pioneered the West Buttress route, considered to be the safest and easiest route and therefore the most popular currently in use.
On September 11, 2013, Alaska's lieutenant governor Mead Treadwell announced Mount McKinley is 20,237 feet (6,168 m) tall and not 20,320 feet (6,194 m) as measured in 1952 using photogrammetry. The Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the more accurate height was 83 feet (25 m) lower using measurements from a 2012 survey that used Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar. The new height was accepted by the U.S. Geological Survey and is now part of its National Elevation Dataset.
Geology and features
Mount McKinley is a granitic pluton lifted by tectonic pressure from the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate; at the same time, the sedimentary material above and around the mountain was stripped away by erosion. The forces that lifted Mount McKinley also cause many deep earthquakes in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Pacific Plate is seismically active beneath Mount McKinley, which is known as the "McKinley cluster".
McKinley has a summit elevation of 20,237 feet (6,168 m) above sea level, making it the highest peak in North America. Measured from base to peak at some 18,000 feet, it is also the largest of any mountain entirely above sea level. McKinley rises from a sloping plain with elevations from 1,000 to 3,000 feet (300 to 900 m), for a base-to-peak height of 17,000 to 19,000 feet (5,000 to 6,000 m). (Mount Everest, on the other hand, rises from the Tibetan Plateau, at a much higher base elevation. Base elevations for Everest range from 13,800 ft (4,200 m) on the south side to 17,100 ft (5,200 m) on the Tibetan Plateau, for a base-to-peak height in the range of 12,000 to 15,300 feet (3,700 to 4,700 m).McKinley's base-to-peak height is little more than half the 33,500 feet (10,200 m) of the volcano Mauna Kea, which lies mostly under water.)
Layout of the mountain
Mount McKinley has two significant summits: the South Summit is the higher one, while the North Summit has an elevation of 19,470 feet (5,934 m)[and a prominence of approximately 1,270 feet (387 m). The North Summit is sometimes counted as a separate peak (see e.g., fourteener) and sometimes not; it is rarely climbed, except by those doing routes on the north side of the massif.
Five large glaciers flow off the slopes of the mountain. The Peters Glacier lies on the northwest side of the massif, while the Muldrow Glacier falls from its northeast slopes. Just to the east of the Muldrow, and abutting the eastern side of the massif, is the Traleika Glacier. The Ruth Glacier lies to the southeast of the mountain, and the Kahiltna Glacier leads up to the southwest side of the mountain.
The Koyukon Athabaskan people who inhabit the area around McKinley referred to the peak as Dinale or Denali (the high one or the great one, respectively).History
The Koyukon Athabaskans are the first Native Americans with access to the flanks of the mountain (living in the Yukon, Tanana and Kuskokwim basins). George Vancouver became the first European to sight McKinley when he noted "distant stupendous mountains" while surveying the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet on May 6, 1794. The Russian explorer Lavrenty Zagoskin explored the Tanana and Kuskokwim rivers in 1843 and 1844 and was probably the first European to sight the mountain from the other side.
William Dickey, a New Hampshire-born Seattleite who had been digging for gold in the sands of the Susitna River, wrote, after his returning from Alaska, an account in the New York Sun that appeared on January 24, 1897. His report drew attention with the sentence "We have no doubt that this peak is the highest in North America, and estimate that it is over 20,000 feet (6,100 m) high." Until then 18,000-foot (5,500 m) Mount Saint Elias was believed to be the continent’s highest point, and Mount Logan was still unknown. Though later praised for his estimate, Dickey admitted that other prospector parties had also guessed the mountain to be over 20,000 feet (6,100 m).
Climbing history
The first recorded attempt to climb Mount McKinley was by Judge James Wickersham in 1903, via the Peters Glacier and the North Face, now known as the Wickersham Wall. This route has tremendous avalanche danger and was not successfully climbed until 1963.
High camp (17,200 ft or 5,200 m) of the West Buttress Route pioneered by Bradford Washburn, photographed in 2001
Famed explorer Dr. Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent of the mountain in 1906. His claim was regarded with some suspicion from the start, but was also widely believed. It was later proved false, with some crucial evidence provided by Bradford Washburn when he was sketched on a lower peak.
In 1910, four locals (Tom Lloyd, Peter Anderson, Billy Taylor, and Charles McGonagall), known as the Sourdough Expedition, attempted McKinley despite a complete lack of climbing experience. They spent approximately three months on the mountain. However, their purported summit day was impressive: carrying a bag of doughnuts each, a thermos of hot chocolate, and a 14-foot (4.2 m) spruce pole, two of them reached the North Summit, the lower of the two, and erected the pole near the top. According to them, they took a total of 18 hours. No one believed their success (partly due to false claims that they had climbed both summits) until the true first ascent, in 1913.
In 1912, the Parker-Browne expedition nearly reached the summit, turning back within just a few hundred yards of it due to harsh weather. In fact, that probably saved their lives, as a powerful earthquake shattered the glacier they had ascended hours after they safely left it.
The first ascent of the main summit of McKinley came on June 7, 1913 by a party led by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens. The first man to reach the summit was Walter Harper, an Alaska Native. Robert Tatum also made the summit. Tatum later commented, "The view from the top of Mount McKinley is like looking out the windows of Heaven!" They ascended the Muldrow Glacier route pioneered by the earlier expeditions, which is still often climbed today. Stuck confirmed, via binoculars, the presence of a large pole near the North Summit; this report confirmed the Sourdough ascent, and today it is widely believed that the Sourdoughs did succeed on the North Summit. However, the pole was never seen before or since, so there is still some doubt. Stuck also discovered that the Parker-Browne party were only about 200 feet (61 m) of elevation short of the true summit when they turned back.
The mountain is regularly climbed today; in 2003, around 58% of climbers reached the top. But by 2003, the mountain had claimed the lives of nearly 100 mountaineers over time.The vast majority of climbers use the West Buttress Route, pioneered in 1951 by Bradford Washburn, after an extensive aerial photographic analysis of the mountain. Climbers typically take two to four weeks to ascend the mountain.
On November 5, 2012, the United States Mint released a twenty-five cent piece honoring Denali National Park. It is the fifteenth of the America the Beautiful Quarters series. The reverse features a Dall sheep with Mount McKinley in the background, designed by Susan Gamble. In 2012, 302 million quarters were minted.
Typical Glacial Fed Streams!
Don & Irene Taking a Break To Enjoy The Scenery!
NEXT STOP
DENALI!!!
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