UAF/KUAC-[Alaskan Gold Work Print]

About this film

This 1949 film documents the process of placer gold mining by the United States Smelting Refining & Mining Company in Fairbanks, Alaska. The footage begins with establishing shots of a map, the Alaska Railroad, Fairbanks town life, and a historical marker at Pedro Creek, contrasting early manual gold panning with massive industrial operations. Key industrial steps are shown in detail, including surveying, core drilling, and hydraulicking to strip topsoil using high-pressure water monitors. A significant portion of the film illustrates the extensive process of thawing permafrost by driving a vast network of pipes into the ground. The mining climax features a massive walking dragline and a huge floating bucket-line gold dredge extracting ore. The film concludes inside the dredge where men clean the sluices, followed by the smelting of the recovered gold in a furnace and the weighing of a large, finished gold brick.

Subjects

public broadcasting, AAPB, Alaska, Fairbanks, gold mining, placer mining, United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company, 1940s, 1949, gold panning, sluice box, surveying, core drilling, hydraulicking, water monitors, permafrost, dragline excavator, gold dredge, bucket-line dredge, smelting, gold brick, Alaska Railroad, dog sleds, heavy machinery

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