Interior Alaska gold mining, 1950s 

Films by Alaskan artist Fred Machetanz contain scenes of 1950s mining in Interior Alaska. In one scene near Fairbanks, men operate hydraulic giants and drive thaw points to prepare the area for dredging, and a dredge scoops up muck and deposits tailings piles. In another scene, miners use Caterpillars and a dragline to operate a large sluice box, and the whole family participates in sluice box clean-up. In the final scene, a man smelts gold into ingot (Color/Silent/16mm film).
This sequence contains excerpts from AAF-1091 from the Machetanz collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
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