Dawson City, Yukon

You reach Dawson City form the north, by driving the Taylor Highway-known as the Top of the World Highway. From, Tok it is 68 miles to Chicken, Alaska- and then another 106 to Dawson-all dirt.
They have a free ferry so you can cross the Yukon River into town. Dawson is neat-it was here that gold was discovered and this was the destination for thousand of hopeful souls. Very few of them struck it rich.
Dawson hasn't change much since the gold rush. The streets are dirt and the sidewalks are boards. Almost all the building are original-zoning has done a good job.
We visited Dredge # 4-a monster mining machine that scoops buckets of gravel from the creek bed-then dumps it into a revolving steel drum perforated with holes-allowing small particles and gold to fall into the collecting boards. All debris (tailings) are pushed out the back. We hit the jackpot on our visit-a man named Bil German was on out tour-he worked on this dredge in 1957-1959. It was great as he explained so much- the tour guide was taking notes.
Later, Alex tried his hand at panning gold-it didn't pan out (groan).