F.E. Comapny Dredge No. 4 (Pedro Gold Dredge) |
99732 Chicken, AK, United States of America (USA) (Alaska ) |
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| Address |
Airport Rd
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| Floor area | unfortunately not known yet |
Mining
- Historic Engineering Landmarks
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Opening times
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Tours are offered daily throughout the season. | ||||
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Status from 07/2023
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Free entry. | ||||
| Contact |
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| Homepage | www.chickengold.com/pedro_dredge.html | ||||
gmail.com 
| Location / Directions |
Chicken is accessible by air via Chicken Airport, and by road via Alaska Route 5, the Taylor Highway, which is not maintained from mid-October through mid-March. A portion of Chicken, with buildings from the early 1900s and the F.E. Company Dredge No. 4 (Pedro Dredge) are listed on the National Register of Historical Places as the Chicken Historic District. Chicken is the outpost for the 40 Mile mining district. There are still active gold mines in this area. Enough gold was mined here to make it worthwhile to haul huge gold dredges to this remote location. There are still several inactive gold dredges in the Chicken area. |
| Description | The Pedro Dredge, originally owned by the Fairbanks Exploration Company (FE Co.), a subsidiary of the United States Smelting Refining & Mining Co. (USSR&M), was built by the Yuba Manufacturing Company in California, and was shipped to Pedro Creek north of Fairbanks in 1938. It was assembled there, and operated until 1958. The following year it was disassembled, trucked over the Alaska and Taylor Highway to Chicken, Alalska and reassembled over a 3 month span. The dredge commenced operations on lower Chicken Creek in September and worked approximately five months every year thereafter until October 1967, when it produced its final cleanup. The 3-cubic-foot dredge (measurement of the bucket capacity), the smallest in the FE Co.'s fleet of 8 behemoth gold mining machines, mined over 55,000 ounces of gold in the eight years on Chicken Creek, equivalent to roughly 65-70 million dollars in gold at modern prices. In 1998, after sitting idle for 31 years, the million pound dredge was moved one mile in one piece, on a trailer constructed in place, to the Chicken Gold Camp & Outpost. It was moved a short distance again in 2009, floated to it's present location. The dredge was opened to the public in August 2005. It is the most complete bucket line gold dredge open to the public in Alaska and perhaps North America. Adjoining the dredge and throughout the Gold Camp/Chicken RV park, an outdoor Mining Museum with an assemblage of historical gold rush equipment and buildings, including a vintage machine shop, can be viewed for free. Gold panning is available at stand-up troughs under the stacker of the dredge, and modern recreational mining is provided on historic gold producing claims nearby. The Grand Opening of Pedro Dredge was held in 2006; tours are now offered daily throughout the season. In June 2006, years of work were rewarded when the dredge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. |
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