Fairbanks was part of the gold rush that brought many prospectors to Alaska and there are still working claims there, including the El Dorado mine. They converted this mine into a tour where they demonstrate the way gold was mined back during the gold rush and then they show you a modern method. This is Yukon Dex who runs the mine operation along with his wife Yukon Yolanda. He looks like what I expected of a gold prospector and the two of them provided a charming, entertaining, and educational demonstration of panning for gold. You can watch a video clip of Dex from the link below.
At the end of the tour, everyone is given a bag of 'pay dirt' so they can pan for their own gold. They guarantee that you will find some but it wasn't as easy as Dex made it look. You can see by the look on Pattie's face that it was a lot of fun although it took both of us a long time to work through our pans.
The typical results for most panners are gold flakes which itself is pretty exciting to see appearing out of the dirt. Pattie hit the jackpot, finding a rare nugget in her pan, one of two found in our group of 150 people. You can see it here in her pan and she now has it mounted in a necklace along with a matching pair of earrings made from our gold flakes.
Here's a crash course on panning for gold...
Panning for Gold Video Clip (20MB)