Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
— 14 —
Moiling for Gold
I wanted the gold and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
—Robert Service
MY GRANDMOTHER GAVE ME
a copy of Robert Service's
The Spell of the Yukon
when I
was ten years old. He is better known for
Sam McGee
and
Dan McGrew
but I loved the
title poem best, with its descriptions of Alaska (“some mighty-mouthed hollow that's
plumb-full of hush to the brim”). Service might not have made it to the Yukon until the
Klondike was all over, but he stuck around long enough to see what he could see, and he
described the north as well as anyone ever has.
The Independence Mine is tucked into another such mighty-mouthed hollow, an alpine
valley thirty-five hundred feet high surrounded by the ragged Talkeetna Mountain, with a
spectacular view of the Matanuska Valley, the Hunter Creek Glacier and the Chugach
Mountains. You could go for the scenery alone.
Robert Hatcher discovered and staked the first lode claim near the top of Skyscraper
Mountain in 1906. In 1935 Alaska-Pacific Mines, Inc., bought out the two existing mining
operations and Independence Mine became the largest producer of gold in the area. Their
peak years were 1936 to 1942, when they produced a total of 152,429 fine ounces of gold,
which at $35 an ounce was worth $5,334,700.
