Panning for Gold in Dawson City

Back during the gold rush, it wasn’t at all uncommon for someone to use a pick-axe and shovel and find a fair amount of gold in just one afternoon. That’s what triggered the gold rush up to the Yukon.

“Claim 6” was a small are set aside so tourists can experience what panning for gold was like.

People think that you scoop up dirt from the river bed, but that’s not quite the case. The gold can literally be anywhere. You use a shovel and pick-axe to loosen the dirt, then you rinse away the sand and debris in the water.

The idea is that since gold is relatively very heavy, you can gently use the river water to wash away any sand and dirt leaving behind any gold flakes, bits, or even small nuggets.

The dirt you scoop up is called “pay dirt”.

On the other side of the road on claim 6 is a bunch of cut lines the visitor association dug up to help visitors collect their pay dirt.

Claim 6 had a bunch of pre-dug holes where you could collect some pay dirt.

Abby was pretty damn serious about collecting her pay dirt.

This is a big scoop that dredges use to collect dirt from the river bed.

This is Dredge #4. Its now one of the National Historic Sites of Canada. You can take a tour, but we arrived too late in the day.

Mackenzie was making real sure she didn’t miss any pieces.

Mackenzie and Gina in the hill collecting some pay dirt.

Taylor got out his chest waders.