The Northern Gold Fleet

Book excerpt: The Northern Gold Fleet is the story of how new gold-dredging technology was applied to the rich placers of the Far North from 1899 to the present, leading to mass production and economies of scale that made previously unprofitable resources profitable. The bucket-ladder dredge was a single, complex apparatus that rivaled ocean freighters in size. At once ugly, spectacular, and awesome, the dredges dug, classified materials, and performed gold-saving and tailing-disposal functions. A richly illustrated and comprehensive history. The Northern Gold Fleet is part environmental, part technological, part corporate, part labor, and part Alaskan in its thrust, offering a picture - both dazzling and absorbing - of how new technology simultaneously helped build the economy and lay waste the resources of Alaska.