On our way driving to Seward, my in-laws noticed a tourist spot off the side of the road where you could pan for gold. We promised that we would stop on the way back, so on the Sunday driving back home, we made an hour stop at Indian Valley Mine & Gifts, which is about a 30-minute drive south of Anchorage. Originally when we stopped, I remember thinking, "Oh great, panning for gold--how touristy," but I was thankful that we got to stop since I was 5 months pregnant at the time and more than happy to stretch my legs after about 3 hours of driving. We climbed the steep gravel driveway up to where the gift shop was and you were able to pick out your bucket of dirt to pan for gold and were greeted by the owner and her children.
Once we picked out our buckets of dirt (my husband and I purchased the $5 one, by the way), the owner came over and instructed us how to "pan for gold." We were instructed to take a metal or plastic type of pan and swish the water through it to remove the sand and bigger pebbles and slowly the gold would appear. I jokingly rubbed my belly as I started swishing water throughout my pan and asked my son for a little luck. After about 5 minutes of swishing water and picking out pebbles, an odd thing happened: I found this to be strangely mesmerizing and relaxing. Maybe it was just the rhythm of my own movements, the sun that was peeking hesitantly through the trees, and the sound of the rushing water and the birds chirping, but I found myself totally relaxed and didn’t even hear the vehicles racing by on Seward Highway.
That changed rather quickly, however, when suddenly I looked down and realized with a shout to everyone, "I’ve got gold!" I didn’t have a really large amount, but I still had some gold shimmering in the bottom of my pan! My father-in-law nearby looked disappointed, as he had not discovered any as of yet in his pan, so he returned back to his pan with a determined look.
In the end, we took the small amount of gold, which the owner told us amounted to about $30 worth, and put it in a small corked test tube that we promised would be a keepsake to our son when he gets older and is able to appreciate it more.
Honestly, if my husband and I have the chance to do this again, I would do it in a heartbeat. Even though it is kind of silly to pay for dirt, we figured $5 for about an hour's entertainment wasn’t that bad of a bargain.
The Indian Valley Mine & Gifts is open from May 15th to September 15th, 9am to 9pm. For more information, see http://www.indianvalleymine.com/.