Last Friday (January 22, 2015) I watched a new episode of the Gold Rush series on the Discovery channel. I was amazed to see footage of an abandoned gold dredge on Thistle Creek a tributary of the Yukon River. What was amazing is that I first visited the dredge in 2009. The dredge is located about 100 kilometers south of Dawson City of Klondike fame. One of the main characters in the TV series is Tony Beets. He has purchased the dredge and plans to get it up and running later this year. He has already refurbished another dredge in the Klondike and it is producing placer gold. The Thistle dredge only operated for about 5 years during the 1940's. It will be great to see it brought back to life. Tony Beets, best of luck with your venture!
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| Helicopter photo of the Thistle dredge from the TV episode. |
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| Tony Beets flying to Thistle Creek. |
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| Jack Hoffman and some of the Discovery film crew at the Dawson airport in 2010. |
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| Helicopter photos of the gold dredge at Thistle Creek. |
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| Photos of the dredge and visitors that was taken in 2009. The visitors are geologists (the writer is the third person from the right). The lower left is looking at the controls in the wheel house and abandoned dredge buckets (lower right). |
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| Small scale placer mining in the White Gold District, Yukon. |
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| Local wildlife and fauna. |
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| A humorous warning on bears in Canada. |
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