Introduction

Dying for Gold

Early Goldstream
in Photos and Sound

In Search of Mushers

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Six Thousand Colored Neckties, 700 Sport Coats and a Cabin in Goldstream Valley

Blue Parka Man

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A couple of months ago, my girlfriend and I opted for a cab ride home from the University of Alaska Fairbanks early in the morning. The cabbie was talkative, friendly and unabashedly Alaskan. As we sat, fatigued, in the warm back seat, he regaled us with stories. A few nights before, he said, an Alaska State Trooper had stopped him by the side of the road as he walked home from Ivory Jack's, a small bar and grill. He was accosted for no reason, the cabbie said. No reason other than, as it turned out, having a loaded shotgun slung over his shoulder as he pulled his plastic sled home through the trees. It was no big deal, the driver said. He carried the weapon for protection, as a grizzly had been killed in the area only weeks before.

The moment he mentioned Ivory Jack's, I smiled to myself. No wonder, I thought. He was a Goldstreamer: one of the few, the odd, the true Alaskans.
Goldstream Valley is a pocket of Interior Alaska known for its extreme climate and inhabitants. This microculture of Alaska boasts everything from cabin dwellers (meaning people who live without running water), to dog mushers, to goat farmers.

Aside from the naked beauty of the landscape, with its rich greenery in the summer months and the cold, white silence that settles in the winter, Goldstream Valley, which lies a few miles north of Fairbanks, is not much for first impressions. But what you can't see from the shallow, surrounding foothills is its history. You can't observe the shotgun-spread of diversity among Goldstream's 8,000 residents. You can't hear the yells of mushers to their dog teams as their sledrunners slice through the snow between the dense, black spruce found far and wide on the jagged landscape.

Then there’s the chill of winter. Goldstream Valley is known for its extreme temperatures, with pockets of cold sometimes marking a difference of 20 degrees from one small foothill to the depression below. Not even an Alaska Native village was to be found within the barren landscape of Goldstream prior to western settlement, which could be indicative of the unforgiving climate. Yet, 100 years ago, miners toiled for that auric payday through freezing cold, permafrost and hidden dangers underground.

With this publication, a team of journalism students from UAF unearths the essence of the valley's people, climate and history.

Our writers and editors have panned the history books for nuggets and facts. With a look at the conditions, successes and failures of gold mining in the valley that put Fairbanks on the map, Mary Ames has reconstructed the life and times of gold miners from photographs, audio recordings and first-hand accounts in a multimedia presentation. Cheral Coon takes a similar journey in a story on mining methods and dangers. And in the pursuit of the oddity and life of dog mushing in Goldstream, Nathan Stillie has stepped up with a humorous narrative outlining his search for mushers in the valley.

And that’s only the first half. Our second volley of Goldstream Valley vision will hit the Web in just over a month.

Goldstream is a place of isolation, of beauty and of oddity. We set out on the road to Goldstream to find what has drawn people into its realm over the years. Did we hit paydirt? You decide.