The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Companion exhibits at Anchorage Museum explore man's captivation with gold, and the gold rushes that opened the Alaska frontier
A stroll through the "Gold" exhibit at the Anchorage Museum of Art and History can transport visitors through six millennia of man's captivation with the brilliant metal. The journey explores the unique characteristics of this precious and rare element that made it the prize of ancient civilizations, a standard of wealth and an invaluable metal to modern technology.
The more than 300 golden objects on display include examples of the first gold coins minted in ancient Lydia and Ionia (now Turkey), gleaming pre-Columbian jewelry, a Tiffany brooch designed by Paloma Picasso, a Fabergé Easter egg and Walter Cronkite's Emmy.
As visitors explore "Gold," they discover "Pay Dirt! Alaska's Golden Landscapes" - a companion exhibit that features the Alaska gold rushes that transformed "Seward's folly" into a territory of golden opportunity. (That's right. There was more than one gold rush to Alaska.)
The "Pay Dirt!" exhibit was created by the Anchorage Museum as a companion exhibit within the American Museum of Natural History's "Gold" exhibit, also on view May 30 through Aug. 2.
Golden properties
Historians believe that gold, because it is very easy to shape and is found in nature in its pure form, was the first metal used by humans. Objects made from the lustrous metal date back at least 6,000 years.
Two of the oldest artifacts on display - a crown and an image of a sheep recovered from Treasure Hill in Tepe Hissar, Iran - have remained untarnished for 4,500 years. These treasures, made from gold flattened into sheets, are not only examples of man's longstanding attraction to gold but depict the mineral's malleability and capacity to resist corrosion.
The same properties that allowed ancient artisans to shape gold and gives the brilliant metal the ability to retain its luster over the millennia make gold an important element to modern technology.
A symbol of lordly wealth
While its characteristics make it invaluable to certain practical applications, gold is best known as a symbol of wealth.
In 476 B.C. Greek poet Pindar scribed, "Water is best, but gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth."
The jewelry, coins, bars, statues and many other items embellished with gold on display at the museum reflect the yellow metal's status as a symbol of wealth and monetary value.
One of the key exhibits is a stater, a gold coin produced in Lydia about 2,600 years ago. King Croesus, ruler of Lydia, began issuing gold coins with a standardized purity for general circulation in about 550 B.C.
Gold remained a primary form of currency until early in the 20th century. Most governments stopped producing gold currency by 1933 due to hoarding of the precious metal during the great depression.
Pay Dirt!
The "Pay Dirt" exhibit - which is inspired partly by writer Jack London, who introduced American readers to Alaska's untamed landscape - provides a window into the treasures and travails of the Alaska gold rushes that began at the end of the 19th century.
The stampede of "gold fever"-stricken fortune seekers into Alaska began in earnest in 1897 when word spread of rich gold discoveries just across the border in the Canadian Klondike. The United States economy had been hit hard by a series of bank collapses resulting in a recession and widespread unemployment, motivating tens of thousands of Americans to adventure north in search of their fortune and a fresh start.
The golden riches of Alaska's streams did not come without a cost. The terrain was rugged and the weather brutal, but the lure of gold drew prospectors west from the Klondike across the 700-mile breadth of Alaska to the golden beaches of Nome.
The "Pay Dirt!" exhibit quoted Klondike prospector Fred Dewey as writing in 1898, "My feet are sore, my heels are blistered, my legs sore and lame, my hands, neck, shoulders sore and chafed from rope. But boys, don't think I'm discouraged there is a glimmer of gold in the distance!"
Modern explorers
Modern explorers continue to discover rich deposits of the glimmering metal as they retrace the steps of the pioneer prospectors. These new caches are rarely placer deposits of gold dust and nuggets found in streams or beaches, but instead are deposits of rock-bound microscopic gold that over time fed the placer deposits across Alaska.
A quartz-pebble boulder containing disseminated gold is on display at the "Gold" exhibit, providing visitors with insight into what the 21st century gold miner is seeking.
The Fort Knox Mine near Fairbanks is currently anticipated to extract about 3 million ounces of microscopic gold from such rock. A nearby stream is the site of the 1902 gold discovery that led to the establishment of Fairbanks, Alaska's "Golden Heart City."
Golden dawn
Aurum, which means golden dawn, is the Latin word for gold. Financial uncertainty and gold prices nearing US$1,000 per ounce are creating a new aurum for exploration companies looking for gold rich deposits in Alaska.
Though gold has lost its status as a currency in the modern monetary systems, its position as a secure symbol of wealth has not left the human psyche. Investors, large and small, turn to gold as a safe haven for their fortunes today, just as they did during past recessions and economic downturns.
In the current recession which has taken down banks and automobile manufacturers once considered pillars of the U.S. economy, many investors are once again looking to amass gold as a way to secure wealth. And like Alaska's historic gold rush, investments are being channeled to prospectors seeking to unlock the golden treasures of Alaska's mineral-rich landscape.
The "Gold" and "Pay Dirt" exhibits are reminders of the important role gold has played throughout history, and how a remote frontier territory was swept into the 20th century as cities and supporting infrastructure sprung up seemingly overnight as adventurers drawn by the lure of gold rushed to Alaska to unlock the treasures of this vast and rugged land.
The exhibits are open for exploration at the newly expanded Anchorage Museum 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, closing on Thursdays at 9 p.m. Museum admission is $8 for adults and $7 for seniors, military and students. The "Gold" exhibit, curated by the American Museum of Natural History, is an additional $12 for adults and $5 for children 3-17.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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