Hatcher Pass & Independence Mine | MUST VISIT in Alaska [S1-E18]

welcome to a corner of Alaska where towering  mountains and sweeping valleys cradle a story   etched in Gold a place where an abandoned  mind sits Frozen in Time a ghost town so   well preserved you catch a rare glimpse  into a Time Gone by an area so remote and   rugged that to this day only one Gravel Road  dares cut through it and yes we are going to   attempt it in our bus sheer drop offs and  all come with us and let us introduce you   to Independence mind and Hatcher Pass a region  of breathtaking Beauty and lingering Mysteries   why is Independence mine so well preserved and  why did it close is there still gold waiting to   be found in these mountains and how did it  all get there in the first place this is a   story of discovery of riches and the grand  forces that shaped this landscape and led   to the formation of an Alaskan motherload  jump aboard and explore it all with [Music] us this Story begins here along Willow Creek  snaking approximately 30 mi from the tala   mountains to the CNA river gold was discovered  here in 1897 Flakes and Nuggets were found   scattered amongst the gravel and cobblestones  of the streamed and as you can imagine a gold   rush ensued of course the moment gold is found  in a downstream Watershed the tingling question   arises where did it come from in the year  1906 prospector Robert Lee Hatcher set out   on Horseback to find out just that imagine  setting out into this wild mountainscape all   alone save your horse and your trusted dog blue  to explore and scour the Alpine Heights searching   for Rich veins of quartz bearing gold that was  Robert Lee Hatcher's World little did he know   the magnitude of the discovery he would  make Hidden within the vastness of these Peaks Hatcher was venturing into the tala  mountains of South Central Alaska cradled   between the Alaska range to the Northwest and  the chugach mountains to the southeast once an   inaccessible Maze of Peaks and valleys one  road now snakes its way through reaching 42   mi from Willow to Fish Hook we have been  waiting all summer for the ice and snow   to melt so we could attempt this road in our  schoolie it's a risky Endeavor with hair pin   turns very little shoulder and a steep drop  after that but we believe our Bobby bus can do [Music] it Hatcher Pass road is one of those  those drives that if you can do it man do it   but you have to catch the right time window  winter around these parts last basically from   October to May and you can only drive  up and over the summit from about July   to mid-september then they close the road from  mile 17 to mile 32 we are here in August driving   up from the Willows side lucky to arrive on a  sunny day with dry Road no mud just epic views [Music] now you can get to Independence mind from  the other side of the pass and that side is paved   all the way but where's the fun in [Music]  that once again our Bobby makes it look easy   as we climb into this mountainscape passing  M shafts along the way it's only natural to   wonder why is this area is so rich in gold  and where was the first big discovery made   and that is where we return to the story  of Robert Lee Hatcher and just what he [Music] found one fateful day in 1906 Hatcher made a  remarkable Discovery at Top This Peak deep in   the heart of the range what compelled him to  investigate that peak in particular it seems   he had a sixth sense a knack for finding Gold's  hiding place because find it he did thick veins   of gold-bearing quartz within the granite rock of  the mountain and that Discovery led to all this   after his Discovery Hatcher made the first Hard  Rock claim of the region and Mining began shortly   thereafter in 1908 mining at skyscraper Peak and  Granite Mountain was eventually Consolidated and   independent mine grew to be the second largest  gold producer in the Willow Creek gold mining   District producing over 150,000 ounces of gold  until its closure in 1951 in its Heyday upwards   of 204 people were employed here now what is  most incredible is that so much of it is still   here here are the living quarters where miners  lived year round the mine ran all year even in   the depths of winter operating two shifts per  day the bunk houses were built tall and skinny   allowing heat to rise and reach every room this  is where single men lived those without families   or those who left their families back home but  many Miners did bring their families with them   many built family cabins out in this field here  leading to a little neighborhood called Boom Town   the children of Boomtown were sent to school  here in a one room School in an administrative   building can you imagine learning your BC's here  high up in the Alaskan mountains with a handful   of schoolmates it must have been quite a way  to grow up and learn about the world here is   the Cook House in meshaal where Cooks prepared  Three Square meals a day for Miners and other   Camp employees the cooks and butchers and  Bakers had it down to an art well stocked   with the storage and equipment necessary to feed  so many day after day year round without stop here   is the country store or commissary where wages  were spent on Essentials that truly you could   get nowhere else to this day Independence mine  is 15 M from the nearest grocery store to this   day this building held four apartments for  married supervisors and their families each   apartment had a kitchen living room bathroom  and upstairs bedroom being in a space like   this you can't help but Wonder at all the  Human Experience and all the life stories   that took place here at Independence mine and  looming over every remnant of every building   are the mountains that yielded so much gold to the  determined efforts of this mining Community here   is the site of the north portal and here is the  location of the South portal horizontal tunnels   burrowed through the mountains and connected  the two portals by the time the mine closed a   maze of over 10 miles of tunnels stretched  Into the Heart of these two Granite Giants how did they know where to Tunnel ah science  ore samples from the mine were brought here   to the assay office where they were crushed and  heated in a two-step process to reveal how much   gold The Ore contained and here's where it's  important to understand the difference between   load gold and plaster gold when gold is found as  Flakes and Nuggets in a stream bed it is called   plaster gold Mother Nature already did the work  of eroding and freeing the gold gold from its   Rocky Matrix panning is the method used to recover  plaster gold load gold or hard rock gold is still   embedded in solid rock often in quartz veins  any Rock containing a certain concentration   of gold is called gold ore you might actually  see the gold within the ore but more often than   not you can't the grains are microscopic or bound  within a chemical compound and going from this to   this requires quite a process here at Independence  mine it went like this once science told the crews   where to dig miners drilled into the hard Granite  placed explosives and the material was blasted   all that broken rock was transported out of the  mine via trams and carts and brought here where   ore was sorted from waste rock pulverized then  extracted using mercury the Mercury gold alloy   called amalgam was brought here to the assay  office where it was heated until the Mercury   was vaporized distilled and recovered in this  tin what was left behind was called gold sponge   the gold sponge was stored here in this safe  then shipped to Seattle where it was further   heated refined and processed into gold bars in  all it took about 1 ton of ore to recover 1 o of gold for lovers of History A Visit to Independent  mine is a must it is a truly unique experience   like peeling back the pages of time and walking  firsthand through a different era the state has   done a remarkable job here walking paths of all  levels weave throughout the site educational   plaques across Camp are exceptionally detailed  and well Illustrated and the tour to go inside   the buildings is a must adding so much depth and  understanding of the lives that we lived here   walking amongst these ruins one can't help but  wonder why is this site so so well preserved and   when did it close during World War II gold mining  was deemed non-essential and the mine temporarily   shut down in 1943 the intention was always to  resume operations after the war so equipment   and Facilities were left as they were but then  attempts to restart were hampered by Rising costs   and the fixed price of gold until efforts for  Revival ended finally in 1951 the site sat for   23 years and operation suspended in motion until  it was placed on the national register of historic   places in 1974 then donated to the state in 1980  and became a state Historical Park in 1981 a   remarkable amount of preservation and maintenance  has been performed in order to allow us to witness   what remains of a massive operation that thought  it was just closing for a little while back in   1943 that is why Independence mind is so well  preserved and accessible to to us today in the end   it's thanks to a whole lot of fellow human beings  who value history and find its remnants well worth [Music] saving if these two mountains and one  mine yielded over 150,000 o of gold alone it   begs the question how much gold yet lies buried  within the granite of these Peaks since the first   discover of pler gold in Willow Creek in 1897 the  district grew until no fewer than 38 mines dotted   the landscape to this day the Willow Creek gold  district is Alaska's thirdd largest load gold   district with upwards of 624 th000 o of gold  produced for those who venture to drive this   epic Road the evidence is all around for us to  see like here at the lucky shot mine portal in   its Heyday the lucky shot mine covered an  astounding amount of gold between 1921 to   1942 over 250,000 o were recovered from the  or veins that snake through this mountain in   fact efforts are currently underway to continue  developing this particular strike so to answer   that key question is there still gold to be found  in these mountains almost definitely there still   is and how did all that gold come to be here  in the first place well you know what what's   coming next between 75 and 80 million years ago  molten rock from Earth's mantle slowly began to   rise and push into Earth's crust forming a magma  chamber that then slowly cooled between 3 to 6   miles below the surface when a large mass of magma  like this cools it forms what we call a granitic   pluton which cracks and fractures as it cools  down fast forward 14 million years and hot fluids   from even deeper in the earth were forced up and  filled all those fractures these fluids contained   gold and other minerals and as they slowly cooled  they crystallized into veins of quartz with gold   deposits those vein fil plutons were then forced  upwards forming the tala mountains so imagine   if you could see through these mountains with  x-ray vision you would see thick veins of quartz   branching and spidering throughout and within  those veins precious deposits of gold [Music] today Hatcher Pass remains surprisingly and  beautifully undeveloped it is a popular spot   for blueberry picking in the Autumn its sweeping  slopes positively blanketed in Wild blueberry   bushes on the day that Anthony flies home we  drive the whole Road in our little Prius yep   a Prius can do it stopping at Summit Lake and  Hatcher Pass Summit a truly fitting way for   a little boy to bid farewell to the Wilds of  Alaska and knowing how expansive these valleys   are it's no wonder that Hatcher Pass is also a  popular spot for [Music] paragliding taking me [Music] down give me you're pretty  give me your messy give me your happy   give me your sad I may be staying  I may be going I may be left fall apart where have we called home all this time  well the beautiful part of living in a home   on Wheels is that wherever those Wheels rest  is home so for the better part of a week our   home has been the Tela mountains and this  our front porch View and there's one more   thing that we've been up to for that we need  to take our studio bus down the other side of   the pass as they say what goes up must come  down and we're not going to lie we've been   a little nervous about today but just as before  we have full faith in our bus and her breaks for   those of you just joining us on the journey  you may be curious about this big beautiful   Beast that we are sending down the mountain  she is our home our studio 198 squ ft of Tiny   House recording studio and visual art studio  all wrapped up into one she will be our home   for the entirety of the art with there yet  project from Alaska all the way to [Music] Argentina and now that we've safely made it down we can  dive into our final project in this region which   actually doesn't have anything to do with history  or geology but rather music do you remember in   episode 7 when we met that awesome local band in  Tela and invited them to record in the bus well   they have graciously come all the way to Hatcher  Pass to jump aboard my next collaborative music   project and also to make a music video of one  of their songs that was just destined for this   setting a big part of the art with areat project  is to highlight not just the Landscapes but also   the people of the Americas so without further  Ado welcome everyone to the sound of solar gain   Larry Danielle and aspo take it away well he St  to claim in these old mountains back in '98 he   was was thinking Mighty sadly the funny ways of  Faith a cabin stands alone and there's no fire   in the heart a lonely girl is crying Another  Broken Heart while he goes he goes looking for gold diing for gold diing for  gold always looking for [Music] gold take me some gold [Music] now yeah looking for gold or cold Hard  Cash he's got a backpack a bed roll a pistol   and an axe filling up the tanks he's counting  bullets for the gun he got a song in his head   singing how you going to run yeah now he's back  in Louisiana he's turning water into wine and   he's chasing down a dream still working in  the mind Drilling in the ocean for a jelly   blacket tar driving on the beach sleeping  in a car [Music] always looking for gold yeah digging for gold gold yeah he's  digging for gold he's looking for gold   all the time he's digging for gold  digging for gold he's looking for gold here we go let's dig it [Music] some here in Hatcher Pass Alaska history geology  and stunning natural beauty all weave together   into one rich and ongoing story in a world  where all the maps have been drawn and so   many discoveries already made a place that still  hold such great unknowns is a traveler's dream   to witness it's not hard to wonder what other  secrets and treasures do these mountains hold   what stories took place here that have never  been told I guess these are the answers that   only the mountains and time will [Music] tell  hey guys if you enjoyed this video be sure to   give us a like subscribe to our Channel send  us a comment below and for exclusive content   and a behind the scenes view of the art we are at  Journey join us on patreon see you over on patreon you can take me [Music] high

Channel: Art We There Yet?

Views: 11,046

Keywords: art we there yet, travel vlog, hatcher pass drive, hatcher pass gold mine, hatcher pass tour, hatcher pass palmer, hatcher pass ak, hatcher pass road alaska, hatcher pass, independence mine, independence mine state park, the story of independence mine, independence mine ak, alaska gold rush history, independence mine alaska, alaska ghost town, gold mining documentary, alaska independence mine, hatcher pass alaska, gold mining alaska, what to do in hatcher pass, alaska gold

Id: qhGiy5KsBUw

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024