GOLDEN YEARS

HATHER PASS — Some 500 feet inside Gold Cord Mountain, some 900 feet beneath its peak, 20-year-old Ben Renshaw tries to impart to Hatcher Pass visitors the importance mining has had in shaping this area.

A fourth-generation miner, the family mine is his passion, and he shares it with visitors on the Gold Cord Historic Mine Tour, which runs 10 a.m., noon, 2 and 4 p.m. each day from the parking lot of Hatcher Pass Lodge through Aug. 26.

Gone are the heydays, when each day the mine was pulling 20 tons of rock from the bowels of the earth, yielding about 2 ounces of gold at $35 an ounce. Now, the Renshaws pick away at the rock, moving slowly into the quartz formation about 100 feet above the old mine hewn by his great-grandfather, Anson Levake Renshaw, and others.

“Mining is definitely a hobby,” Ben Renshaw says. “More like a family tradition.”

It was the winter of 1938-39 when Anson Levake Renshaw began working the mine begun by Charles Bartholf and William Horning years earlier. Anson Renshaw was a progressive miner, and replaced the old Chilean mill with a modern mill that used mercury to separate the gold from the ore. That mill, built in 1939, still stands today, and is one of the stops on the Gold Cord Historic Mine Tour. It is believed to be the only standing ore mill house that predates World War II west of the Mississippi River.

The mill is a time capsule. The ball mill, used to beat the ore into small rocks; the 1935 Caterpillars, used to power the facilty; the air compressor with its original leather drive belt, which pushed fresh air into the mine below, all stand at the ready.

The mill was in operation until 1942, when World War II’s priorities didn’t include gold. Anson Renshaw moved his family to Anchorage to work at Elmendorf Airfield. The mine was closed.

After the war, government manipulation of the gold market made mining unprofitable. It would be 1969 before Ben’s grandfather, Dan Crenshaw, would be able to buy shares in the mine, first from the Bartholf estate and then from the Horning family. Once again, Crenshaws were mining Gold Cord. The mill operated until August 1977, with three generations of Crenshaws using it for the last time.

The Crenshaws’ mining efforts are farther up the mountain. Donning hard hats with miner lights, visitors walk past a 70-year-old, 1-ton ore cart that still hauls rocks out of the mine. Inside, the mine is a damp 38-40 degrees; a stream of icy water runs down the corridor that has been blasted out of the mountain, six feet at a time. Ben’s practiced eye can see the small veins of gold running through the quartz deposits. He’s been working in the mine since he was 11.

For visitors, it is a foreign world of massive, damp rocks and dynamite.

Ben explains the old process of setting dynamite with single- and double-steel rods, pounded into the rock at about one foot an hour, and the “widow maker” drill, that spewed enough rock dust to send its handlers to an early grave. Nowadays, the equipment is pnematic but it is still noisy, hard work. Each blast requires 16 to 18 holes: the burn hole, rib holes, head holes, roofers, knee holes and the lifters. Each requires a successful blast for the next section of mine to be excavated.

Not far from the entrance to the newer mine, the 130-foot deep shaft leads to the old mine. Ben drops a rock from the top of the first of 13, 10-foot ladders so his guests can hear it tumble and ultimately splash in the puddle beneath.

Some day, Ben said, he hopes the old mine can be opened for tours. Time stands still that far underground. In the rock dust, they’ve found his great-grandfather’s footprints — distinctive because of his duck walk — and his old broom at the end of a tunnel. Messages are written on the walls, and old gloves and cans sit crumbling to dust. Alcohol bottles from Prohibition-era days peek out of the rubble.

Back at the old bunkhouse/mess hall near the mill, Ben shows off some other recent finds — a vintage toy truck and toy plane that his grandfather says pre-date him. Ben also found a pair of long johns that his grandfather said belonged to an opera-singing miner who worked there when Dan was a boy.

It’s stories of the miners, the horses wearing snowshoes, the hard work and the isolated life that brings visitors from around the world to take the tour, Ben said. The gorgeous vistas, even fog-shrouded, don’t hurt either.

In this, his first year of operation, he’s had visitors from Switzerland, France and Ireland, as well as several states and lots of locals.

What prompts the UAF sophomore to give the tours is the sense of history he want to impart.

“It allows them to have the opportunity to ask questions and see the mill,” Ben said.

“He’s a teacher,” added his grandfather, Dan. “He’s doing a wonderful service. It’s well worth their time to come and visit him.”

To make a reservation for the tour, contact Ben at 322-3239. Reservations are required for the 10 a.m. tour and recommended for the others.