Ely Train Museum

 The Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada, offers a fascinating journey back to the golden age of steam railroading. Established in 1905 to serve the area's booming copper mining industry, the railway transported millions of tons of copper ore and connected Ely with the rest of the country. Today, this remarkably preserved National Historic Landmark features vintage steam and diesel locomotives, historic passenger cars, a roundhouse, machine shops, and the original railroad depot. Visitors can explore the old facilities, see railroad equipment much as it was left decades ago, and even ride a historic train. It's like stepping back in time to experience the sights and sounds of an authentic early-1900s railroad.

When the Nevada Northern Railroad shut down they just 

walked out leaving everything in place.

You can wander through the shops. Very nice

Needs a little work

Old copper ore cars

250 centennial locomotive

Chetwynd Chainsaw Carving

 The competition is held on the second weekend of June.  Each year 12 carvers (4 International, 4 US, and 4 Canadian) are selected by our board of directors, and are invited to bring their best work to see how it will stand up against the world's best.  The Carvers are provided with a 40-50 inch diameter by 8 foot tall western red cedar and 35 hours to complete a sculpture of their own design.

First place 2026

Second place 2026

First place 2014

Second place 2024

Dawson City

 Dawson City is a historic Gold Rush town on the Yukon River, famous for its colorful wooden buildings, dirt streets, and rich Klondike Gold Rush history. Once known as the “Paris of the North,” Dawson preserves the spirit of the prospectors who flocked here in the late 1890s seeking their fortune.

We reached to East end of the road at the Top of the World.

There is a free ferry ride across the river. It is famous 

for the hours long wait times to board. 

We were lucky, only waited 15 minutes

Jack London's cabin. 

Half the logs in this replica were from London's 

original cabin 

1897 Clapp & Jones steam fire engine

1899 Waterous steam fire engine

We went to Gertie's for an enjoyable show.

Vas receiving special attention. 

Chicken Alaska

 We are headed across the Top of the World highway to Dawson City. First stop is Chicken to explore the town,  its gold dredge and sample delicious cinnamon rolls at the Chicken Creek Cafe where we stayed overnight. 

The chicken sculpture was created by high school 

students from recycled lockers

Other chicken themed destinations  

A beast of a machine

This machine the size of a small building slowly crawled across an Alaskan river valley, its metal buckets plunging into the ground one after another. This is a floating mining machine built to move mountains of gravel in the search for tiny pieces of gold. The dredge floated in a pond of water and moved forward using huge winches and cables. 

The dredges moved at a snails pace. One dredge moved 4.5 miles in 31 years

Our guide is explaining to Amy how pipes were driven

into the ground to melt the permafrost ahead of the dredge.

The generating room

The continuous chain of steel buckets scooped up gravel

 from the riverbed. Bucket after bucket, the material was 

lifted aboard the dredge and dumped into a rotating trommel, 

a large cylindrical screen. 

There were three quarters of an inch holes followed 

by inch holes. Any thing larger was dumped out the 

back of the dredge 

The smaller material was washed out of the trommel 

into the sluice boxes in this secure area. 

Every two weeks a special crew came 

and removed the gold. 

 These levers controlled all the mechanics of the dredge

Below the control room

When it became unprofitable to mine the gold,

the crew just walked away leaving everything in place

The model gives you an idea of 

how they looked in operation