The Biggest Gold Heist In Alaskan History: Claim Jumpers and Dirty Deeds
by Del Ackels
For Del's placer mining he used his IHC Holland washing plant, the most advanced mining technology at the time. The introduction is full of colored pages and descriptions of the technology and how he used it.
Dirty deeds are plenty in this exciting, humorous, and true story about a family of gold miners in Alaska, way up in the Brookes Range above the Arctic Circle. This tale has all the elements of high adventure, dirty deeds, criminal wrongdoings, and travesties of law.
Follow the Ackels as they wrestle with a treacherous climate and unrelenting terrain while battling a corrupt, cumbersome, and unjust legal system.
This true story high adventure combines all the excitement of a survival novel with all the ins and outs of a crime novel while giving a real insight into life out on the tundra, the hardships and joys, the high crimes and misdemeanors, and a long and frustrating fight for economic survival.
This book follows on from Gail's first book, "Gold is Where You Find It!"
Enjoy a wild ride with Del and Gail Ackels and their friends and family
Note from Del: 46 years ago when my wife Gail and I started mining without much experience or knowledge of what we were getting ourselves into. Working in the engineering department of a subcontractor working for NASA/NOAA during the APOLLO lunar landings was about as far away from gold mining and making mud pies for a living as you can get!
Gail, a successful businesswoman with an international beauty supply company, was also caught in the same adventure. I guess you would call it the "call of the wild." We answered that call and enjoyed many years combating the elements in a very beautiful and hostile environment, reaping the benefits of a healthy life and fair remuneration.
We were never as happy as when we were dealing with the harshness of the weather and all the inherent problems into which a mom-and-pop mining company would run. Gold mining in the Brookes Range, 400 miles north of Fairbanks, civilization, and above the Arctic Circle, was our greatest adventure and challenge.
We thrived on the hardship, problem-solving, and excitement of life in a remote mining camp that could only be accessed by airplane in the summer. Building an ice road over the tundra in early spring before the thaw was the only way we could reach our camp was by land. Each spring, we would build a 100-mile ice road over the tundra from Coldfoot, AK, to bring in the summer's equipment and supplies at minus -60 F below zero.
Every year, building this ice road with heavy equipment and while living in a mobile camp was an adventure always filled with challenges and near catastrophes. Making our living gold mining was hard work but rewarding and great fun until we became victims of the Alaska courts and a big mining corporation.
Read the book and judge for yourself.
Enjoy the ride!