We recommend arriving at Gold Dredge 8 at least 15 minutes prior to departure time. When you arrive at the Riverboat Discovery you will need to check in at our ticket counter to pick up your boarding passes. We recommend arriving at the Riverboat Discovery at least 30 minutes prior to departure time. We recommend making reservations as soon as you know the date you would like to go on our tours. Are reservations required?Īlthough reservations are not required, they are highly recommended. However, please note that these tours are not at the same location. Yes, our tours are designed so you can do both tours in one day. They have incorporated large scale industrial mining and the smaller 'Mom and Pop' side of mining into an all-encompassing tour that also features the Trans Alaska Pipeline and a replica of the Tanana Valley Railroad.Ĭan I do both the Riverboat Discovery and Gold Dredge 8 tours in one day? The family has developed a tour in the heart of the gold fields where the first gold strikes attracted miners from the Klondike. In addition to growing their sternwheel business, the Binkley’s have added a gold mining attraction: Gold Dredge 8.

Today, Captain Jim’s grandchildren run the company and Mary B is still active in the business.

Over the coming years, Captain Jim and Mary B’s business grew from the Godspeed, a 25 passenger vessel, to the Discovery III, a 900 passenger vessel. In 1950, noting the coming changes in the freighting business, Captain Jim and his wife, Mary, began a river excursion business focusing on sharing their love of Alaska and its culture with visitors. His son, Captain Jim Binkley, Sr., followed in his father’s footsteps and piloted freight vessels on the Yukon and Tanana Rivers in the 1940's.Īs transportation systems changed in the north, railroads and airplanes began to carry much of the freight. He became a respected pilot and boat builder in the North. Binkley hiked over the Chilkoot Pass with other stampeders, he was not so much in search of gold as he was the chance to build and operate boats on the Yukon and its tributaries. The Binkley family’s steamboating tradition goes back over 100 years and five generations.

Riverboat discovery and gold dredge 8