Gold Bar celebrates its gold-pan heritage
Published 11:13 pm Thursday, July 23, 2009
GOLD BAR — Celebrate the city’s mining history at the Gold Dust Days Heritage Festival, which starts today and runs through Sunday in Gold Bar.
Highlights include a parade 10 a.m. Saturday, a car show Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and live music.
At the center of the festival is gold panning. The town of Gold Bar got its name from the railroad workers who panned for gold on a gravel bar of the Skykomish River in the 1880s.
In fact, hobbyists still pan for gold today in the nearby Sultan River.
Visitors can try their hand at gold panning at a booth run by the Washington Prospectors Mining Association. If that doesn’t work out, there will be bags of gold-laden sand for sale.
The Washington Civil War Association also plans to set up a living history encampment so visitors can experience life as it was in the 1860s. There will be muskets and a cannon-firing demonstration.
This year the festival also includes a professional barbecue cook-off that will draw competitors from all over the state and Canada.
This is the third year of the festival. For more information and a schedule of events, go to www.GoldDustDays.com.
