Buried into the sand like a flying saucer crashed in Roswell, a giant 6-foot diameter flange rests on the Treadwell Mine Historic Trail. Along the banks of the Gastinaeu Channel across from Juneau, Alaska, the mine was in operation on Douglas Island from 1882 to 1922, producing 3.3 million ounces of gold for founder John Treadwell and his investors. On April 21, 1917, high tides flooded three of the mine shafts, triggering cave-ins. Though no one was killed, the incident hastened the demise of the enterprise, and today the site is maintained as a park and historic site, with the ruins of numerous buildings, rusted machinery and equipment strewn along a mile of pathways through the woods.

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