Rainbow Glacier Adventures is aiming to build off the success of the Discovery Channel’s reality TV series “Gold Rush: Alaska” with tours at John Schnabel’s Porcupine gold claim.
The Haines Borough Assembly on April 26 approved a 2011 commercial tour permit for Joe Ordonez and Rainbow Glacier Adventures. The permit includes the new Gold Rush Tour to Porcupine that will take passengers through the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve to the Schnabel mine.
According to the permit application, Rainbow Glacier Adventures previously ran the tour on a limited basis, and marketing will be increased this year. The maximum capacity would be 24 passengers per tour, with one or two departures daily.
Resident John Schnabel and grandson Parker Schnabel, a Haines High School junior, appeared on the debut season of “Gold Rush: Alaska” as mining experts who were the envy of a group of Oregon greenhorns looking to strike it rich.
Tour participants will observe the gold mining process and do some panning of their own, with the incentive that they can keep what they find in the former mining boomtown.
“We’re going to take people right out to the exact location so that they can see where history started, and get the lust for gold,” said tour guide Holly Jo Parnell.
Mayor Jan Hill jokingly asked if there was a guarantee of finding gold.
“There’s gold in your pan,” Parker Schnabel said. “It just depends how good your guide is.”
Group rates are available for the four-hour tour from Haines. Rainbow Glacier Adventures also offers departure from Skagway.