Crow Creek Mine

This family owned business is very friendly and intimate. Yes panning for gold can be a really touristy activity, but unless you live here you ARE a tourist, so why miss out on the fun!!! It’s true you will not fill a bucket with gold, but it is still a really fun activity. The scenery is just breath taking (I recommend packing a picnic) and we saw all sorts of curious little critters and beautiful flowers so bring a camera! There are some really cool antique artifacts along with the varied historic buildings on the property to check out too. If you have kids, they will absolutely love this!
P. S. — We were very upset to see a bunch of garbage other guests had left behind. My son went into the gift shop in search of a garbage can to toss it in and the nice woman running the place thanked him for caring and gave him a little reward. Good people, good ethics, GREAT time!

Price is relative to how much gold you find. I only found what was in my included practice bag. Beautiful site and the staff is very informative and friendly, all one big family.
Panning for gold at the creek was great, wish I had found gold, but a neat experience to do some prospecting. Kids had a lot of fun as did the adults. Family fun for all. One of the employees said that if you find the right spot and the right time, one could find a half ounce of gold in an hour and of course one foot over you could find nothing

My family enjoyed the gold panning. We didn’t really find anything and didn’t expect to but it was fun. However, there were plenty of people around us finding gold. But they knew what they were doing and had all their own equipment. The history of the place is pretty neat too. Also, you will want water proof boots our waiters.

Eh, it was ok. There’s not much particularly exciting about this spot. And it’s definitely a tourist trap. You have to pay even to just look around. And, of course, you have to pay to pan for gold. And it’s real, serious panning down by a river. Even though we weren’t very good at it, that was the definite highlight. It was a fun and unique experience. Looking at the little «town» or whatever was not a highlight or really even interesting at all. The staff were nice. They did a good job at trying to teach us how to pan. Friendly and knowledgeable. Cost was certainly too high for what you get, though.

This review is focused on Crow Creek Mine as a wedding venue. It is an absolutely lovely place, with an incredible staff and clever set-​up and layout. The reception area is a clear sky tent set up before all the old-​timey buildings and exhibits. There is an indoor and an outdoor ceremony area to accommodate the possibility of rain. The mine is just overflowing with gorgeous flower baskets, gardens, and displays. It is so lush and pretty, minimal extra decorations are needed. The reception area comes with all the tables, chairs (white resin folding chairs), white Christmas lights, dance floor and band area. We just decorated the tables and hung some chinese lanterns and it looked awesome. The various buildings are really interesting and cool to explore. Each building is like a tiny museum of the gold rush, and the Crow Creek homestead. Our guests enjoyed exploring the sprawling grounds throughout the day.
Nate, Johnny and the rest of the crew where ridiculously helpful, friendly and competent both in the months leading up to the wedding and throughout the night. I cannot speak highly enough about how amazing they were. We had just the best experience with the Crow Creek Mine and couldn’t imagine doing anything any different.
As for anyone vising the mine while a wedding was going on; there were still many people going through exploring the mine and going gold panning while we were doing wedding things. Our group was setting up the reception and then taking pictures throughout much of the day. We only blocked off one of the many small cabins however, and it seemed like anyone visiting could still get pretty much the full experience. Our ceremony started at 4 pm, one hour before closing, and so the grassy field where the ceremony was held was closed to mine visitors. Its not an interesting field (unless you’re watching people get married there) or a part of the mine experience, so I don’t think this bummed anyone out at missing this part. Everyone walking through the mine while we were taking pictures around it were very respectful, and not at all intrusive. I think the mine did a great job having these two functions co-​exist.
We also hiked with large groups around the mine in the days leading up to the wedding (while other weddings were happening), and were not bothered by the events.
In short, the Crow Creek Mine is a stunningly pretty place that really represents a piece of Alaskan history. It is a very professionally run wedding venue as well as being an interesting place to tour. The Mine’s staff are friendly and helpful, and we had an amazing wedding thanks to the gorgeous venue and great people.

We went here the other day expecting a fun little side trip. When we arrived we paid our $ 20 and started walking. Almost immediately we got stopped by someone they were having a wedding, (which was obvious from the setup out front for the reception), and to take the lower trail, go down and then we could come back via the upper trail where the majority of the buildings were. When we got the that point at the lower trail we were shooed away again and told the wedding was delayed and we couldn’t walk up there. We walked all the way back the way we had come. When we got back to the fork in the trails we noticed no one standing there GUARDING the upper trail so we started to walk up it. Kid came running from down below waving his arms at us and we got shooed away again. By this point I am ANGRY as we paid full price and only got to see less than half of what there was to see. Got even ANGRIER when I found out the have weddings every weekend. So you take people’s money every weekend and then don’t give them what you advertise? I asked for just half the money back and got refused. It’s my opinion if you’re going to refuse the majority of the tour to people because of a wedding, then put a sign out by the road, closed such and such hours. Don’t take people’s money and then not deliver. Don’t bother.