This dredge also featured 65 buckets that could gather as much as 9 cubic feet of materials. The original dredge was 100 feet long and 45 feet wide and made up entirely of wood. In late 1912 the first Yuba-style dredge in Sumpter Valley would be assembled just south of Sumpter, Oregon.

Read More about the Yankee Fork Gold Rush In 1953 Simplot and Baumhoff were ordered to either remove the dredge from the Morrisons' land or pay rent, and they chose to move the dredge to dig into the spot where it sits today.ĭaily tours of this dredge are from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM during the tourist season. They soon leased part of the claim from the Morrison family, shut down the dredge and walked away. Simplot and Fred Baumhoff for $75,000, and the two gentlemen worked with the 5.5 mile claim beginning in 1950. Realizing there weren't enough profits being made, the Snake River Company sold the dredge to J.T. The dredge temporarily stopped operations from 1942 to 1946 because of World War II, but then resumed operation in 1947 under the Snake River Company. The time of its construction spanned from April 1 to Augand the dredge ran until 1952. The dredge would be built by Silas Mason and Bucyrus Erie in Boise and would then be sent to Yankee Fork. The New York-based Silas Mason Company settled in the Yankee Fork Valley after surveying the land in 1939. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is located in the central mountains of Idaho on the Yankee Fork tributary of the Salmon River, with the nearest town being Stanley, which is about 22 miles away. These tours feature a train ride on the Tanana Valley Railroad where there will be a narration of the dredge's history, and a pit stop at the Trans Alaskan Pipeline, which makes up 15% of domestic oil production in the United States. Tours of this dredge began in 1984, and 2 hour tours specifically for gold mining began in 1994. After being shut down for economic reasons in 1959, Gold Dredge #8 has since been used as a mining monument to honor the hard working people that built Fairbanks. Having its best years in operation from 1928 to 1959, Gold Dredge #8 extracted millions of ounces of gold from the grounds of Fairbanks, Alaska. Here are 5 that still exist and you should go check them out. However, the remnants of a few of them are still around today that you can still go and visit. Most of them are long gone, having been salvaged for wood and metal, burned up, or just fallen apart due to the hands of time. Due to their environmental impact they are not used for placer mining today, but many of them are still intact and sitting in the same place that they stopped working decades ago. Steel buckets were used on a continuous circular line at the front end of a gold dredge, and the material that is stored in the buckets are soon sorted out and sifted with water.īucket line dredges are true feats of engineering. They would crisscross river drainages and churn up the ground, processing the gravels and extracting the gold.

These massive floating dredges were used all throughout the western United States, Canada, and Alaska.

One of the most fascinating inventions that has ever been used to mine for gold is the bucket line dredge. Ever since the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California, men have been using a variety of methods to extract gold from the ground. Please allow at least two hours between the time your land excursion begins or ends and your flight.Gold mining in the United States is just a shadow of what it used to be. Guests need to make sure they do not reserve Land Excursions on the day of cruise tour arrival or departure that will conflict with their air schedules. Once the train arrives at the camp, local miners will give a brief but informative course in mining, and then you will try panning for yourself! You will find gold- we guarantee it! Next, explore the dredge camp and enjoy complimentary coffee and fresh-baked cookies in the gift shop as your gold is weighed then, hop aboard the train and return to the station.

The train ride takes you to Gold Dredge 8 where you will see first hand how the dredge worked the gold fields. Then take a seat aboard the narrow-gauge Tanana Valley Railroad and hear the conductor tell tales of prospectors who arrived by the thousands during the gold rush. Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.īefore you board our train, enjoy a close up view of the Trans Alaska pipeline and a presentation about the history and operation of the pipeline.

Gold dredge