The most important element of Placer mining is water. “And up on the bench and hillside claims, miners were forced to sell off promising claims because there was, not enough to make a cup of tea.” The thawing crews were always wet, and worked through a sea of mosquitoes. It took roughly two weeks to thaw 25 feet down.
Metal points were driven into the ground by sledgehammer and water sprayed through the hollow tip…this would thaw about 3-4 inches. Water cannons would wash away the muck, and the thawing process began. Anything in the path of hte dredge was removed, including moss, overburden, and gold rush era remnants. The ground in front of the Dredge was prepared in advance. Imagine the constant deafening noise of metal against metal and gravel. When the dredge had dug to its maximum depth, the spud and digging ladder were lifted and the dredge was winched forward about 10 feet. The resulting tailing piles would be deposited out the stern in a scalloped pattern.The waste gravel moved along a stacker belt.The gold would settle in the sluice boxes for collection.Water was sprayed through the trommel, washing off the gravel.Varying sizes of proceeded along the 50 ft length. The trommel was a revolving tube-like metal screen, constantly rotating.The hopper fed gravel into the trommel.The bucket line on the bow dug up gold bearing gravel and deposited it to the hopper.Cables were attached to logs buried in the hillsides, and controlled by a winching system to manoeuvre the dredge within the pond.Once in thawed ground, the Spud (anchor) would be lowered and act as a pivot point. As well as gold, the dredge recovered everything in its path, including some old cured hams thrown down a shaft in days gone by, prehistoric mammoth ivory, and a set of false teeth.ĭredge No 4 is two thirds the size of a football field in length and is eight stories high. On its best day, it unearthed over 800 ounces. Though only moving forward a half mile per season, it unearthed nine tons of gold, grossing 8.6 million dollars over 46 years. It would operate for 24 hours a day for a season of approx 200 days, April – November, depending on the weather. The dredge moved along in a pond of its own making, digging gold bearing gravel at a rate of 22 buckets per minute.
It was designed by the Marion Steam Shovel Company, and built for the Canadian Klondike Mining Company in 1912. 4 was the largest wooden-hulled bucket dredge in North America. Imagine this vessel, inching forward, year after year, forever altering the landscape. What is this thing?ĭredge No 4 was a giant gold digging machine. Drive through the goldfields along Bonanza Creek Road for 12.3 km to reach historic Dredge No 4. It is a National Historic Site and a must-see attraction in Dawson City. Dredge #4 on Bonanza Creek, the largest wooden hull dredge in the world, typifies this legacy. These behemoths roamed the creeks of the Klondike until the early 1960s.
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