Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge
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Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge
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 Location in Oregon
Location in the United States
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| Location | SW of Sumpter near Cracker Creek, Sumpter, Oregon |
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| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1935 |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000676 |
| Added to NRHP | October 26, 1971 |
The Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge is a special machine from the past. It's a historic gold dredge located in Sumpter, a town in the U.S. state of Oregon. People first found gold in Sumpter way back in 1862. Between 1912 and 1934, three large gold dredges were used in the Sumpter Valley area to find this precious metal.
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Contents
How Gold Dredges Work
A gold dredge is like a giant floating factory for finding gold. It uses huge buckets to scoop up earth that might contain gold. This earth is then pulled into the dredge's machinery. Inside, the gold is separated from the dirt and rocks. The leftover waste, called "tailings," is then spit out the back of the machine.
Moving on Water
These dredges were built on a shallow boat-like base. This meant they didn't need a lot of deep water to work. As they moved forward, they would carry their own pond of water with them. It was a clever way to operate in different areas.
Simple but Effective Machines
The inside of a gold dredge wasn't super high-tech. It used bigger versions of tools that gold miners had used for a long time. Think of a giant gold pan or a sluice box. The dirt dug by the big electric buckets was sorted and washed. This washing process allowed the heavy gold to sink and get trapped.
Processing Huge Amounts of Earth
The main reason dredges were so good at finding gold was how much earth they could process. They also had their own water supply, which was a big advantage. The Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge was very powerful. It could dig up more than 20 buckets of earth every minute. That's like moving over seven cubic yards of earth in just 60 seconds!
The Dredge Crew
Operating the Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge was a big job. It needed a team of three people just to run the main machinery. But the whole crew was much larger, with 17 more workers. These extra people handled maintenance, kept records, surveyed the land, drove trucks, and managed other tasks. The dredge worked almost every day of the year, 363 days! Most workers got Fourth of July and Christmas Day off. However, one or two people always had to stay on board at night to watch over the machine.
History of the Sumpter Valley Dredge
Three different dredges operated in the Sumpter Valley from 1913 to 1954. The dredge you can see today, Sumpter No. 3, was mostly built using parts from the very first dredge. That first dredge had been sitting unused for ten years.
Millions in Gold Found
Together, these dredges traveled more than 8 miles (13 km) across the valley. They managed to pull out gold worth between $10 million and $12 million. That's a huge amount of gold!
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The End of an Era
Even with all that gold, running the dredges was very expensive. In the end, it cost more to operate them than the gold they found could pay for. The last dredge stopped working in 1954. It was over $100,000 in debt, which would be worth over $1.1 million today. During its working life, this dredge found $4.5 million worth of gold. At that time, gold was valued at $35 per troy ounce. This means it found about 128,570 troy ounces of gold. If that same amount of gold were sold today, it would be worth over $255 million!
Visiting the Historic Dredge Today
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has saved this important historical site. It's now called the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area. At the park, you can visit the Gold Dredge Gift Store and Museum. There's a video with interviews from people who worked on the dredge, old photos, and interesting artifacts. You can even take a tour of the dredge itself!
See also
