10/4/2023 0 Comments Aumpter valley dredge facebook![]() A bit of fool’s gold can also be taken for comparison. After learning to pan and finding some gold, visitors can keep a small sample for $2 – 3 flakes of gold, and two garnets. They’ve also thrown in some red garnets for fun. We hope to get a ride on it while we are in the area!Īs interpretive/maintenance hosts at Sumpter Valley Dredge, we are teaching gold panning lessons to children and adults at four panning stations that have been built and salted with real flakes of gold so visitors can actually see the difference between true gold flakes and iron pyrite, or fool’s gold. The park is visited on weekends and holidays by the Sumpter Valley Steam Railway, which brings passengers from McEwen to the train depot inside Sumpter Valley Dredge State Park, adding to the charm of the park. From here, you can admire the bucket line of 72 one-ton buckets on the bow and the covered processed gravel conveyor in the stern.The Sumpter Valley Steam Railway operates on weekends, bringing visitors to the train depot here in the park. ![]() You can also view the 1,240-ton dredge from a railed overlook above the dredge pond. Conventional sluices were used to separate out the heavy metals, which were then dumped in amalgam barrels which had paddles lined with mercury to bond with the gold. The electricity-powered motors were serviced by a 19-mile cable. Machinery inside the dredge was all made in the United States, including the Bingham water pumps from Portland. You can explore the ground floor of the dredge on your own although a free guided tour will tell you much more. When the company retired the dredge, it was in debt, but over the years this third dredge produced about 4 ½ million dollars in gold, worth about $160,000,000 at 2017 prices! ![]() The dredge that you see today was constructed from the remains of the first dredge, and operated for 20 years until 1954 the 24-hour clank and rattle of the dredge buckets were just normal background music for Sumpter residents in the first half of the 20th century. In 1913, the Sumpter Valley Dredging Company of Portland, Oregon, moved in the first of its three industrial dredges that completely transformed an eight-mile section of the Powder River valley. ![]() Sumpter Valley Dredge Loop Hike ( TH | | LOG).Inside the dredge, showing an amalgam bucket on the left (bobcat) ![]()
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