It is NOT at all well known that large bucket line dredges like Tony Beets uses on Gold Rush used to ply the Swauk Creek on the West side of Highway 97 starting about 100 years ago. The abundant evidence is right off of the road and everyone that drives by see's it but likely has no idea that is what they are seeing. There were numerous other creeks in about a 10-mile area from here that were also dredged using large bucket line dredges.
GPS Location: 47.212814, -120.699123
HISTORY & BACKGROUND:
"Dredge mining has perhaps left the most obvious mining scars on the Swauk
landscape. Tailings piles are still evident along Highway 97 (which follows Swauk Creek) between First and Williams Creeks. Dredges were most prevalent in the area between 1920- 1929 and occurred very sporadically after that (Jordan, 1967). Dredges operated near the confluence of Williams and Swauk Creek, including Deer Gulch, during the 1920s. After a lull, dredging started again between Virden to about a mile above First Creek. The last of the big dredges operated during the 1950s up Williams Creek just south of the town of Liberty. Dredges work by essentiality turning a river.
inside-out leaving the fine material on the bottom and the coarse materia1 on top. In the process, large boulders are screened out and finer sediment is allowed to settle." Source: www.cwu.edu/ge...
Thumbnail picture here is reported to be of a dredge from Swauk Creek. Source: www.treasurene...
One more picture of a bucket line gold dredge on Swauk Creek if interested is here: www.discovercl...
More Information on dredging history in this area "The Liberty district is located approximately 20 miles southwest of Wenatchee. Production from the district has been chiefly placer gold, discovered along Swauk Creek (following Route 97) in 1874. Major dredging operations began in 1922 (Livingston, 1963)." Source: pubs.geoscienc...
27 авг 2024
