Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge
by Charles Robinson
Title
Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge
Artist
Charles Robinson
Medium
Photograph - Landscape Photograph
Description
When panning for gold in the Powder River in the Sumpter Valley, Oregon, became unprofitable, the miners turned to panning on a massive scale. The Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge began dredging in the Powder River Valley in 1935. The 72.1 ton, 9 cu. ft buckets dumped 25 buckets per minute, 24 hours a day, into six giant 24 in American jigs and sluice boxes on the dredge, where it was washed with water at the rate of 3000 gallons per minute supplied by six 10 inch pumps. The rock dredged from the front of the dredge was dumped after washing behind the dredge. The dredge "walked" for 8 miles up and down the valley by floating into the pool created by the dredging and into the new pool created as more rock was dredge out and processed. Although it extracted $10 to $12 million worth of gold, it was never profitable to operate. The dredge closed in August 1954 after it went bankrupt with a debt of over $100,000.
The Powder River at Sumpter today is nothing but a sea of huge boulders. The dredge rests today in a small pool of water, the only water visible in the river. It is a rather shameful testimony of greed at any cost.
Uploaded
August 24th, 2012
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Comments (4)
Andrew Govan Dantzler
Great capture V F & L ... Elaine PS: Also post link to this on my FaceBook Timeline because I wanted friends and visitors to see and hopefully read your comment: 'It is a rather shameful testimony of greed at any cost.'
Charles Robinson replied:
Thank you, Andrew. I appreciate your post to your Facebook Timeline. This is indeed a horrible testimony of greed.
Linda Phelps
This image has the feel of an old photograph. It is nicely processed. I like the fade out on the edges.
Don Wright
Hey Charles, you're stomping in my old grounds now. As soon as I saw this I said to my wife, 'That's the Sumpter Dredge!' We lived in Baker City for years, and we're pretty familiar with all you have here. For those that would otherwise have no idea what this is, your notes tell it very well. That country is beautiful, and thank you for reminding us of all that is there. My wife has a bunch of family living in Baker, and surrounding. We miss it a lot. f/v
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