The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-02-02
sTRANGEsT CRAFT IN
THE WORLD.
Monster Gold Ships of the Plains
Which Leave Ruin Behind Them.

From Brooklyn Eagle:
No stranger ships ever sailed the
seas than those that now cruise back
and forth on the arid plains and noun
tain peaks of the west, carrying their
lakes with them, tearing up produc-
tive orchards, waving fields of grain
and stretches of desert sand and leav-
ing in their wake bald and naked
heaps of powders that must forever
remain unproductive and utterly bar
rem. Stranger than any flights OF fan
cy eminating from the busy brains OF
novelists and romanciers are these
creations Of modern engineering
gold ships of the plains. More des-
tructive than any old-time buccaneer-
ing vessel of the Spanish main, more
richly laden than any galleons that
ever crossed the seas, they sail the
sands of the Great American Des-
ert." Ten years ago the first gold
dredges were introduced etaoi eta
dredge was introduced into the Uni
ted States, but with Indifferent sue
cess Three years later the first con
spiculously successful craft of the
kind was put in commission in this |
country. It's field Of operation was an
olive orchard in California. It Gre
ated it's own river and opened up a
new era in placer mining. There are
now not far from $50 such crafts in |
operation in the United States. Each |
one of these iTetrieyably destroys |
from half an acre to an acre in a |
month. This means that total of
more than one thousand acres is
worked over every year. To Offset |
this destruction, however, is an addi- |
ton of many millions of dollars to
the worlds gold production. /
To transport one of these huge !
amphibious monsters, 100 feet long, !
and weighing many hundreds of tons {
across the plains and sometimes over i
lofty mountain ranges, would be a
less undertaking. The machinery and /
iron works are carried by rail and
burros to the place desired. Then
burros to the place desired. Then,
wherever that place may be, whether
some deep valley girt in by snow
capped mountains, with no navigable
lake, sea or river within distance of
1000 m les, dock yards are built for
the construction of these ships that
sail on land. Probably there is an irri-
eating ditch at no great distance. If
down from the mountains in a flume.
Then it begins to dig. Soon it has
eXcavated a hole, throwing a great
pile of earth and rocks up behind
Deeper and deeper it burrows, I'M
til the underhow of the valley seeps
in and floats it. Then it begins it's
slow and deliberate journey, carrying
its manufactured lake with it. One
observer has described a gold dredge
as combination of a river steamboat,
derrick and man-of-war
The method of progression of many
of t.-o gold ships might be described
as walking more accurately than as
either floating or sailing. They are
provided with two giant steel legs,
called "spuds," which reach to the
bottom of the artificial lake. On
NOne of these spuds the dredge rests
as on a pivot, while it is anchored to
the shore in such a way that it may
be swung on the pivot from side to
side. When the boat is to be moved
forward the other spud is lowered to
the bottom and the dredge drawn !
forward to rest upon it. 1t, therefore,
walks like any animated biped, and