The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-03-11
Gold Dredging--Its History and Descrip-
ton of Modern Dredge--Methods
of Early Placer Miners


urauAc industry OF California. To.
day millions OF cubic yards contain.
ing millions IN gold are thus locked
up by the farmers. In a few cases
only are properties being worked by
the hydraulic and s.uice process. 10y
building expensive restraining dams
TO hold back the tailings.
Farmers Had a Grievance.
one can't blame these farmers toe
much, even if the miners were there
first. Their fields and orchards are
wonderfully productive. and only pro-
tected now from ruin by the bikes or
levees they have built on the banks of
the streams. You see, the stream beds
kept filling up until the water flowed
on a bed higher than the surrounding
country. Marysville, California. where
[ have lived, once the Quitting point
for forty miners, now center of farm
ing and dredging activities, lies like
an island completely encircled by the
American and Feather rivers. But its
la queer island. 1t is about 20 feet be-
low the water surrounding it, Only
the levees keep the rivers from turn
ing Marysville into a Venice with wa
ter filling the streets up to the second
stories, while in the old days steam
ers locked below the level of the town.
Marysville shudders when high wat
ers come close to the top of the city's
levees, but at the very danger mark,
the levees always fail out on the ad-
joining farms, and relieve the city To
some this may seem a coincidence;
to others it suggests the existence in
Marysville Of a secret society with
few sticks Of dynamite and the motto:
Save the town and spoil the farms
if necessary"
Around Marysville we find dredges
far more popular than hydraulic min
ing, for these great machines are help
ing the government to control floods
by digging wide water courses and
piling up great banks of tailngs, the
while the dredges extract all the gold
from the material passing through /
them.
But we have depressed somewhat /
rom our growth of placer mining. We !
lave shown how the washing and |
gold saving improved with the in /
'rease in size and length Of sluices,
out what of the two other essential |
of the material
hen its elevation for disposal of the
ailings? We showed how these two
points took care of themselves in by
in the high hills. Water
lnder great pressure eXcavated the
gravel sometimes aided by shooting
With powder firsD; while the tailings
we're disposed of by flood waters on
o the complaining farmers, even 100
niles away.
But now what of the attempts to
nine the gravels in the creeks and
liver bottoms. in the flood plains at
he mouths of the canyons, in all
hose flat places which lacked the
atural grade of the mountain sides,
ut which were often richer in gold
y reason of greater concentration?
Problem of Elevation.
When the shallow bars and dry
inns were worked out the placer
inner gradually worked deeper
round. He open-cut it; he excavat-
d the material by means of many (
expensive laborers each on the end of {
pick or shovel When the ground {
ecame too deep to throw dirt out in j
} the sluices one crew threw its dirt f
p on to a stage and another crew 7
andled it over and threw it up into q
he sluices Slow and expensive i
ork. Always the excavation and 7
ovation problem and the tailings b
sposal problem. Then with greater g
epth came the fight against water, il
both open-cutting or drifting. If
lie ground was rich enough, pumps s
ere installed, but in countless cases c
lie flow of water was too strong. Fl
ong drains We're run to tap the bed s
'ck at the ground to be mined, to s
ain the deposit In many cases the b
aims cost more than the gold re- c
'vered. Then again in working shall n
W river beds the entire surface wa d
r was diverted and the river bed Il
ing damned. W
/ don't mean to say that all these d
ethods have failed. A great deal of cl
ny important placer mining has
zen achieved by shoveling into or d
listing into sluices. by open cutting in
Id drifting, handling the water by &C
imps and drains or bedrock fumes. -
hat 1 want to show is that the
edge finally solved the three prob =
ms of placer mining in flats and N
7ers and even on high dry benches
ID hills, because in one efficient OPP
alton and with one self cOntaineG y
lchine the dredge first excavates
e material from top to bottom of
e deposit below water; second, ele- NJ
ties it to a height sufficient for the ue
lshng and gold saving; and third m
'poses of the tailings Immediately Of
hind it, filing up the excavation Sc
lde as it proceeds, and furthermore 81
moves itself to its material-you
MT have to bring the material to
e dredge. Thus thousands of acres A.