As the dredge worked, it continuously dug into its own pond in front and filled it in with tailings at the back. After its completion, the pond was filled with the 8-10 feet of water needed to float and operate the 988 ton dredge. Tim and Ross, producers of their own treasure-hunting TV show Eastern Outdoor Expeditions. Sometimes it took a whole day to load just one truck with some of the pieces needed to build the dredge.Īnother trucking company delivered the twenty-five pontoons, each measuring 10x10x27 feet, by hauling them over Galena Summit, no small feat. How it ended up in the mud, 100 feet up a creek valley in North Carolina, is an epic tale itself. One of the largest loads was the 55-foot, 17.5 ton spud. Some pieces were shipped by rail to Mackay and trucked there by Lindberg’s Trucking Company of Mackay to the Yankee Fork site over Spar Canyon Road. It was a major operation to transport the equipment and pieces needed to build the dredge. The TL:DR is that water rights are granted on a 10 year basis and one of the agencies overseeing water rights has been holding up renewals and new licenses. Winch room at the Yankee Fork Dredge Construction of the Yankee Fork DredgeĪ pond for the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge was constructed to allow the assembly of the massive four-story floating machine.

Thistle creek dredge history