Grip Collection 86-P-21-100

86-P-21-100
Aftermath of 1938 dredge fire "by dawn's early light." "You will see on the stern gang the spud, a heavy metal object that may have been 30 feet in length. The winchman would raise it and then he would drop it to anchor it much like you would drop an anchor in a boat. This would permit this dredge to swing in a semi-circle and deposit the tailings or rocks that came off the stacker in two even rows, like sliced peaches. On this side, the starboard side, you can see a little shelf or hood attached and outside of that was the screen up there that was the particular engine that ran the pump that brought all the water up into the screen that would let the heavy rock go out on the stacker and the finer stuff would drop in the sluiceboxes. Then the water would run through the sluice boxes and run off the heavy stuff again--not the big ones, but the heavy stuff that wouldn't deposit into the riffles where the mercury was. Back to where the shelf was attached, there was a door and I was an oiler one season and would go out there and keep that screen clean, because if you didn't, it wouldn't take any water--clogging and nothing going through the sluice boxes."