Dredging old pond. Suggestions anyone?

[khouse]

I secured permission to detect a small 1/3 acre pond. What is special about the pond is that it was spring fed and said to be healing if bathed or swam in. There even was a slide for the kids to use. It it said wealthy people from all over traveled to the pond to swim and bathe. The years it was open was 1880 to 1954! The pond is about 6 feet deep at the dam side now. It used to be deeper but has silted in at least 1.5 feet. I want to get down to the original pond bed. I know I could take my detector into the water and scoop and sift. But this will be tough work as I hope to be scooping hundreds of targets. This lead me to think about a dredge and sluice. I can have a helper help in breaking up the larger clods and recovering the finds. I thought I could just start jabbing the suction pipe downward cleaning a path as I walk. Will this work? I was hoping someone has tried this before on loose silt. Thanks!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[kuger]

You shouldnt need to detect it at all.I have found a lot of coins dredging for gold(in the riffles)you can also modify your sluice for coins.Just my 2 cents though

 

[khouse]

Kuger,
Thanks for the reply! Do you think the suction on a 4 inch dredge can take the heavy volume of silt and sludge? Having never ran one I just don't know?

 

[boogeyman]

If you don't have a dredge, you can try what I did for working under diving docks at the bay a long time ago. All you need is a good pump a jet tube and the associated hoses. I made a frame to hold the motor and pump with two legs off one side to hold a trough of 1/4" hardware screen. The trough was about 2 1/2' wide by 5" long by 1foot deep. Mount the jet tube so it discharges into the wire trough (sifter) with a piece of inner tube over the end to keep it from blowing over the end of the trough. This worked good for the ten+ foot depth around the docks. Didn't have waterproof coils back then, and recovery was still a problem. Generally we'd drag with grapnels to get fishing rods & the occasional bikes out of the way, then use the coin dredge. Should be an inexpensive way for you to get set up. Now days you can pick up a Honda look alike pump for around $150 & if you're at 6' or so it'd work real good for you!

 

[khouse]

Sounds good Boogy.
My first thought was to build a large box sifter and pump the material in that. Then I thought maybe pumping it to a sluice box could do the trick.

 

[Hoser John]

Dredge would work just fine-I've done this(much bigger too)dozens of times. Your biggest consideration is smoking yourself out?? Can you run a dredge and discharge over the dam--outta the pond--or dig a couple a ponds to recirculate the water. Water input MOST important too for water clarity-dredging in thick soup is a killer. Dredges have blaster nozzle bibs so clay,silt is no problem BUT 1 HUGE problem is sticks,branches and large debris that plug you up and cost much time and energy. Moved many 1,000's a cu.yd. with a 12" too in a debris pond.Tons a au 2 u 2-John

 

[boogeyman]

Good point John didn't think of visibility. Since we were in an ocean bay with visibility at 1 - 2' it didn't much matter. Also, we were using pipe clamped to the nozzle while standing on the dock. Could probably remove the sluice & fabricate a basket for it to dump into if you bought a complete dredge. We pretty much built the rig we used from stuff around the shop so cost was minimal. The only thing purchased was the jet tube. Also your idea is good about discharging on the bank would allow going back over the material with a detector to see if he missed anything. Cool, now ya did it! Got me thinking!

 

[khouse]

I really need to get in the pond to see how deep it is at the dam. The dam is very small so most if not all the dredging would be done by simply walking. I don't think I will need to go underwater so visibility shouldn't be a problem. Since I have permission to detect the property it may be smart to try and detect the pond first. This way I might have already gotten some good stuff before I drop the "dredge" bomb!

 

[boogeyman]

Sounds like you've got a good plan! If there's goodies there you should be all over it. Be interested in seeing pictures of the setup when you get it done, and of course pictures of your finds. If you need help, give a yell. Like I said I put mine together back in the late 70s. So I might have some ideas to help. Also, there are a ton of people here who are very inventive and come up with some darned good ideas.

 

[khouse]

If I get to dredging I'll be yelling for help! It looks like dredging can get the job done.

 

[russau]

if the owner has a way to replentish the water as you dredge it you could inform the owner that you could deepen his pond by dredgeing and dumping the reminants on the shore or.....somewhere else. where ever you would deposit the silt you could put your classifiing screen there for a tender to watch that it doesent get plugged/filled up with sediments. i was asked to do this for a gravel bottomed farm creek in OK. last year but couldnt get there.

 

[submerged]

If you run your dredge tailings into a floating pit with a trash pump on it then pump the pit into a silt bag you will end up with fairly clean water and just heavy bags of silt that can be loaded and dumped with a backhoe and redeposited anywhere and the DEC or DEP would not have a problem with that probably keeping you from getting fined. In NY you would need a permit from the DEC and the Fish & Game dept and you would be required to follow their regs and it would be done as I wrote above.

Ed

 

[JamesE]

If there's enough water volume in and 'drop' on the down side of the dam, you might be able to set up a siphon dredge using 3 or 4 inch PVC with a screen.
Depending on the length of the dam and surrounding landscape , you might raise it with sandbags for more head (drop) to operate a siphon.
If you estimate out flow, you can get an idea of how long to refill the pond after each cycle of siphoning.

 

[Strikefleet5326s]

Don't folks go into them heal'in waters naked? And kids ain't got shat.Might be reach'in on this one.But good luck anyhow.

 

[khouse]

I would be healed too if a bunch of naked women jumped in the waters! Since only the wealthy swam there I hope that they wore their jewelry in. I don't think they would have left it on the banks with all their clothes.

 

[Strikefleet5326s]

I would be healed too if a bunch of naked women jumped in the waters! Since only the wealthy swam there I hope that they wore their jewelry in. I don't think they would have left it on the banks with all their clothes.

You might have something there.It sure want hurt to look.I'm sure you'll scan them banks too! Might just as well.Hope you turn some stuff.

 

[khouse]

After further research I have found that right where the bath house was is now a parking lot. They filled in about 1/4 of the pond for parking. But there is still 3/4 of the original pond there. I'm waiting for warmer waters before I get in there.

 

[rmptr]

Visibility is gonna be a problem because somethin's always gettin stuck on the nozzle of a dredge, as they said.

Too bad that 1 1/4 of the pond was already filled in!

Still, you could do very well...

Good luck!
rmptr

 

[khouse]

I'm going in with my waterproofed Ace 250. I don't have a dredge.

 

[boogeyman]

What kind of soil are you working with? If you got sandy type soil you could build a beach cart and use that to work the shallow stuff & clear the trash. Then work the deeper stuff with your deteector. Not to mention property owners will appreciate you getting the trash out. If it's clay or has a ton of rocks probably won't work good for you. Just an idea for you. (old school technology )