Looky what I found...

[Jeff95531]

I mentioned in the Gold Rush thread that when I was around 8 or 9 years of age, I used to play on an abandoned dredge like Tony's in Warren ID. I thought I might have a picture of it and sure enough two hours later, here is the one and only I have...in COLOR even! Just wish I could make it bigger. (hint hint)

 

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[Jeff95531]

Wow. TN does a bang up job of super-sizing the photo. Looks good and props to TN! The pic is from 1965-66.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Jeff, what a cool place to play as a kid! I can just imagine today
that no mother would allow their kid anywhere near that for
fear their little baby might get a scratch...lol

Did the best I could to clean up the pic; removed smudges
and stains, and added a little contrast. Check it out at max size.

 

[Prospector70]

Is it still there? be fun to dig out in front of it and see what they were chasin'

 

[goldenmojo]

Knowing what you know now you could probably find a picker stuck in the frame somewhere.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Knowing what you know now you could probably find a picker stuck in the frame somewhere.

If I found that I'd be scraping every bit of remaining
sand/gravel off the drag-buckets and any belts that
remained...

 

[dmurphy]

Wow it looks like it is still there, Or at least pieces as of 7-18-13. Google Earth 45-17' 27.93" N 115-41' 45.96" W. Just north of Warren. If that one dredge moved all that material that is amazing. Looks to be 2 miles by 1/2 mile it went through.
Just amazing.

On second look, It looks like the town is on the tailings. Wonder how long that took the dredge to do.

 

[Jeff95531]

Is it still there? be fun to dig out in front of it and see what they were chasin'

Have no idea P70. Haven't seen it since. But it was AU for sure.

 

[Jeff95531]

Wow it looks like it is still there, Or at least pieces as of 7-18-13. Google Earth 45-17' 27.93" N 115-41' 45.96" W. Just north of Warren. If that one dredge moved all that material that is amazing. Looks to be 2 miles by 1/2 mile it went through.
Just amazing.

On second look, It looks like the town is on the tailings. Wonder how long that took the dredge to do.

Wow, that is way cool dmurphy. Hadn't even thought about Google Earth. There were MILES of trailings south of town. The water filled in...dredge ponds were created and brook trout thrived in every one (take that enviro-nazi's). I have a LOT of pics from there back in the day. The mine across from town, (East?) across Warren Creek is the Little Giant lode mine. It was built on tailings of 200 feet high and 800 feet long. I'll bet that still shows up. It had been long closed when I found it in the 60's. I even have pictures of the tombstones of the China men that died there and were buried on Boot Hill. Yes...really the name. There was a lode mine in the center of town that was converted to a jail. My Dad owned the bar (Last Chance Saloon) where the last hanging in town was done.

 

[BurntBear]

Dizzy, you're great at the photos man!

 

[Jeff95531]

Thanks for the pic upgrade Mike

 

[tamrock]

That would be a great play ground. When I lived in Buena Vista Colorado I worked for a time in Frisco Colorado and drove by this massive dredge outside of Fairplay Colorado on the way to work in the early 1980s. I moved later to California in 1986 and when I came back to Colorado in around 1989. I took a drive up where this dredge was and it was gone, so I asked someone in Fairplay where heck did that dredge go. I was told it was dismantled and shipped to some huge placer operation down in South America someplace. I never found out where in South America it ever went to. It was a monster of a dredge and it left a huge trail of destruction of the banks of the upper middle fork of the South Platte River. I guess it was the only way anyone could make a profit on Colorado rivers full of nothing but flour gold, but I'm sure they did come buy some bigger pieces seeing the amount of material they dug up with this machine.

 

[Jeff95531]

Awesome photo tamrock. Thanks for posting!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hey Jeff.... Karen just called me and begged me to talk you out of playing Tony Beets and picking it up as a restoration project. if only we could afford a toy like that!!!!

 

[Jeff95531]

It was one of the very first transformers...turning rock into gold...just like a big box store...if you build it...

 

[Hoser John]

I'd gladly pay to play on Tonys' dredge for a hour or so when up and running,the sounds,vibrations and massive machinery hungeryly munching up 1,000s a cubic yards....soooo cool-John

 

[KevinInColorado]

Tamrock, the Fairplay dredge is in Columbia now. Happily, there's another big dredge nearby...sitting on the property of the Snowstorm Sand and Gravel company, half way between Fairplay and Alma. I had the pleasure of a private tour of it two summers ago...got to climb ALL over it: giant trommel, over a dozen sluices, 50+ foot long stacker. Way cool. A group of us are working to move it so it's accessible to the public and can be preserved

 

[goldenIrishman]

After you give it a very good cleaning I hope Kev!

 

[KevinInColorado]

After you give it a very good cleaning I hope Kev!

I definitely wanna get in there with some needle nosed pliers to pull pickers out of cracks, a little dust broom and a pan!

 

[spillercanyon]

Big dredges are great, I used to play (and party) on one outside of La Grange, CA in the 70's. The dredge is still there, across from the 4WD park south of town on J59. At the time, the buckets were still hanging and it was pretty well intact. In the early 80's, as gold went over $800 an oz., a firm from Canada started dismantling it in hopes to move it up to Canada. The price of gold dropped and they packed up their stuff and left. Most of the dredge is still there, much of it is in pieces all over the ground. A lot of people don't know but the La Grange area used to look like the Snelling area but in the late 60's and early 70's they used the tailings to build New Don Pedro dam.