![]() About 75% of the gold was caught in a 4-foot (1.2 m) coconut matting and steel riffles at the bottom of the troughs. From there, it flowed into sluice tables, long troughs with an area of 1,705 square feet (158.4 m 2) which had a constant flow of water. Finer material (gold, sand, and pebbles) was sieved through 0.75-inch (1.9 cm) holes in the screen, which rotated at 7.8 revolutions per minute, into a distributor box. A pipe was suspended within the trommel, carrying water upwards to spray the incoming material, cleaning it and breaking up larger lumps. Gold was recovered in a rotating 49.5-foot (15.1 m) long trommel screen with 9.75-foot (2.97 m) diameter and 12.5% grade. Each bucket weighed 1,515 kilograms (3,340 lb), each flange 347 kilograms (765 lb), and each securing pin 225 kilograms (496 lb). It could reach 17 feet (5.2 m) above water level and 48 feet (15 m) below it, with each of the 72 buckets capable of moving loads up to 16 cubic feet (0.45 m 3). This wide arc was possible because of the use of two spuds. The 107-foot (33 m) digging ladder enabled the dredge to dig a cut with an average arc of about 275 feet (84 m). It would rotate on two spuds, each 56 by 36 inches (1.42 by 0.91 m) and 60 feet (18 m) long. The machine created a dredge pond by virtue of its operation, its size dependent on the valley in which it was operating, but sometimes reaching 150 by 90 metres (490 by 300 ft). With its installed hydraulic monitors, the eight-storey dredge would cut into gravel banks, washing down the released material for processing. The electrically-powered machine required 920 horsepower (690 kW) while digging, and more when moving its gangplank. The excavator's buckets dug ore below the gantry, conveying it to the trommel screen (top right), whose rotation would sieve finer particles through the holes in the screen, and convey larger objects to the back, where the stacker (bottom right) would eject the processed ore behind the dredge, resulting in a field of tailings (bottom left). The bucket excavator (buckets detached) was moved to position from the master control room via the bow gantry (top left). The immediate success of the dredge resulted in the Canadian Klondyke Mining Company ordering the construction of two more dredges the following year. It worked its way downstream on one side of the valley, then back up the other side, until being decommissioned on 1 November 1959. The wooden hull of the original dredge was discarded, left in the pond where it sank, but all other parts were salvaged for use in the reconstructed dredge. It ceased operations in the area on 11 July 1940, and was rebuilt by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation on Bonanza Creek, where it resumed operations on 11 September 1941. By 1927, it had been refloated and worked its way to Hunker Creek, where it could produce up to 800 ounces (23 kg) of gold a day at claim 67 Below Discovery. After eleven years of operation, it had cut its way to the Boyle Concession, where it sank in 1924. The Canadian Klondyke Mining Company began operating the dredge in May 1913. A contract for the parts dated 13 March 1912 specified their shipment to the site in the summer of 1912, at a cost of $134,800 for each dredge, and the hull was built by the Canadian Klondike Mining Company. Construction was supervised by Howard Brenner, an engineer employed by the Marion Steam Shovel Company, who also supervised construction of Dredge No. The assembly site was near Ogilvie Bridge, named for William Ogilvie, near the current location of the bridge carrying the Klondike Highway to Dawson City. History ĭesigned by the Marion Steam Shovel Company, the bucketline sluice dredge was built on site at Claim 112 Below Discovery from mid 1912 until the onset of winter. It also built dams and ditches to generate hydroelectricity, and by 1911 the 7,500-kilowatt (10,100 hp) North Fork Hydro Power Plant was operational about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the dredges it energized. The Canadian Klondyke Mining Company built the Twelve Mile ditch in 1909, which would supply the water to operate hydraulic monitors on dredges. There, financial services provided by the banks, administrative services provided by the Government of Canada, and the rail and steamship transportation network terminating at the city ensured that machinery needed for operation of the dredge would be readily supplied. Integral to the operation of the dredge were the services available at Dawson City. This is considered the site where the Klondike Gold Rush began. ![]() About 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) south of the dredge's current site, further into the Klondike Valley, is the Discovery Claim where gold was found in August 1896 by prospector George Carmack, his Tagish wife Kate, her brother Skookum Jim, and their nephew Dawson Charlie.
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