Yankee Fork gold dredge

In 1939 the Snake River Mining Company, part of Silas Mason Company, tested the Yankee Fork for gold dredging. The results were good enough that the company contracted with Bucyrus-Erie Company to build a dredge. The parts were shipped by train to Mackay, then hauled by trucks to Yankee Fork and assembled in 1940.

The dredge is 112 feet long, 54 feet wide, 64 feet high and weighs 988 tons. There are 71 buckets on one continuous chain and each bucket holds 8 cubic feet of dirt. From 1940 until it closed in August of 1952, the dredge dug into the valley to recover the gold by washing and seperating the rock, dirt and gold.