Dredging for Gold

During the time of the Gold Rush, the miners were limited because they were only able to work in areas where only hand tools could be used, which was along the banks of the rivers and streams. The only type of equipment they had were gold pans, sluice boxes and rockers. Obviously as time passed on they soon became aware that the deeper gravels in the river beds often times had more gold than the surface gravel that were along the banks.

At the beginning of the 1900’s a number of plainly built steam powered dredges were used on some of the northern rivers in California. The divers that worked inside the bottom of the rivers wore very heavy diving helmets and awkward diving suits.

While it is true that we have seen that throughout history dredging has existed all around the world for a many number of years, we are only now able to see that it has attained a very high level of reputation because of the advanced technology we now have in dredging equipment. The dredges that are used now a days are a lot lighter, are much easier to carry around and work in a very efficient way. 

There are back pack dredges that only weigh around forty pounds and that cost around seven hundred dollars. This back pack dredge is able to process the same amount of gravel a huge three hundred pound could in the past. one of the best things about this type of dredge is that it gives the prospector the ability to get into areas that would not be possible before since they used to weigh so much and were uncomfortable to work with. Back pack dredges are additionally a lot more efficient than the older machines.

There are two main types of dredges that can be found these days in the market. You have the surface sluice and the underwater submersible sluice. The surface dredge is more popular and the one that saves the most amount of gold.