Peshastin Creek

[bill-costa rica]

the progression of my mining on peshastin creek…. first weekend had the wife and kids plus a friend or 2 to go camping. went panning down by the arrastra on the lower part of the river and found some gold….. that was cool…. really happy… next weekend we came with a sluice box Keene of course. found more gold … at the camp ground there were a couple guys with 2 ½ inch dredges …. they were finding a lot more gold than I was right at the camp ground… third weekend guess what ??? yup I had a 2 ½ Keene…. now we are getting the gold… well a guy came in with a 6 inch and was up on Scotty creek and was kicking ass. it took a couple of weeks but I bought a new Keene 5 inch dredge and had a good time dredging the blewit pass area. then moved down to the elk city area in Idaho…. that was fun too.. but the beginning was at the camp ground on the old blewit hwy. the next dredge I had was a 10 inch…. 2 ½ then 5 the 10 inch…. what’s the next one ?

bill/cr

[russau]

Great story Bill! I guess that's where you got your inspiration to built that monster 10 in CR??? By the way , what ever happened to it ?

[Bonaro]

One of my first and most miserable dredging trips was on Peshastin, just upstream from the Scotty creek bridge. Must have been about 20 years ago.
We had finally got ourselves a dredge and were itching to test it. It was an antique Keene 3" on fiberglass floats and it was about this time of year, just before Halloween.
I knew I was in for trouble when I stepped out of the truck and broke ice in a mud puddle. We unloaded and got going and all was working pretty well except the water was insanely cold. This was back when the budget was really limited and my wet suit was from a thrift store and my booties were the sneakers I wear when I mow the lawn. I was suited up waiting for my turn on the hose, perched on a rock because the water was painful. My turn came...good lord... the water was cold. I was prone in about 2' of water and mostly submerged. I noticed that if worked faster (really fast) I felt warmer. Then I reached up to grab a rock and my ancient wetsuit gave up. It ripped open in the armpit and tore front and back all the way to the collar making a giant scoop. I dont know words to describe my discomfort or my level of motivation to get out of that water at that moment. I will never forget it.

[Hoser John]

Well Bill since we have aged a little bit since then maybe about time for a bucketline or dragline dredge? John

[bill-costa rica]

i agree john, bring on the bucket line, just call me tony f*****g beets junior.

russ got the 10 here still it is for sale, as john says we are a bit aged kinda like good whisky.

bill/cr

[libertydave]

Swauk and Peshastin Creeks are were where my gold dredging adventures began. In my 30's back then...Reagan was in his first year as our President. I had acquired and rebuilt a well-worn Keene 2-1/2" Model 2500 suction dredge...single tube for floatation with a offset sluice and aluminum crash box, vertical shaft engine and no air. (Sounds like what Dan might have been using back then.) Most newer-bees will not remember that dredge style. The unit had a tendancy to want to roll over...and it did once.
Still coming up here...now in my seventies...and wish Reagan was still our President. Only an hour and forty minute drive from my home. These days I have a 2" Keene dredge/H-B combo with Honda 2.5 and a hydro-force nozzle. There are many beautiful spots up here that are reasonably accessible...my health and age makes that a priority these days. And the creeks, while usually cold...still deliver color and an occasional picker. Life is good!

LD

[Bonaro]

LD, My old 3" was simular to the offset dredge you describe but it sat on fiberglass floats...most likely it was made before the invention of rubber innnertubes
I looked and actualy found a couple pics of the old beast. This was Peshastin creek in 2002

dredge1.JPG (62.77 KiB) Viewed 3920 times

dredge2.JPG (69.21 KiB) Viewed 3920 times