My Very First Gold Suction Dredge!

[Steve Herschbach]

My first gold dredge! After seeing a guy running a suction dredge at Crow Creek Mine south of Anchorage, Alaska I ordered my first dredge in early 1973. I had never seen a dredge before, and this guy was wearing a wetsuit running a 4" dredge about chest deep in the water. He saw my interest and shut the dredge down, pointed at the first riffle, and there was more chunky gold than I had ever found. I was hooked!

I got the dredge direct from Keene, only way I could get one back then. Knowing nothing about dredges I saw no reason why I should spend extra money to get floats. I figured 2.5" was too small and 4" too big so a 3" must be just right.

I learned a lot with that dredge. The first thing I learned is when you put it on bank with powerjet way above water it is nearly impossible to prime. And that when you finally get it primed, the entire hose will fill with gravel, then everything stops. Once I took the 15 feet of hose off to shake all the gravel out, and did this maybe three times in a row, I realized the dredge cannot be operated more than a couple feet above water. In fact, keep the place where hose and jet meet at or below water level for best results.

Which made finding a place to use it quite a challenge. You need something like in this photo - a nice rock or pile of rocks or sawhorses next to water. This basically eliminated almost all the places I wanted to use the dredge, so this photo was the last time I ever dredged without floats, way back in 1973. You pretty much have to have them as a suction dredge that does not float is very limited.

I did not find a lot of gold here but found my biggest nugget to that date. I think it was only like a pennyweight but it seemed huge at the time.

Photo taken in Wrangell Mountains, Alaska on Skookum Gulch.

[Steve Herschbach]

Here I am actually running the dredge. The little gulch barely provided just enough water to run the dredge.

Another thing I learned was that power jet dredges are a real pain in extremely shallow water. A whirlpool gets going and air starts sucking into the nozzle. Suck up enough air, and the dredge loses the prime in the main suction hose. Everything stops until you go stick your hand up in the header box, blocking the outlet and forcing the water back into the hose to reprime it. Suction nozzles are the way to go for real shallow water since they are always self priming. You can lift a suction nozzle out of the water, stick it back in, and everything starts working again.

Oh, and never be standing at the tail end of the sluice box if the main hose loses the prime. The power jet turns into a fire nozzle and blasts you down with a jet of water - quick way to get drenched!