Gold Dredging in Oregon

[Bearkat]

Hey Steve, 

 

Just finishing up my gold dredging season and catching up on your Alaskan trip. What a great story...went through all pages. Nice gold too! Good job man! That is a tough way to get gold - but almost more satisfying due to the effort you have to go through to get it. 

 

Here are some pics of my dredge season and gold. My mining partner and I got 31 oz's of beautiful Oregon gold! I got just under half of the take...

 

Couple pics of a bonaza Le Trap sluice cleanup, and nice blue bowl cons and me at lunch atop my dredge (shore was too far to get back to until end of day, dragging the dredge back under water 150 feet to shore).

 

My detecting season starts now! - hope to get some nice detecting nuggets like yours!

 

Take care,

Alan

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Alan,

That is some seriously nice gold and proof once again that when it comes to detecting versus dredging there really is no comparison. Dredging wins hands down as a gold production method. I have had a couple temptations offered to me recently in the form of some Alaska dredging but I have shied away. I tend to forget the cold water and hard labor and in Alaska at least dredging goes from being fun to being work fairly quickly. I can metal detect pretty endlessly, but two weeks of Alaska dredging and I am ready to quit. But the gold is so tempting!

Beautiful stuff Alan and well earned I am sure. Good luck also on your detecting, hopefully better than mine!

[Bearkat]

Steve, If California opens back up for dredging you might consider that...even a little 4" is fun and can produce well in some areas.

 

Alan