Gold dredging 1975 to 1984
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These are some of the pictures my son found in an old trunk that were taken with a Polaroid and they are starting to fade.
They are some of our adventures on the North Fork of the Yuba river in N. Calif.

Did some horse trading for this 6" keene triple sluice box  and made the rest

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Easter week 1975
NF of the Yuba
Putting her together

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1975 - North Fork Yuba
Above Race Track Point, below Canyon Creek
 
Got it together and going 
My son Gerald checking for gold nuggets
Biggest nugget taken off those claims was 2 lb
( Is sitting on an attorney's desk in san Fransico
$16,800 when gold was $245 per oz.)and another that would have been bigger but was broke in 2 pieces laying side by side. One half weighed 1 1/2 lb the other 1/2 was just under 1 lb.
(Pictures of both nuggets under the glass next to cash register in the miners supply store downtown Sacramento)

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Made my girls Gloria & Marie a 5"dredge
No, they weren't thrilled
Notice the flared jet tube and the flared sluice box
I made those in 1975 before keene or proline did

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Butch moving his 5" upriver to find better gold
He did too!
Found enough to buy a brand new Jeep Cherokee, too bad he wasn't old enough to drive yet. Mom rolled it on the way in to the camp.

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Here is Gerald cleaning out his dredge so he could go fishing. Used to make me so mad. He had about 6 or 7, maybe more, 5 gal buckets of 1/16" minus fines he was supposed to clean up and when told to do something with them, he did, he through them back in to the river. Probably in the neighborhood of 30 oz or more of gold in them. He didn't care, he wanted to go fishing. and we didn't have a dredge close to run it back through again.
 
Our best day on those claims was 66 1/2oz and that was with 2- 5", and 1- 6"
dredges. Most could easily be picked out with your fingers.

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1984 Big Bar  Trinity River
Sure different than the NF of the Yuba where 80% of the gold wouldn't go through a 1/8" screen.
Here 90% went through a 1/16" screen
Nearest dredge, Gerald running our 8" keene
Next dredge is my 8" 40hp VW powered Precision dredge
Farthest was our 5" Keene
 

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8" Precision dredges could do things other dredges only dreamt about
Here is mine flying upriver to get just below Canyon Creek

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Sometimes flying isn't the only answer to not packing it in.
There is a site that says the trail on the claims ( the new owners say it ) was made by the chinese, now you know how it really got made. he, he !!
I hope I don't look chinese.
This picture was taken on the west branch of the NF of the Feather River, after we came off the Yuba

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