This dredge, now a dismantled hull, is easily visible in its own pond in Galena Gulch. Built by the Bucyrus Company of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was owned by the North American Gold Dredging Company, a business chartered, managed and part-owned by Ben Stanley Revett, the "Dredge Boat King." 
The Bucyrus plied the Swan River, where bedrock depth averaged just over 40 feet, from April 1899 to 1904. The 100-ft.-long, wooden gold dredge, considered the first successful dredge, had a voracious appetite, devouring and then spewing out 2,500 cubic yards of gravel and dirt every 24 hours. A three-man crew operated this steam-powered, hungry monster.
Dredges were built in ponds large enough to float their hulls. They were anchored to the shore by cables and to the pond floor by hollow, heavy, pointed spud poles driven into the gravel. Every eight hours or so the spuds were lifted and men onshore, using winches, pulled the dredge forward. Then the spuds were reanchored so the dredges could continue their eating and disgorging, making 200-ft. arcs in the sides of the ponds three times a day as they "stepped" along, maneuvered by their cable/winch systems. As the dredges moved, so moved the ponds. Not all ponds that harbored dredges had green water as does this pond. In this instance, the color is due to the presence of copper. Nearby is a large "mechanical miners" interpretive sign for visitors to read.
Dredging, a form of placer mining, operated in the Blue and Swan rivers and in French Creek from 1898 until 1942. Over the course of those 44 years, nine dredges, all but one owned at some point by Revett, plied those waterways; never more than five operated at one time.
Directions: The Bucyrus Dredge is located on Tiger Road between Breckenridge and Frisco. From Blue River Plaza in Breckenridge, proceed north on State Highway 9 toward Frisco approximately 4 miles to Tiger Road. Turn right (east) off State Highway 9 at Tiger Road north of Breckenridge. Follow the road for 2.7 miles to the dredge parking lot on the left. The short path on the right from the parking lot leads to an observation point; the short path on the left goes past the mechanical miners sign. The dredge is easily visible from both paths and from the parking lot.
