{"id":201340,"date":"2021-01-08T18:09:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csce.dev\/en\/?post_type=historic_site&p=201340"},"modified":"2022-07-06T11:18:05","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T15:18:05","slug":"canadian-klondyke-mining-company-dredge-no-4","status":"publish","type":"historic_site","link":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/historic-site\/canadian-klondyke-mining-company-dredge-no-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Klondyke Mining Company Dredge No. 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"\r\n
Canadian Klondyke Mining Company Dredge No. 4 (Source: Wikipedia)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Site Location: Lat.: 63\u00b0 \u2013 56\u2019 \u2013 36\u201d N.; Long.: 139\u00b0 \u2013 20\u2019 \u2013 6\u201d W. (GPS: 63.9433452, -139.3350078). From Whitehorse, take Yukon Highway 2 north 515 km towards Dawson City. Just before crossing the Klondike River, turn left (south) on Upper Bonanza Creek Road, and proceed 12.1 km to the dredge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Location: The plaque is temporarily in storage while site work is done at Dredge No. 4. It is envisaged that the plaque will be mounted on a boulder at the dredge when the site work is complete.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Description: After the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899), 19 bucket dredges mined placer gold in Yukon between 1900 and 1966. Dredge No. 4, purchased from the Marion Steam Shovel Co. of Ohio, was shipped dismantled from Vancouver to Skagway, carried on to Whitehorse on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway, and carried on to Dawson by sternwheeler. Teams of horses hauled the last hundred tons of dredge machinery to the dredge assembly site in February 1913 after the last sternwheeler was frozen about 40 km (25 mi.) south of Dawson in October 1912.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Longitudinal section through bucket dredge (Source: Historic American Engineering Record)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Gold dredges float on a moving pond of water, picking up gold-bearing gravel using a chain of buckets at one end and discarding the waste gravel through the discharge stacker at the other. Inside the dredge, the buckets empty into a hopper that feed an inclined revolving circular screen, or trommel, where large volumes of water wash the fine material into the distributor, where it is directed to the sluice boxes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Dredge No. 4, eight storeys high and two-thirds the size of a football field, has a displacement weight of over 2700 tonnes (3000 tons). It could dig material from 14.6 m (47 ft.) below water level to 5.2 m (17 ft.) above water level using iron buckets with 0.45 m3 (16 cu. ft.) capacities, processing 14,000 m3 (18,000 cu. yds.) per day. The Canadian Klondyke Mining Company operated Dredge No. 5 on the Klondike River from May 1913 to October 1940. The Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation rebuilt the dredge, using the original machinery with new timber, at a Bonanza Creek site, operating it from 1941 to 1959. It is now a National Historic Site.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Dredge No. 4 in operation in 1916. (Source: Wikipedia)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"\"\r\n
Satellite view of tailings created by dredges east of Dawson City. The sweeping motion of the tailings stacker created the arc-shaped pattern of the tailings. (Source: Google Street View)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Historic Significance: Dredge No. 4 is the largest placer gold dredge in North America and the only remaining intact dredge that operated in Yukon. It symbolises the evolution of gold mining from a labour-intensive activity to a mechanical process. This large-scale mining era in the north, after the Klondike Gold Rush, pioneered cold-regions engineering techniques in northern planning, northern transportation, northern water resource development, northern mining. This era also pioneered northern construction techniques that address the challenges of cold weather, permafrost, and geographical isolation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Plaque detail. (Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Wording: Historic Civil Engineering Site. CSCE. CANADIAN KLONDYKE MINING COMPANY DREDGE NO. 4. A tribute to the engineers, and contractors who designed, built, and operated \u201cCanadian Klondyke Mining Company\u201d Dredge No. 4 from 1912 to 1959. The all wood dredge was designed to float and support 3000 tons, including a chain of 68 large iron excavating buckets. Gold dredging operations in the Klondyke from 1900 to 1966 also included large hydro electric, water supply and machine shop facilities. Dredge No. 4 produced 300,000 ounces of gold and mined 65 million cubic yards of gravel. Canadian Society for Civil Engineering 2012.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

SCGC. Site Historique de G\u00e9nie Civil. DRAGUE NO 4 DE LA COMPAGNIE MINI\u00c8RE CANADIENNE KLONDYKE. Un homage aux ing\u00e9nieurs et entrepreneurs qui on con\u00e7u, construit et utilise la drague no 4 de \u00abla Companie mini\u00e8re canadienne Klondyke\u00bb de 1912 \u00e0 1959. Construite enti\u00e8rement en bois, la drague fut con\u00e7ue pour flotter et supporter un poids de 3 000 tonnes ainsi qu\u2019une cha\u00eene de 68 grands godets d\u2019excavation en fer. Les operations de dragage d\u2019or men\u00e9es de 1900 \u00e0 1966 dans le Klondyke ont aussi inclus des installations hydro \u00e9lectriques, d\u2019adduction d\u2019eau et d\u2019un atelier de machines. La drague no 4 a produit 300,00 onces d\u2019or et extrait 65 millions de yards cubes de gravier. 2012. Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 canadienne de genie civil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Unveiling Ceremony: The plaque was unveiled at Hanger 14, the Alberta Aviation Museum, as part of the 2012 CSCE Annual Conference in Edmonton.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The plaque was subsequently unveiled on site on June 30, 2012, by Patrick Habiluk, former Dredge #4 Recovery Project Manager, and Carrie Docken, former Parks Canada Visitor Services Manager. Mr. Habiluk presented a brief description of the historical significance of the dredge on behalf of CSCE National History Committee member Ken Johnson, who co-ordinated the nomination, to an audience of 150.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Plaque unveiling at Dredge No. 4. From left: Sandy Silver, Klondike Region M.L.A.; Patrick Habiluk; Carrie Docken; Hugh Copland, former Parks Canada Asset Management Advisor; David Rohatensky, former Parks Canada Superintendent, Klondike National Historic Sites. (Source: P. Habiluk)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Links to Online Documentation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Canada\u2019s Historic Places, \u201cDredge No. 4 National Historic Site of Canada\u201d.
Yukoninfo, \u201cDredge No. 4\u201d.
Kathleen Murphy and Alex Barbour, \u201cDances with Wires: An Unusual Rigging Project\u201d, San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, 1997.
Ken Johnson, \u201cGold Dredging in the Klondike and Number 4\u201d, CSCE Edmonton Conference Proceedings, 2012.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Site Location: Lat.: 63\u00b0 \u2013 56\u2019 \u2013 36\u201d N.; Long.: 139\u00b0 \u2013 20\u2019 \u2013 6\u201d W. (GPS: 63.9433452, -139.3350078). From Whitehorse, take Yukon Highway 2 north 515 km towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22598,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","classification":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/historic_site"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201340"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210996,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201340\/revisions\/210996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"classification","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classification?post=201340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}