"Front view of the Reiling dredge in French Gulch, showing bucket line." - 365

Reiling Dredge
Circa 1908

This is a photograph of the front and side of a large piece of floating mining equipment designed to scoop riverbeds to extract gold.  The Reiling gold dredge was originally built on Clear Creek just east of the Table Mountains and is one of a twin pair named Eleanor #1 and Eleanor #2, built by the National Dredging Company and among the earliest gold dredges of Colorado.  After encountering limited success extracting the fine gold deposits of Arapahoe Bar, one dredge was moved to Sacramento, California, while Golden citizen Herman J. Reiling with a team of Golden carpenters rebuilt this one in French Gulch near Breckenridge, where its remains still exist today.  This image is of the dredge at its new home in French Gulch.