The Floating Machines That Ate Entire River Valleys | The History of Gold Dredges

Gold dredges were massive floating mining machines that dug through entire river valleys, processed thousands of tons of gravel, and recovered gold that earlier miners had left behind. This documentary explains how bucket-line dredges worked, how they created their own ponds, transformed placer mining into an industry, and permanently reshaped the American landscape. Discover The History of Gold Dredges and see how these floating gold factories used bucket chains, trommels, sluice boxes, winches, and tailing stackers to extract tiny amounts of gold from enormous volumes of earth. From the California Gold Country and Alaska placer mines to the rise and disappearance of giant dredging machines, this is the forgotten history of one of America’s most extraordinary pieces of mining equipment.