 Gold Dredge
Did you know......
Gold Dredges operated in the Sumpter Valley 1914-1954
 Hey, they moved the Monighan!
It now sits at the Cracker Creek Museum of Mining! The Monighan came to Sumpter in 1940. This 12 ton monster was used to dredge dry land on a large scale in the Sumpter Valley. Visit the Sumpter Museum for more history about Sumpter - It's FREE!  Just click on the
photo to visit the website now! |
Gold was first discovered in the Elkhorn Mountains by Confederate Soldiers in 1862........who then named their new town after historic Ft. Sumter in South Carolina, thus giving birth to our historic gold town! The name was changed later to Sumpter by the U.S. Postal Service. Legend tells that the U.S. Postmaster ordered the spelling changed because of the Civil War Reference to the real Ft. Sumter................... Regardless of how it was spelled, Sumpter was booming by the late 1890's growing to 1500. Of course the U.S. Census Bureau wasn't counting Chinese, or Women and Children at that time so that number could easily have been double. For more historical information about Sumpter, Oregon, visit www.historicsumpter.com! Gold Mining still continues today with private Placer and Hard Rock Mines peppering our historic mountains! Visitors to Sumpter enjoy trying their luck at panning for gold in Crack Creek from Bourne to the State Park...... where it is then considered the Powder River, and everywhere through the Sumpter Valley! The old saying: "There's Gold in them there hills!" rings true around here since the U.S. Geological Survey says we have at least 80% of original gold still in the ground here! Just in case you forgot to pack your gold pan, don't worry, the friendly folks down at the Gold Dredge will loan you one of theirs free of charge for use in the Dredge State Park! Have some questions about Gold Mining in Sumpter, Oregon? Just send us an email: info@sumpter.org Visit our friends up at www.boulderpatchmines.com Ask for Diggerdan!
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