- MARYSVILLE, Calif. - A huge
gold dredge sank under mysterious circumstances in the Yuba Goldfields
early this week, owners reported.
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- Yuba Dredge No. 21 disappeared while unattended sometime
early Monday morning, said Tony Massey, general manager of Cal Sierra Development.
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- Built in 1937, the dredge was 500 feet long and 68 feet
wide, with a superstructure towering 110 feet in the air, Massey said.
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- It was one of only two such gold dredges, basically a
large, flat-bottomed barge that uses giant, jawlike grabbers to scoop up
material from the bottom of dredger ponds and dump it into a conveyor-processor
that sorts, separate and sifts out small amounts of remainder gold.
-
- It had been undergoing major repairs for about a year
and was scheduled to go back into operation Tuesday, but vanished instead,
leaving nothing behind but a small oil spill.
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