Fairplay dredge boat at Fairplay, Colorado

Abstract

Photograph showing the Fairplay dredge boat, which mined the Fairplay placer along the South Platte River. The Mosquito Mountains are in the background. This dredge boat was built by the Yuba Manufacturing Company and shipped to Fairplay, Colorado in sections. The South Platte Dredging Company used it to mine the Fairplay placer along the South Platte River starting in 1941. The Fairplay dredge was electrically operated and was the largest dredge in Colorado. The dredge had over 100 buckets that fed gravel from the river bottom into the dredge's interior where it was milled. The stacker then deposited the tailings along the river channel. The dredge mined up to 15,000 cubic yards of placer gravels per day and could reach to a depth of 105 feet. Dredge operations were suspended in 1942 and resumed in 1945, and finally shut down permanently in 1952.