If “there’s gold in them thar’ hills,” then there must be gold down in the rivers, right? Our cherished Breckenridge CO real estate, Breckenridge luxury homes, and vacation properties in Summit County, Colorado are like the jewels rising from our historical golden settings. Gold was first discovered here in 1860 and dredge boats began operation in Breckenridge in 1898 in the Blue and French Gulch riverbeds.
Nine total dredge boats worked near existing Breckenridge real estate but only five were in operation at once. The historical dredging boats, Number Six and Number Seven, were built by a Dredge Boat King Ben Stanley Revett and Bucyrus Company of Milwaukee in a pond near what is now the southeast corner of Tiger Run Resort. Operations were halted in 1942 by government mandates.
According to a fascinating book by historian Mary Ellen Gilliland entitled, Summit: A Gold Rush History in Summit County, Colorado, the monstrous electrically driven boats used 42 buckets to cut through the landscape dig 200 feet under the riverbeds. The boats were anchored to the shore by cables and large poles that were loosened every eight hours. Then onshore winches thrust the boats forward. They were capable of moving through 2,500 cubic yards of gravel and dirt every 24 hours. Visitors to Breckenridge ask about the massive rock piles that are still visible piled alongside the pond.
Although we do not know how much of the Au element has been left behind after the Breckenridge Gold Rush, the 100-year-old dredge boats remind us of the serious mining operations here. These operations dug 40 feet into the bedrock in the Swan River and 50 feet below the surface of the Blue River. Number Six worked the Sawn and Blue rivers in 1908-09 and retired until it was purchased. Number Seven worked the Swan. The Breckenridge Associates Newsletter reports that in a 12-day period Number Seven produced $33,000 in gold from an area above Galena Gulch in 1911. Gilliland reports that the dredges brought in as much as $32 million when gold sold for less than $20 an ounce—a fortune.
The highly valued metal is sometimes found free in nature. The Jefferson Lab Science Education reports that every ton of seawater contains about a milligram. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all known metals and can be beaten into sheets that are 400 times thinner than a human hair. Because it is soft, it is usually alloyed with other stronger metals. It is a good conductor of heat and electricity, doesn’t tarnish, and reflects infrared radiation, making it ideal for electrical conductors, printed circuit boards, and is used as a sun shield for spacecraft, skyscrapers, and telescopes.
Contact Jonna Beardsley at (970) 453-2200 or (800) 774-7970 for friendly professional real-estate assistance.
