Sumpter Valley Dredge, Sumpter Oregon

Sumpter Valley Dredge - From Oregon State Parks and Recreation Pamphlet

Long ago when the west was new a lot of our ancestors crisscrossed the mountains looking for gold. A few found it. Each time somebody found gold they’d whoop and holler so loud it was heard back east. The result was even more people tramping around looking for gold.


In school we learned about the California Gold Rush of 1849. That started a big migration west. There were more strikes over the years and each time it caused a new migration toward the alleged find. Some people never learn.

Holmes Stereo Card - Uses Stereopticon Viewer

The best way to make money during a gold rush was to sell stuff to the rushers. Washington State had a building boom around 1910 – 1911. Many of the rail lines, banks, and municipal buildings were built in that era. Why? Because somebody who couldn’t keep his mouth shut discovered gold in Alaska.

The Alaskans didn’t want thousands of bodies frozen in the snow so they made rules that anyone going to look for gold had to come with supplies. Tons of supplies. People in Washington, Oregon, and California sold tons of supplies to these gold seekers and financed a building boom.

In Oregon gold was being panned in mountain streams. The gold seeker washed creek gravel in a pan and got a little smidgen of gold dust. Lots of backbreaking work for a little bag of glitter. Some thought there had to be a better way. “Why not use some of them new fangled machines they got?” For example the telephone. Or the automobile? Something.

Drag Line Bucket

Some of the ideas were a little closer to addressing the problem. One idea focused on the steam shovel. They brought in drag line type shovels. A few of those buckets are still there. Very heavy to haul off.

But that still left the problem of finding a dude big enough to swirl the giant pan. “Hmm,” said several old timey gold seekers, “What we need is a machine that can scoop up the creek bottom and do all the panning too”

See, the issue is stream beds are full of large roundish rocks that are very hard to pan by hand. At least for those wimps. I can toss those things around like tiddly winks. But several people studied the problem. “There must be a way” they said to their donkeys as they sat by the stream panning.

Dredge Bucket Line

In New Zealand somebody invented a thing called a paddock dredge. Look at the photos. The short story is this: It’s a boat hull with a gold extraction factory sitting on top. It’s also called a Yuba Style dredge. The front end drags up buckets full of rocks, gravel, and gold. They sluice the gold and dump the rocks and gravel out the back. It makes its own moving pond and floats forward as it works.

Dredge Hull Near Bourne in Its Pond

The dredge in Sumpter is actually the third one. They two earlier ones. One built in 1913 and another in 1915. These two quit in the mid 1920s. Some of the hardware was removed and used to make a new one. On one end there’s a bucket ladder. It can reach down 13 feet. The buckets on the Sumpter Dredge could scoop up 9 cubic feet each at 25 buckets per minute. A lot faster than a pan. Plus a lot deeper.

The Sumpter Dredge could process 100 acres a year. Your assignment: Go to Google Earth and find Sumpter, Oregon. Zoom in close enough to see the little photo icons. Click on these and see photos. Then follow highway 410 southeast to highway 7. Continue to follow highway 7. See the odd looking grey land? Zoom in close and you’ll see the side to side deposits. These are the tailings from the dredges that worked the valley.

The paddock dredge on display in Sumpter is the last of three (or four) that worked the valley. It’s an amazing contraption that has to be visited to appreciate. The people of Sumpter and Baker City, as well as several others, got the dredge fit for visitors. Sumpter itself is made up to look like it did 100 years ago. They also have a railroad station in town. A narrow gage train carries tourists to McEwen and back during the warm months. I’m impressed that they made their town into a tourist destination to keep it alive. You can eat, camp, and wander around the state park. Train rides are also fun. Visit the dredge, it’s worth the trip.

Dredge Buckets in Water Showing How They Scooped Up Rocks

The Sumpter Valley Dredge was left in its pond when the dredging stopped in 1954. Another hull is up the road toward Bourne. A third is near the McEwen station. Those two are just rotting hulls and all the machinery has been removed.

In addition to the dredge and the railroad there are several old mining and logging artifacts on display. The map shows ghost towns in the area. Bourne is a ghost town. If you like having roads all to yourself eastern Oregon is the place to go.

Al

Bellevue Battles Nature

PROBABLY NOT BELLEVUE

Long ago in internet terms Coal Creek Park belonged to King County. That was before King County was named after MLK. It used to be named after the Vice-President in the Franklin Pierce Administration to curry favor with DC. Pierce County was named after Hawkeye, ironically.

Then in a wave of political correctness they renamed the county after Martin Luther King. Maps could remain the same but all the stationary and business cards had to be changed to subsidize Office Depot or somebody.

Here's a Trail in Coal Creek Park

It all seemed quite reasonable and everyone was happy. Coal Creek Park has several hiking trails and millions of old deciduous trees that are falling to the ground due to natural processes. The longer lived evergreen trees could be seen growing up between all this downed wood. In 100 years it will be an evergreen park.

It turns out there was another problem with Coal Creek. The name is a big hint. A few years ago the county was sued over the coal residue that was still seeping out of the ground and allegedly polluting the creek. King County didn’t have the resources to clean up the creek because it was spending all its money on new stationary.

Creek

The county whined to the judge and here’s the resolution that cracks me up: The judge awarded custody of the park to Bellevue and then ordered Bellevue to clean up the pollution! Is the American legal system great or what?

Bellevue thought it was getting a new park and paid no attention to the cleanup requirement. The judge could have given it to Newcastle, except the judge probably lives there. Newcastle celebrated with all-night fireworks because it dodged that pile of warts.

See, the thing is, Coal Creek runs between Bellevue and Newcastle. It could have gone either way. For one thing part of the seepage probably comes from the fact that a construction landfill and golf course sit above many of the old coal mines. And they’re in Newcastle.

A few years have gone by. Here we are living in Martin Luther King County and Bellevue has been aging gracefully and learning to live with its new park. They just can’t figure out how to get light rail into downtown.

This week Bellevue announced that it is nearing completion of the Coal Creek cleanup project. The purpose of the project is to “reduce erosion and sedimentation, reduce flooding, improve water quality, and enhance fish habitat.” Pretty much my creed.

The last step to be done this summer is to build a sediment pond. Now I have to get in there and do some hikes to see what they did.

And in another park related convolution Bellevue has hired four separate contractors to study various aspects of the light rail route from I-90 into the south end of downtown. That means dealing with Bellefields.

Bellefields is a large natural area of wetlands that used to be under water until 100 or so years ago. When Lake Washington was lowered by the Ship Canal project this area of lake bottom emerged. Mercer Slough runs through it now. It collects runoff and drains into Lake Washington.

That area is also called the Mercer Slough Nature Park. The light rail project is called East Link. Everything has to have a name. Surrey Downs is the name of a neighborhood right south of the downtown business district in Bellevue. They have raised Mt. St. Helens over the idea of running light rail next to their neighborhood.

Plants in Spring

Surrey Downs residents have been practicing for many years. It’s a collection of nice single family homes and the city would love to bulldoze the whole place and allow big tax paying office buildings. So Surrey Downs folks have a lot of experience fighting City Hall so to speak.

In this battle they have the attention of everyone involved. Thus an alternative route was proposed that would run the light rail on the other side of the Bellefields Mercer Slough Nature Park area. This seemed like a decent way to avoid a Surrey Downs melt down. Well, guess what? The folks on the other side of Bellefields don’t want it either.

Small Classic Car Collection

Then somebody got the bright idea to run elevated diagonally across Bellefields to avoid both neighborhoods. But wait! It’s a wetland. You can’t do that. The Audubon Society had a cow. The result is there are three unacceptable alternatives to get light rail from I-90 into downtown Bellevue.

So Bellevue hired four consultants to figure out the best way. Why not five? That way you could have a tie breaker. Oh, why not one? Me. For a few hundred thousand I would be more than happy to solve the whole thing. These guys need some innovative thinking for once. I like cable stay bridges.

Just remember when all the dust settles and Mercer Slough Nature Park is in its pristine Coal Creek Park like natural state and a world class cable stay bridge is carrying commuter trains high above Surrey Downs into Bellevue THAT WAS MY IDEA.

The Wet Season in Coal Creek Park

Al

Newcastle Finally Getting a Library

The Newcastle News reported that the developer that was going to build condos along side the new Newcastle Branch Library is no longer on the project. The agreement was that they had to find financing by June and it won’t happen. That means a library all by itself. Kind of like the old plan years ago before all the “what if we add a… waterpark?” diversions that delayed everything.


The KCLS person made a “management doublespeak” remark about the area that won’t be used for condos. Something like “realize that asset” meaning more parking for library patrons. But since the current approved site plan doesn’t designate that area as anything he can’t say “more parking” he has to make it sound as if some huge management effort has to happen, thus assuring another day on the job.

Wow, did I reveal my disdain for obtuse management verbalizations? I hope so.

The plan is to have it done by fall of 2011.  Another fun construction project that will disrupt traffic in the main intersection in Newcastle.

The new library will have seven times the amount of space of items put on hold. That means you can log on to the library from home and put a book on hold. When it arrives they send an email and you go pick it up. They also keep track of the books you checked out so you don’t keep getting the same ones over and over. It also keeps the library from overcrowding.

They will have 20 fixed computer stations and cyber bars where you can connect your own computer. How cool is that?

They’ll have a 10,000 gallon water retention tank but I have no idea why. Maybe it’s to flood the tunnel to the rapid transit station in case of overwhelming numbers of commuters. They need to explain that tank.

Outside there will be parking for 44 cars. This doesn’t count paving over the realized asset at some future point. And just because the car wash was removed from the so called “multiuse” plan there will be a rain garden along one side. Maybe this is what the 10,000 gallon water tank is for. On sunny days (we get 3 per year) they will simulate rain out there.

This is one more step in the grand plan. King County Library System is already huge. Oddly people still read books in large numbers. The Kindle and iPad (OK Sony has one as well plus some others too) have not eliminated the old time physical book. The Seattle Public Library is on the list for hostile takeover.

I think at some future point KCLS will mount a charge and storm the gates of the Seattle libraries. Then a meeting between their doubletalking managers will take place at a plush Hawaiian resort for a couple of weeks. Once that’s over and some incomprehensible agreement is announced the real workers will take over and arrange a merger. Should be easy.

Then KCLS will begin to eye neighboring counties. They’ll take over the Pierce and Snohomish County Libraries. KCLS will have about the same territory as Sound Transit. They won’t stop there. At some point in the future, possibly before the new SR 520 Bridge is built, KCLS will control all the libraries in Washington state. They’ll change the name to “THE LIBRARY” and if you want a book you have to have an enhanced rfid Washington State Driver’s License. You heard it here first.

Al

Those new Signs Have to Go

New Lake Boren Park Sign all Green

The Newcastle City Council voted to go back to the old sign motif. Motif is a high dollar word meaning design scheme. Use one word in place of two saves gas. Explaining it wastes electricity. Being confused proves it’s really me writing this.


The new signs, which came from an investment of $191,000, kind of annoyed a lot of people. Basically the lime green background and white letters did not have the kind of contrast one looks to read at 40 mph.

The huge sign at the south entrance to Newcastle was removed by a disgruntled mob, I think. It was right there where Coal Creek Parkway turns into Duvall Avenue and Newcastle turns into Renton. One council member said it was “tacky-looking.” He should know, I remember his campaign sings.

Old Lake Boren Park Sign

The council moved on to more details including deciding which of the new signs to replace with the old motif immediately and which ones to leave until they evaporate on their own. The shipment of new signs that have not yet been installed sat in the back of City Hall. Those were declared “surplus” so I suppose if you want one you can find it on eBay. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll Google (Topeka) “surplus Newcastle signs” and see what happens.

New Logo

They also voted to return to the original logo that was designed way back in 1994 by an actual Newcastle resident. The new artsy logo was done by a high priced consultant. Reverting also requires a revision back to the old motif (that word again) on business cards and letterheads. Apparently it’s also cheaper but I don’t know why.

The lesson here is that we don’t want to get carried away with the “green” movement. The new signs in lime (they call it chartreuse for some reason) green background with invading leaf images was supposed to show how Newcastle was embracing the earth friendly movement. These signs have cost $191,000 and are hard to read. In addition they are made of sheet metal which has some sharp corners and can probably be badly bent in a wind storm. The whole thing was environmentally un-friendly due to several factors. So hooray for Newcastle having the nerve to cut its losses and return to readable signs reasonable costs.

Old Logo

Now if I could only find out where those signs are being sold. Probably melting them down to make new busses.

Al's iPod

Al