A giant floating gold dredge in California in the early 1920s

An early 1920s "monster" gold dredge in California.

This is an early 1920s photograph of a large floating gold dredge in California (unfortonately I have no information about where in California). Monstrous machines like this one scooped up millions of tons of gravels - and a lot of gold - in the early 20th century. Several of these giants still exist in state-sponsored heritage areas.

Today technological advances have again made dredging popular. Small dredges allow a single person to access and process gravel banks that were inaccessible to the giant dredges of the early 1900s.