The giant bucket line dredge worked here for many years. The dredge tailings are clearly evident as you travel the main road north of Sunbeam. The dredge mined a stretch just upstream of the confluence with the Salmon River, up past Bonanza, and up Jordan Creek several more miles. In the 1940s, a dredge was constructed to mine the gravels of the Yankee Fork River and Jordan Creek. Today, the Yankee Fork is perhaps best known for the dredging operations that took place here, long after the heyday of Bonanza and Custer. By the early 1910s, most of the gold miners had left the region. Gold mining continued in the region for several more decades, but eventually the richest deposits were depleted to a point that they were not profitable for most miners. These quartz veins were thought to be the source of the Jordan Creek placers, and the towns of Bonanza and Custer were soon booming with several thousand miners. It was a later discovery of quartz lode deposits containing gold that spurred new interest to the region. Miners continued work in this area for many years, but only modest returns for their efforts. This general area is near the town of Sunbeam east of Stanley, and along the Yankee Fork at the mining towns of Bonanza and Custer.Īs with any gold rush, there was good excitement in the early years, but it was soon determined that the placer gravels were not as rich as they had hoped.

The first discoveries of gold here took place in 1870, and by 1871 miners were panning the gravels in the area and finding gold.Ī few years later, placers started being mined on Jordan Creek.

A very significant gold occurrence can be found at the Yankee Fork placers east of the Stanley Basin.

Dredge ponds yankee fork road