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The cabins, dredge and mining claims were. The cabin along with several others, is located in a small village at the south end of the Yankee Fork Dredge grounds. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is one of the best preserved and presented dredges in the lower 48 states. Contact Us This rough cabin was built in 1937 to house miners and operators of the Yankee Fork dredge, a mining operation that began in 1940 along the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River. The nearest town, Stanley, is 22 miles from the dredge. The Yankee Fork is close to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness area. Later in 1953 Morrison ask them to remove the dredge, or pay rent as the dredge still sat on their claim, and so Simplot's men started it up and dug themselves to the current position where it has sat ever since. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is located in the central mountains of Idaho on the Yankee Fork tributary of the Salmon River. Gear up for adventure as hiking, mountain biking, ATVing, and wildlife viewing are all available here. In 1952 Simplot ran out of original claim so leased a small section from the Morrisons when they completed that section they shut the dredge off and walked away. Land of the Yankee Fork State Park has several historical sites to explore including the ghost towns of Custer, Bayhorse and Bonanza and the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge. Simplot and a partner in mining, Fred Baumhoff, bought the dredge for $75,000 and started it up again in April of 1950. The dredge ran from 1940 to 1952 stopping once from October 1942 until 1946 for WWII and then again in 1947 when Snake River Mining Co (Silas Mason) decided they were not making enough money and put it up for sale. The pontoons and superstructure were built in Boise and trucked over Galena summit to this location. All the material came from Milwaukee by railway to the town of Mackay then loaded on trucks and made the difficult journey to construction site. They then contracted with Bucyrus Erie to build the dredge. It was estimated that there was 11 million dollars of gold to be had in the 5 1/2 mile claim. After doing some surveying they picked Yankee Fork Valley as a place to do some dredging for gold. In 1939 the Silas Mason company out of New York was looking for a place to invest some money to help out the economy. The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge is located in the central mountains of Idaho on the Yankee Fork tributary of the Salmon River in Central Idaho. Rockhounding 360: Yankee Fork Gold Dredge Bonanza Idaho