Dredge No. 4 was declared a National Historic Site of Canada as symbolic of:

- the importance of dredging operations in the Yukon (1899-1966), and

- aspects of the evolution of gold mining in the Klondike from early labour-intensive to later corporate industrial phases of gold extraction.

Dredge No. 4 was constructed in 1912-13 by the Canadian Klondike Mining Co. to mine the gravels of the Klondike River Valley. It was dismantled when paying gravels ran out in 1940. All of its major mechanical components were refurbished by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation and encased in a new wooden hull and superstructure built on Bonanza Creek. From September 1941 to the fall of 1958 it mined Bonanza Creek. There, it sank on its present site in 1959. It has since been preserved as a National Historic Site.

The heritage value of Dredge No. 4 lies in its association with Klondike gold mining and in its illustration of the process of bucketline sluice dredging used by corporations to mine placer gold in the Klondike Gold Fields in the 1899-1966 period.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes November 1987, June 1997; Commemorative Integrity Statement, August 1999.

Character Defining Elements

Key elements which contribute to the heritage value of this site include:

- the completeness of the vessel including its hull, superstructure, gold processing facilities and ancillary equipment;

- the systems associated with the vessel’s structure and function as mining equipment;

- its functional design and disposition of space;

- its materials such as the wooden hull and metal equipment;

- those structural components developed specifically for use in northern dredging, including hardened bucket lips, heating systems (steam boilers and electric heaters) and double walls,

- its shore deadmen and related cable system,

- its setting in the field of dredging activity near Bonanza Creek,

- its viewplanes to gold field tailings and to Bonanza Creek,

- its linkage to other sites and landscape features related to corporate mining – the Bear Creek camp site, the power plant, other dredge sites, roads, power and telephone line systems.

Cultural History

Built in 1912 for the Canadian Klondike Mining Company, Dredge No. 4 was the largest wooden hulled bucket lined dredge in North America. Dredge No. 4 commenced operations in May of 1913, and dug its way upstream in the Klondike Valley into what was known as the "Boyle Concession," sinking there in 1924. In 1927, it was refloated and continued to operate from the Klondike Valley to Hunker Creek. The ground at the mouth of Hunker Creek was so rich the dredge produced as much as 800 ounces of gold in a single day on Claim 67 Below. It operated until 1940. The dredge was rebuilt on Bonanza Creek by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation and from 1941 to 1959 worked the Bonanza Creek valley. One of the two dozen dredges that worked this area, Dredge No. 4 rests on Claim No. 17 Below Discovery on Bonanza Creek near the spot where it ceased operations in 1960.

The dredge was electrically powered from the Company's hydro plant on the Klondike River 48 kilometres (29 miles) away, requiring 920 continuous horsepower during the digging operation. The dredge moved along on a pond of its own making, digging gold bearing gravel in front, recovering the gold through the revolving screen washing plant, then depositing the gravel out the stacker at the rear.. The operating season was on average about 200 days, starting in late April or early May and operating 24 hours a day until late November.

At the peak of corporate mining, a dozen dredges, churned through the creeks. Dredging continued in the Klondike until 1966, when the last of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Company's dredges shut down.

Source: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/yt/klondike/culture/lhn-nhs-drague4-dredge4

Documentation Location

National Historic Sites Directorate, Documentation Centre, 5th Floor, Room 89, 25 Eddy Street, Gatineau, Quebec