Tuesday, August 10, 2010

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Redmond

So that is where we will end up today, but first, here is a close up of the buckets on that big boy old dredge we saw over in Sumpter.  Imagine all the rocks these buckets drug up!  These would then be run through the sieves in the sluice boxes, sorting, dropping, falling…and the gold would wind up eventually at the bottom box…and make the guys mighty happy, I am sure.

dredge buckets

And then all these ‘tailings’ were dumped in huge piles everywhere along the creek beds, with no environmentalists around to insist they be spread around, so there are mounds everywhere, with trees and brush growing haphazardly out of them.  That’s just the way it was done, way back then.

ore cars used in mines

These are ore cars used in undergound gold mining.  Those were hard times, people!

We wound up in the small town of John Day, staying in a very nice city cg that had FHU (full hook up).  Of course we set up and then set OUT for a loop drive around the area.  You knew we would.  We saw a lone deer, then later on, 3 buffalo by a fence.  I wonder if they were gossiping?

This area is also experiencing the revenge of the pine beetle, with lots of dead pines in several places that we passed, but that is also the cycle of nature.

Brian, that  train photo was actually 3 photos ‘stitched’ together to make the wide-angle view.  This was done using Windows Live Photo Gallery, a free program that also stores our photos up there in that internet cloud in the sky.  Speaking of, I need to upload some more Oregon photos.

Go out and have some fun, y’all!

9 comments:

ivana said...

Buongiorno carissimi!

Very interesting...a nation grows with hard work!!!
Thank you..and I wait for more photos of your adventures in Oregon...and in other places!!!!


Big hugs!!!!

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

my mind went straight to "what those buffalo were talking about"! i am coming up with a tale about spotting two southerners and hoping they drop some bucks (pun intended) in their town. one of them even said "look at her ass, she must work out!" and the middle one said "yeah but then you always look at the asses". the last one said "sigh".

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sandee said...

I love to visit old mining towns. There's a bunch in the eastern sierras. Just love to wander around and look at the history back in the 1800s to early 1900s.

Have a terrific day honey. Big hugs. :)

Linda said...

It seems to me that people were pretty ingenious back in those days to figure out a method like that to get the gold out. Sure beats being hunched over a creek bed with a single pan, doesn't it?

Laughing at Bee's comment about the gossiping buffalo!

Anonymous said...

The good old days weren't that great. No air conditioning! Ack!

Miss Bee's a hoot! bwahahahaha!

Thanks for having such a good time for me! Big hugs :)

Elenka said...

Hi there....I just looked at your zip line posts. That has always intrigued me, but I'm, ahem, a little over 50, ahem and am afraid of getting broken.
Would I break?

Elenka said...

Yeah, I'm over 60, too, truth be told. (JUST over 60)
sigh....Don't know how that happened.
Anway, thanks. There are some zip lines in New Hampshire I've got my eye on. Thanks.

Elenka said...

Hi. Here's a link to a Canopy tour (zip lines) in New Hampshire. There are others, just Google it probably.

http://adventuretravel.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=adventuretravel&cdn=travel&tm=77&f=20&tt=13&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.alpinesnowmobiling.com/Zipline%2520New%2520Hampshire.html

Sorry for the lengthy http...I don't know any other way to do it.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I know Dick enjoyed looking at that dredge... keep the photos coming. We're traveling with ya!