06/12/2020
June 12, 1897 The Dillon Tribune reported: “Saturday, June 12, 1897, the “A. F. Graeter,’ the third and the largest of the gold dredges now operating on Grasshopper Creek near Bannack, was christened with interesting ceremonies and was started on its mission of recovering gold from the rich alluvial deposits of the creek. The boat is operated by the Bannack Dredging Company of which H. J. Reiling is president.
Mr. Reiling gave a speech and after the cheering subsided, Mrs. L. C. Bonney, of Chicago, the wife of the treasurer of the company, was assisted to a place upon the huge buckets, and raising a bottle of champagne into the air and saying, ‘I christen this boat in the name of A. F. Graeter,’ broke the bottle and sprinkled the sparkling fluid upon the line of buckets that were destined to dig untold wealth from the creek bed.”
This dredge was considered state of the art at the time and operated into 1902. The Graeter worked the ground from Marysville up stream to Bannack then reworked the ground that the Graves had previously worked. The Graeter was considerably larger and could dig deeper than the Graves allowing it to reach gravels previously missed. This dredge burned eight cords of wood a day. The wood was hauled from West Mountain twelve miles away and during the dredging period many men were employed cutting wood for the boilers of this and the other wood-fired dredges. TL
