P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r and again the river receives part of that which was taken from her bed. Power is brought from a high tension line on a cable enclosed in rubber, and is carried under the water until it emerges to come into four transformers on the dredge, where it is transformed down to 4.400 volts. This power feeds nine motors, one of 200 horsepower capacity and the others ranging from 15 to 35 horsepower. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz A huge winch raises and lowers the bucket line and swings the dredge around to the position the operator desires. All movements of the dredge are controlled by winches, and the winch room, or control room, with all the levers looks at first glance like an overgrown asparagus patch. There are mammoth gears measuring 45 feet in circumference, a bucket line and ladder weighing more than 100 tons each, upper and lower tumblers, and enormous revolving screen, dump chutes, conveyor, the various winches, four transformers, nine motors, the big spud made by riveting gigantic steel beams together, main gearing, bucket idler, gold tables and the big boat with a nine-foot hull. The boat measures 250 feet in length by 50 feet in width and about 40 feet above the nine-foot hull. Seven feet of the bull is under water. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz So it is, that the restful little town of Pioneer, Montana, holding sacredly and religiously to her pioneer spirit, is still pioneering, but in a big way in her search for gold and the Old West still lives. With the protection of the great hills of rock piled in her front yard, no other town can be built upon Pioneer and steal the glory of the Old West. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz And in another three-quarters of a century when the pioneers of today have written their names upon the walls of the old rock buildings and have gone to mingle with their ancestors, the little town of Pioneer will not have been robbed of the glory, and the Old West shall still live. -Montana Oil and Mining Journal, Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
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