I had a good stop in Sumpter, Oregon, to check out the dredge on Sunday, What I hadn’t planned for is the excursion on the Sumpter Valley Railroad. According to SVR’s website, there are various trip types scheduled throughout the year. I’ll have to go back to Sumpter sometime soon, preferably before icy season.

Sumpter Valley Railroad is one of the few railroads in the U.S. that still operate on a 3-foot track gauge.

The Sumpter Valley Dredge is one impressive machine. It was a beast of a machine to speed up gold mining process than having to do it by hand. Three dredges were built on the Powder River in Sumpter, Oregon, a small mining town in the Blue Mountains southwest of Baker City.

Two dredges were built in 1912 and 1915. These dredges operated until they were dismantled in the 1920. The third dredge, and the one you see today, was built in 1935. It ran continuously until operating costs and public pressure from the community shut the dredge down in 1954.

Oregon Parks and Recreation bought the dredge, the trailings, and property in 1992-1993, and opened the dredge to the public in 1994. Restoration work on the dredge started the following year.

To me, the dredge was complex and practical machine for its simple purpose. Over time, however, we learn new information that helps decide the continuing success or the fate of a machine.

September 9, 2020, 7:05 p.m. I stand on the banks of the Willamette River at Milwaukie Bay and the mouth of Johnson Creek in Milwaukie, Oregon. The scene is the orange light from the sky and a dark silhouette of the landscape. It’s a Halloween-like theme of black and orange.

My location gives me the view of the Milwaukie Bay and the Willamette River, and Elk Rock Island in the distant.

I shoot a few more photos. Then I spot a little white light on Elk Rock Island. Maybe it was a flashlight or a lamp as the sun is going down.

I walk upstream to the boat launch area. The little white light on the island grows larger and larger. I shoot a photo of the light and it turns out to be a fire.

Sirens wail in the distant and a patrol boat races up to the island. Elk Rock Island is on fire.

Fire crews successfully extinguished the fire. The island sustained extensive vegetation damage.

That day, the entire Clackamas County was under a fire evacuation readiness level. Milwaukie is at a level 1, meaning “get ready.” Level 2 is “get set,” and level 3 is “go” or evacuate now.