Biophilic Regeneration Series:
The Dredge
inspired by Breckenridge and Summit County’s mining history.
The performance happens near Reilling Dredge whose bones still lay nearby. Reilling Dredge operated in French Gulch from 1909 until 1920. It was one of nine dredges that operated on the Swan River, Blue River, and in French Gulch between 1898 and 1942. These dredges searched for gold by literally turning the river ways upside down, leaving massive rock tailings piles in their wake. The sculpture sits in the tailings pile and as an audience apraches on the path it suddenly begins to spit out rocks.
Helen Rich, a Breckenridge, author, described it this way: “The dredge squats on a brown-green pond, and wherever the dredge goes the pond goes, too. The water comes from a near-by mountain creek and it is clear when it flows into the pond, but not after that. A gold boat looks like a prehistoric monster. It has a deck the same as any other boat, but at the bow there are gawky neck-like timbers called gantries. They support the bucket ladder, and the bucket ladder holds the digging buckets… This machinery acts like a stomach. It takes gold for its food and spews out what is doesn’t want… All day long, all night long, the conveyor belt carries everything that isn’t gold up the stacker and lets it drop. Splat. Plop. As the monster lumbers forward it leaves behind tailings piles higher than a two-story house.”
