Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

Idaho


The biggest spud in Idaho is not a potato, but the 17.5-ton pylon that held the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge in place as it chewed its way upstream, digging for gold. Fourteen miles northeast of Stanley, the fully intact dredge is an impressive machine and makes for a great side trip into Idaho's nostalgically destructive mining past. Reach the dredge via a 10-mile gravel road along its tailings piles – a sterile legacy of riparian annihilation only now being restored to viable spawning grounds.

Nearby turn-of-the-century Custer Ghost Town has a number of historic buildings and a small museum about the area's long-forgotten boom days.