A System of Levers and Winches - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Eastern most history sign on pier at Sumpter Valley Dredge

Marker Name: A System of Levers and Winches
Marker Text: The lever room was both the brain and nerve center of the mechanical beast. The winchman controlled everything with the pull or push of a lever attached to a winch just below deck. Raising and lowering the digging ladder, operating the screens and sluices and controlling the stacker - all this equipment was connected to the winches with stout steel cable.
The winchman also controlled the forward and sideways movement of the dredge. Cable ran from both sides of the dredge, front and rear, to a pulley system anchored on shore. The winchman would move the dredge slowly forward, clearing a path in front more than 12 feet deep and 100 feet wide. Another lever operated the anchor-like “spud,” located at the tail of the dredge. When lowered, the dredge would pivot from side to side around the spud, but couldn’t move foreward until the spud was raised. Each successive move took the dredge ahead about 10 feet.
Two others joined the winchman as dredge crew - a head oiler and a stern oiler. As the names suggest, they oiled the dredge’s moving parts - and that’s all they did. The dredge was run around the clock - three-eight hour shifts. The crews got two days off a year - Christmas and July 4th.

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