Sumpter Museum And Public Library

The Sumpter Museum is just half a block down from the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area and complements the park with displays of mining in the Sumpter Valley Area. While a relatively small building, the museum is full of donated mining artifacts, mineral specimens, and archival documents. Displays cover hydraulic mining, load mining, and, of course, dredging. A hard rock mining diorama includes an ore cart and assorted mining equipment. A collection of large copies include blueprints of a dredge, granting and architect’s eye view of these massive mining machines.

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Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area

The Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area is nestled in the scenic Elkhorn Mountain Range. Along with its natural beauty, however, this area is a hub for Oregon mining history. The park is dedicated to educating visitors on gold mining history in the Blue Mountains and preserves one of the largest, most accessible dredges in all of the United States. It is a striking reminder of human ingenuity and large scale mining in the early 1900s.

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