August 2007.............

Yankee Fork Historic Area: On a day trip from Stanley we went up H-75 to Sunbeam, then up a gravel road to a gold dredge, ghost towns and an old cemetery. The dredge is called Yankee Fork Gold Dredge, it's 13 miles E of Stanley and 8 miles North of the old Sunbeam Dam, which is right by the Sunbeam Hot Springs. The dredge is open June to Labor Day, Tuesday thru Friday 10 to 5. It is staffed by volunteers, and they do a good job of the tour. It is built on the Yankee Fork River, a tributary of the Salmon. The Dredge is 112 ft long, 54 ft wide, and 64 ft high, and weighs 988 tons. It was used from 1940 to 1952.

August 2007.............

Custer: A ghost town in the Yankee Fork area, it was constructed in 1879 and became a ghost town in 1911. In 1990 Custer was made the focal point for the Historic Area. It is on Forest Rd 070, a narrow dirt road for high profile vehicles. Close to Custer is the ghost town of Bonanza. It has only a few buildings that have fallen down. In the same area is the Bonanza Cemetery. It was fun to walk around and look at the old graves, some are marked, and some not. There are many more things to see in the Yankee Fork Area, it would be fun to come back and explore.

August 2007.............

Sawtooth Fish Hatchery: It is operated by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and plays a key role in the future of Idaho's spring Chinook salmon and steelhead. It was constructed in 1984 and is built to withstand severe winters. The hatchery deals with the unique "span, rear and release" fish culture - producing three million Chinook salmon annually. At the same time, Sawtooth collects some four million steelhead eggs for later transport to other hatcheries. Because of the locks and dams on the lower 150 miles of the Snake River the fish have a hard time during migration. This facility monitors fish raised at the facility as well as wild salmon, they are all tagged and counted. We watched them harvest eggs and sperm, count fish, and saw the tanks of fish not yet released. It was a very interesting tour, I think the guys liked it better than the women, it was a bit graphic for us. They wanted to stay much longer than we did, and they came back the next day to see more. The facility we visited is close to Stanley.

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