A selfie in front of the nation’s largest gold dredger. It is huge!

Remember when I said we would head west from Clyde Holliday yesterday? Forget that idea. We chose to head east this morning. BTW: Normal posts will resume Thursday.

Below is the updated map:

We didn’t get going too quickly this morning, as I was still smarting from the beating at cards my wife gave me last night. For us, a round of rummy ends at 500 points. She’s won 8 of 10 rounds this trip! Her luck has to end at some point . . .

From Clyde Holliday, we drove west until we reached Prairie City. To my surprise, it is one of Ann’s favorite places on earth. It turns out her great uncle once owned a huge chunk of land starting from one mountain, extending through the valley into the hills on the opposite side, making him at one time the largest landowner in Oregon. She shared fond memories of exploring the area.

Prairie City sits next to the large valley shown in this photo.

This schooner like photo op sits a few miles east of Prairie City. The overlook had all kinds of outstanding views of the mountains and valleys.

After Prairie City, we took scenic and lonely Highway 7 through the mountains toward Baker City. We were enjoying the beautiful drive when I spotted an Oregon Parks sign for the city of Sumpter. Curious, we turned and headed toward the former mining city.

Not much happening in the small town of Sumpter.

Once in Sumpter, we stumbled upon the largest gold dredger in the United States (now retired) at Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area. Trolling the nearby river for several decades, the dredger unearthed more than $4 million in gold. It was retired and neglected for several decades. In 1993, restoration began on it. Now it’s a state tourist attraction. You can walk on and inside it. We had it all to ourselves and it was cool and spooky at the same time. Only later did we learn there has been some paranormal activity that was captured by the crew of the Ghost Mine series (never seen the show). A nearby visitors center was small, yet had several neat mining displays and a wide range of mining related books, one of which I bought.

After our tour of the dredge, we decided to head for Catherine Creek State Park, but we could see that gathering storm clouds were going to make our stay there wet. So, we opted to head north to Immigrant Springs State Park, just off of I-84, to spend the night.

Immigrant Springs is a real nice campground, but it’s proximity to the interstate is not great. Fortunately, hanging out inside the camper isn’t too noisy.