Dipper Dredge in the Cut near Delray Beach

Dipper dredge in a difficult “dry” cut near Delray Beach. The dipper dredge used an A-frame for stability. Long posts on the corners were driven into the bottom of what appears to be shallow water. The dipper scooped up the bottom consisting of soil and rock, depositing the spoil on either side and building up high banks. Attached to the A-frame the dipper could swing to either side. Dredges often ran 24 hours a day, lit by lamps burning acetylene gas (a combination of calcium carbide and water, but often an explosive one). Accounts indicate that dredge workers ate well, supplied with Chicago beef in Florida’s wild terrain. Native fare would have been wild turkey, fish, and vegetables). Settlers in what were the settlements of Delray and Boynton included farmers from Michigan led by promoters William Seelye Linton and Major Nathan Boynton. Courtesy, State Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, Fla. </