Dredging the Pend Oreille for Steamboats

C. K. Beckman, of Seattle, who has the contract for dredging the river from this port as far down as the appropriation will allow, has arrived and is now busily engaged in fitting up one of the barges of the Navigation Co. for the reception of the dredging machinery. Mr. Beckman says that, with his centrifugal pump dredging outfit, he expects to be able to move 1,000 cubic yards of dirt and sand daily. The machinery is expected to arrive about Oct. 1, and the contractor says that he will start work not later than Oct. 15. He will begin just below Boundary Island. The contract calls for a channel 70 feet wide and six feet deep at ordinary low water. This will furnish a channel that will be greatly appreciated by the steamboat men operating on the river. At the present time the boats have to run very slowly on some stretches of the river, because of the great number of bars that are now in evidence. Mr. Beckman has been over the route to be improved, and says that he does not anticipate any serious difficulties in completing the job. The dredging outfit is one of Mr. Beckman's own inventions and has been operated successfully for several years. He has been engaged in this class of work for 14 years, and has dredged some of the worst streams in the Northwest. Among the larger contracts that he has handled was one on the Fraser River.