The Western Waters Digital Library item that we are featuring this week is a photo of a dragline backfilling spillbox, taken in the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in the spring of 1931. This item comes to Western Waters from Utah State University’s Bear River Watershed collection. From the photo’s description, “George E. Mushback and Mr. Diffenbach inspect backfilling of spillbox being done by dragline, an excavating machine that fills in areas by dragging dirt towards itself.”

See more items from WWDL about the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

Read reports and technical papers about the Bear River Basin

View more photos documenting dragline excavation.