Today we are going to be checking out a gold mine in a neighboring county, Amador. The Kennedy Gold Mine is a mine in Jackson, California, one of the deepest mines on the Mother Lode. It closed in 1942 and together with the nearby Argonaut Mine, is registered as a California Historical Landmark. It has since been re-opened as a tourist attraction. The mine is named for Andrew Kennedy, an Irish immigrant, who reportedly discovered a quartz outcropping in the late 1850s near what is now State Highway 49. The Kennedy Mining Company was formed in 1860 when he and three partners began digging shafts near todays mine property entrance. The mine operated sporadically until it closed in 1878. In 1886 fifteen people invested $97,600 to reopen the mine under the corporate entity of the Kennedy Mining and Milling Company. In 1898 the company began sinking a new shaft 1,950 feet east of the original shafts. This East Shaft would eventually reach a vertical depth of 5,912 feet, the deepest vertical depth gold mine in North America at the time. The company operated the mine until 1942 when the U.S. Government closed gold mines because of the war effort, not because the lack of gold. On August 27, 1922, when forty-seven miners were trapped by fire in the nearby Argonaut Mine 4,650 feet below ground, rescue efforts were launched from the Kennedy Mine to connect the tunnels of the two mines. Unfortunately progress was slow and rescuers arrived too late to save the miners in the Argonaut. At the time of its closing, the mine had produced some $34.3 million when gold was valued at $20.67 per ounce. Can you imagine at todays value per ounce how rich this mine would be? 1. Old photo of the Kennedy. 2. The next shift ready to descend the shaft. 3-6. The Kennedy Mine today.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:11:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015