Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: James King
Taken: January 25, 2014
Caption: Kiosk - A Mine Waste Impound Project
Additional Description: (Today it would be known as an environmental mitigation project)

Behind you is a beautiful panorama of the Kennedy Mine and its unique elevator (or sand or tailings) wheels system that was in operation from 1914 until 1942.

A 20-inch rain in January, 1911, sent cascades of mine waste from the Kennedy, Argonaut and other Dry Creek watershed mines into the creeks and principally onto farming and ranching lands in Amador and Sacramento counties. A filed injunction by, and negotiations with, the affected, associated agricultural interests forced the Kennedy and others to impound their waste rock or close down. Hence, by a December 1, 1914 deadline, the mine had to find an impoundment basin, build a large dam to contain it, and somehow get the waste there. To do so Kennedy engineers conceived a system of flumes and four giant wheels to carry and lift the liquid waste or slime over intervening hills to the basin. The system began operations in March, 1914, and the dam was nearly finished by the deadline. A team of carpenters led by William Daugherty began work on the wheels in March, 1913, assembled them on mine grounds, then disassembled them to dray to and erect at the four sites, wheel four to wheel one. The idea for the elevator wheels probably came from James Spiers, a Kennedy engineer, who toured various western mines and saw a similar wheel in operation. The Kennedy Wheels, protected by corrugated metal sheds 50 feet tall, operated almost continuously from March, 1914 until the mine's closure in November, 1942, during World War II. Soon after, when the price of scrap metal soared, the sheds' metal was stripped off and sold. Exposed to the elements and the wondrous eye were these gigantic wheels, probably the most photographed mining relics in the Mother Lode since their exposure.
Submitted: February 2, 2014, by James King of San Miguel, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p265701
File Size: 4.634 Megabytes

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