Argonaut Mine, Jackson, Amador County

In 1907 The Kennedy Mining Company sued the Argonaut Mining Company for trespassing (mining on Kennedy mine land). After 3 years of litigation and hearings, the Argonaunt Mining Company wins the case. Judge Fred V. Wood was the presiding Judge in this matter.

Excerpt from Amador Ledger 1910
The allegation of the complaint that Argonaut for three years last past has been extracting and mining ore from other than its own mine is denied. It is alleged that the mining operations of the plaintiff have not extended below the 800 foot level.
Finally the claim that 50,000 tons, or any number of tons, of the value of $200,000 or any other sum, have been taken from the plaintiff's property, Is absolutely denied.

On August 27, 1922, forty-seven miners, mostly immigrants from Italy, Spain, and Serbia, were trapped in a fire 4,650 feet (1,409 m) below ground. Other miners who had been near the surface poured water down the shaft in an attempt to put out the flames. By dawn, townspeople and other miners arrived to help, but it took two-and-a-half days for the fire to be extinguished.

Rescuers began re-opening tunnels from the Kennedy Mine which had been closed since an earlier fire in 1919.

It was slow going, but hopes remained high until September 18, when a canary inserted beyond a bulkhead by oxygen-tank-equipped workers died.

Still, it took three weeks to reach the level at which the miners were trapped. None survived, and evidence indicated that they had all died within hours of the fire's breaking out.

One of the bodies was not recovered until a year later. Most likely, water flushed down the shaft carried his body further into the mine, but in the intervening time, newspapers speculated he had fled the mine to start a new life.