Kennedy Mine, Jackson, Amador County

Although production records show that the Kennedy produced $300,000 up to a depth of 600 feet, by 750 feet the ore in the south shaft gave out. This in itself would have been bad enough, but as though to add insult to injury the ore reappeared just inside the Argonaut line. It was discouraging enough to cause the shutdown of the Kennedy mine.

During this period the mine had been worked by several companies, including Burgin, Fuller, Flemming and Company, The Richard Hickman Mining Company and others. Finally after a long period of inactivity it was purchased in 1885 by a new group organized by F. F. Thomas, a mineralogist, and the mine began its long career as the Kennedy Mining and Milling Company

Under this new ownership the South Shaft was sunk 200 feet deeper, where it once again encoun­tered profitable ore.

The following year a forty-stamp mill was erected which operated steadily through the 1900s processing approximately 36,000 tons of ore per year with the sulphrets mining up to $150 a ton and said to be the richest on the Lode.

During 1890 the Kennedy Mining and Milling Company paid three dividends amounting to $15,000.

By 1891 the North Shaft had been sunk to 1300 feet, but not without a great deal of difficulty caused by the volume of water encountered. This water continued to pour in at the rate of 75,000 gallons a day and was removed from the mine without the use of pumps, being bailed entirely by water skips each with a capacity of 550 gallons.

The hoisting works and mill machinery were run by water power at this time. In fact, seven Pelton water wheels were in use throughout the plant with the largest, a six-footer, operating the stamps and a four-foot wheel the concentrators.

This wooden headframe stood over the Kennedy vertical shaft from 1900 until 1926 when it was replaced by a steel structure 100 feet high.

As the Company did not operate its own ditch system, water was purchased from the Blue Lakes Water Company.

Two forty-horsepower steam engines remained on standby at the mouth of each shaft ready to take over in the event of an interruption in the water supply

Underground at the Kennedy Mine at the 1300 ft. level