Kennedy Tailing Wheels - Jackson, CA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

In 1912, the California State Legislature passed an act which compelled mining companies to impound their tailings which had been polluting streams and river or cease operations. The fifty-eight foot diameter Kennedy Tailing Wheels were necessary to accomplish the task of lifting some 850 tons every 24 hours over two hills to an impound dam.

The ore from the Kennedy Mine was crushed in their one hundred-stamp mill on the south slope of Humbug Hill. The residue (tailings) from the mill was finely ground rock particles. The tailings were then mixed with water in the slime plant and allowed to flow downhill by gravity in a one thousand-foot-long flume to the base of Wheel #1.

Wheel No. 1's 208 stationary redwood buckets lifted the material 58 feet and dropped it into a flume which delivered it to the base of wheel No. 2 where the process was repeated. Wheels No. 3 and No. 4 performed the same function to move the material to an impound dam.

Street address: Jackson Gate Road Jackson, CA USA County / Borough / Parish: Amador Year listed: 1981 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering; Architect, builder, or engineer: Spears, James Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: Industry/Processing/Extraction; Extractive Facility Current function: Landscape; Park Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Privately owned?: Not Listed Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/01/2011 CharlyBaltimore visited it