Kennedy Tailing Wheels - Jackson, CA
Posted by: heringermr
N 38° 21.804 W 120° 46.525
10S E 694355 N 4248478
Also known as Kennedy Mine Tailing Wheels.
Waymark Code: WM5DCK
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 12/22/2008
Views: 16
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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