Kennedy Mine

As we run up and down hwy 49 through Jackson, we have passed the Kennedy mine repeatedly. You may recall the post about the tailing wheels where the mine was forced to deal with the waste from the mine. Today we finally sorted out the schedule covid has forced on the mine and stopped by for a visit.

Above is the boiler that ran the cable hoist (among other things) for getting in and out of the mine.

With the steam power to drive it, hoist is driven from this large geared spools.

To change the direction of the pull, a large head frame is constructed. The original wooden one burned in a fire and was replaced by this metal structure. It was assembled with hot rivets...no welds or bolts.

The cable goes up to the top and over a large pulley then drops straight down into the vertical mine shaft. This simple elevator is the way all men go in and out and all ore is removed. This is the only entrance or exit.

This head frame is the largest existing one in California.

When the ore was brought above ground, the large pieces were crushed to reduce them to a more manageable size. This was done in devices such as the one below. The rotating wheels are connected to a cam in the center that is moved back and forth and hinges from the bottom. Even though the cam does not move far, as the stones are slowly crushed, they move lower in the device and the space gets narrower. Eventually, when the bits are small enough they fall out the bottom. 

This device was located under the head frame where the ore was first dumped out.

Then through a series of conveyors the reduced rock is transported away from the mine entrance to an enormous set of stamp mills to reduce the small rocks to sand. It is then chemically treated to extract the small fraction of the total that was gold.