Gold changed an entire way of life in California during the Gold Rush. In 1860 Andrew Kennedy and three partners filed 4 mining claims of about 600 feet long. Two shafts were started near what is now Highway 49. The shafts were started, which eventually became the North and South Shafts. The East Shaft, a vertical shaft, 135 foot steel headframe, was built replacing the original wooden headframe which burned down in 1928. Two large wheels fed cables to the skips which lowered and raised miners, ore, mules and water. The headframe had two triangular hoppers where the skips dumped their loads. The bottom hopper was used to store the waste rock until it could be removed and dumped out of the way. The upper hopper was used to receive the gold bearing quartz rock. The smaller rock would fall through a "grizzly" into the ore bin. The larger rock would go into a jaw crusher housed in the room at the second level of the headframe. When it crushed to the proper size, it would fall into the ore bin to be stored until it could be transported to the 100 Stamp mill by mule and ore car. The Kennedy Mine was famous for being the deepest gold mine at 5912 feet, in North America until it was closed in 1942 by the U.S. Govt.
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