Argonaut and Kennedy Mines

The plaque gets the dead wrong. It casts forty-eight miners trapped in a fire at the 3,500 foot level on 27 August 1922, and then, after a dash, that a few survived. Forty-seven went down and none came back. Rescuers reached them after twenty-two days and found the bulkheads the men had built against the gas. Most were immigrants. The rescue was driven through the workings of the Kennedy, the rival mine the same bronze names two sentences earlier for the deepest shaft in the country.

What the plaque says

ARGONAUT AND KENNEDY MINES ARGONAUT MINE, DISCOVERED 1850, AND KENNEDY MINE, DISCOVERED 1856, PLAYED DRAMATIC ROLES IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CALIFORNIA. THEY PRODUCED $105,268,760 IN GOLD. KENNEDY MINE HAS A VERTICAL SHAFT OF 5,912 FEET, THE DEEPEST IN THE UNITED STATES AND CHANGED MINING METHODS IN THE MOTHER LODE. ARGONAUT MINE WAS THE SCENE OF THE MOTHER LODE'S MOST TRAGIC MINE DISASTER. FORTY-EIGHT MINERS WERE TRAPPED IN A FIRE AT THE 3,500 FOOT LEVEL ON AUGUST 27, 1922--A FEW SURVIVED. BOTH MINES CLOSED IN 1942. CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 786 PLAQUE PLACED BY THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION IN COOPERATION WITH THE AMADOR COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, THE AMADOR COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND THE AMADOR COUNTY LANDMARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE, FEBRUARY 3, 1968.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 30 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Jackson Gate — 0.6 mi
• Site of Pioneer Jewish Synagogue — 1.2 mi
• Pioneer Hall — 1.3 mi
• Sutter Creek — 2.1 mi