North Star Mine Powerhouse

Arthur De Wint Foote built this plant in 1895 to turn falling water into compressed air and run an entire mine on it, using a Pelton wheel thirty feet across. His wife Mary Hallock Foote, an illustrator and writer of some standing before she married a mining engineer, spent those years here writing about the West from inside it. Her letters were later worked into a novel that won a Pulitzer, largely without her name on them, and the borrowing is still argued about.

What the plaques say

[the state plaque] The North Star Powerhouse, built by A.D. Foote in 1895, was the first complete water powered compressed air transmission plant of its kind. Compressed air, generated by Pelton Water Wheels, furnished power for the entire mine operation. The 30 foot Pelton Wheel was the largest in the world, and was in continuous use for over 30 years. [the American Society of Mechanical Engineers plaque mounted on the marker base, 1991] The Pelton wheel uses the momentum of a water jet impinging on buckets attached to the periphery of a wheel to produce power. It is a development of the primitive, so-called "hurdy gurdy" wheel used in the California gold fields in the nineteenth century. Various inventors have contributed to this type of water turbine, including Lester A. Pelton (1831-1908), who in 1880 patented the characteristic split bucket form. Subsequent important contributions to Pelton-wheel technology were made by W. A. Doble. This collection illustrates the origins and development of the Pelton waterwheel.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Empire Mine State Historic Park — 1.2 mi
  The oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
• Nevada City — 4.6 mi
  Gaslamps, brick storefronts, and the Nisenan who are still fighting to be recognized on their own ground.
• Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park — 14 mi
  A canyon washed out of a mountain by water cannon, and the lawsuit that ended hydraulic mining.

More markers nearby

• Site of One of the First Discoveries of Quartz Gold in California — 0.3 mi
• Mount Saint Mary's Convent and Academy — 0.4 mi
• Home of Lola Montez — 0.6 mi
• Home of Lotta Crabtree — 0.6 mi