Kennedy Mine Speakers Series Presents Timbers to Steel: Transition in the Mother Lode During the Second Industrial Revolution
With Jason Smith, Argos Timber Works, Jackson
August 21, 2025, 7 pm, Kennedy Mine Change House
Free admission, however, donations are gladly accepted. More info at KennedyGoldMine.com.
Focusing on remaining local structures as well as photographic evidence, Jason Smith will examine the integration of steel elements with heavy timbers and their eventual replacement with iron and steel in structural components in mining and other heavy structures during the second industrial revolution in Amador County.
Between the construction of Sutter’s Mill in Coloma in 1848 and the closure of major mining facilities during the Second World War in 1942, the world of heavy industrial construction was experiencing a period of unprecedented development. Boiling in the crucible of the second industrial revolution, men were blending generations of knowledge of wood working and construction with developing technologies in iron and steel manufacturing and machining to create amazing and expansive constructions. Here in Amador, we live among the remains of this period. This presentation will be a brief exploration of some of these remains with some discussion of why and how these changes worked to benefit the industries that utilized them.
We will be examining local historical structures and discussing the use of heavy timbers and steel components to create some of the incredible structures that remain today. Featured structures and facilities include Preston Castle, Kennedy Mine, Knight Foundry, hoist house at the Plymouth Consolidated Mine, Kennedy Tailing Wheels, and Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, with examples of structures of similar magnitude and importance worldwide.
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