Argonaut Mine facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Argonaut Mine |
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Argonaut Mine and Mill, c. 1920
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| Location | State Route 49, Jackson, California |
| Reference no. | 786 |
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The Argonaut Mine was a very important gold mine located in Jackson, California, United States. It was discovered way back in 1850. This mine is famous for a sad reason: it was the site of the worst gold-mining disaster in California's history.
The mine stopped operating in 1942. Today, it is recognized as a California Historical Landmark #786, along with the nearby Kennedy Mine.
Two miners, James Hager and William Tudor, first found the gold here. The mine really started to grow in 1893. That's when the Argonaut Mining Company bought it. The mine worked until 1942. It reached a depth of about 1,700 meters (5,570 feet) underground. Over its lifetime, it produced more than $25 million worth of gold!
A Tragic Fire Underground
On August 27, 1922, a terrible fire broke out deep inside the mine. Forty-seven miners were trapped about 1,400 meters (4,650 feet) below the surface. Most of these miners were immigrants from countries like Italy, Spain, and Serbia.
Other miners who were closer to the surface tried to help. They poured water down the mine shaft to put out the fire. By morning, many people from the town and other miners arrived to offer help. It took two and a half days to finally put out the flames.
Rescuers then started to reopen tunnels from the nearby Kennedy Mine. These tunnels had been closed since another fire in 1919. The rescue work was very slow. People still had hope that the miners could be saved.
But on September 18, the hope faded. Workers with oxygen tanks sent a canary past a wall (called a bulkhead). The canary died, showing that deadly gas was still present. It took three more weeks to reach the area where the miners were trapped. Sadly, none of them had survived. Evidence showed they likely died within hours of the fire starting.
One miner's body was not found until a year later. It's thought that water poured down the shaft carried his body deeper into the mine. For a while, newspapers even guessed he might have escaped to start a new life.
Later, it was found that the mine had broken safety rules. However, the mine owners were not punished. This was because the United States Bureau of Mines did not have much power to enforce rules back then. The exact cause of the fire was never known. It was simply called "incendiarism," which means it could have been arson or faulty wiring.
Cleaning Up the Mine Site
In 2016, a newspaper reported that the Argonaut Mine might become an EPA Superfund Site. A Superfund site is a place with dangerous pollution that needs a big cleanup.
The mine left behind a lot of waste from processing gold ore. This waste, called tailings, contains harmful substances like arsenic, lead, and mercury. There's about 1 million cubic yards of this tainted material in the city of Jackson.
Some houses and even part of the Jackson high school were built on these waste piles. Also, other mine waste is held back by a dam called the Eastwood Multiple Arch Dam. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) says this dam is at risk of breaking.
There are no mining companies left to pay for the cleanup. If the mine becomes a Superfund site, it can get money from the government to clean up the pollution. This helps protect the environment and people's health.
