Across a small valley from the Kennedy Mine stand the headframe and stone ruins of the Argonaut Mine, Jackson's other great gold operation. Like the Kennedy, the Argonaut closed permanently in 1942 and was never reopened. The site is not formally a tourist attraction — the surface buildings are gated and the shafts long sealed — but the headframe is visible from Highway 49 and a memorial to the 47 miners killed in the 1922 fire stands on a small turnout above the road.
Argonaut Mine
A story
On 27 August 1922, a fire broke out in the Argonaut shaft and trapped 47 miners deep underground. Rescue crews dug a parallel shaft from the neighbouring Kennedy Mine, but it took 22 days to break through. All the men were already dead. It remains the deadliest gold-mining disaster in California history.