A
132-year old industrial relic, the Knight
Foundry, lies in rural Amador County, in the
town of Sutter Creek. During
the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the
Knight Foundry transformed iron into pickaxes,
streetlight poles, and an assortment of gears that
powered mines up and down the Mother Lode. The
Knight Foundry Foundation has kept the foundry
intact and expects it to run again, thanks in part
to support from the California Cultural and
Historical Endowment.
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Knight
Foundry back wall showing damage
and missing section on right side.
[Photo courtesy Knight Foundry Foundation]
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Samuel
Newman Knight built the foundry in 1872 to improve
on foundries that used steam power and burned as
much as 100 cords of wood per day. Powered by
water pressure, Knight’s enterprise, which
included 60 machines connected to a water wheel,
was a 19th century engineering marvel.
Like
many of America’s industrial heirlooms, the
Knight Foundry teetered toward demolition during
the 20th century. Today, what remains of the
country’s last water powered ironworks is a
brass and bronze shop, a blacksmith shop, a coke
storage building, a rolled pipe-making building, a
pattern loft, a buggy shed, a horse barn, a rivet
shop, a wood shed and water operated saw, and
machine shop, an arrangement of buildings with
cracked windows, rusted roofs, and other problems.
Saving
a 19th century heirloom
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Knight
Foundry Pipe Shop and Pattern Loft
[Photo courtesy Knight Foundry Foundation]
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An
endangered site with the National Trust for
Historic Preservation since 1996, the Knight
Foundry is also an official project of the Save
America’s Treasures Program. Most recently, in
August of 2007, the California Cultural and
Historical Endowment (CCHE) entered into a $50,000
contract with the Knight Foundry Foundation to
investigate and identify on-site toxics. This
current environmental study is intended to result
in a remediation plan approved by the California
Department of Toxics Substances Control. Once
toxics are identified and removed, the Knight
Foundry Foundation will enter into an agreement
with the City of Sutter Creek to purchase and
re-open the forge. The City of Sutter Creek is
also seeking the support of CCHE to help purchase
the foundry.
Enduring
craftsmanship
Before
his death, Samuel Knight, by willing his foundry
to his employees, began a practice of blue-collar
inheritance that has lasted for generations.
Reopening the Knight Foundry will be a challenge
left for volunteers, including Knight Foundry
Corporation Project Director Andy Fahrenwald who
leads the preservation charge, and Knight Foundry
Facility Manager Russ Johnson, an ironmaster who
learned his craft from workers who had manned the
foundry for half a century.
Samuel
Knight (with cane) and his skilled workers, ca.
1885.
[Photo courtesy Amador County Archive]
The
last pour for the Knight Foundry occurred in 1996
when the foundry had a contract with the City of
San Leandro to forge vintage street lamp posts.
Since that time, the foundry has sat silent. But
preservation leaders, like Russ Johnson, with the
support of the CCHE, are devoted to making it hum
in California’s Gold Country once again.
For
more information about the Knight Foundry,
please write to Knight Foundry Corporation Project
Director Andy Fahrenwald at P.O. Box 1776, Sutter
Creek, California 95685.
