Kennett, California Photograph Album, circa 1910

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Summary

Abstract:
Photograph album featuring images of the Mammoth Smelter and related scenes of the Mammoth Mining Company from Kennett, California at the dawn of the 20th century.
Extent:
1 volume
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kennett, California Photograph Album, MC321, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

Photographs featuring the Mammoth Smelter and related scenes of the Mammoth Mining Company from Kennett, California at the dawn of the 20th century. The scenes depicted here include the Mammoth Company hospital, "Dumping slag" at the Mammoth smelter, the slag pot and engine, the converters inside the smelter complex, the company's power house, the tramway and substation, the track system around the company's property, the top and bottom of "Gravity Road," the employees' cottages and bunk houses set into the hills above the smelter, cranes and trains working around the smelter, including the "Bullion Train" and ore trains transporting raw materials extracted from the mine. There are also scenes showing men on the change floor of the smelter, on the furnace floor, a yard crew standing around a train car, a shot of about fifty men at the Mammoth Mine entrance, and a group photograph of fifteen machinists. There are also a couple of elevated views of Kennett itself, showing the breadth of the town. The last four photographs differ from the majority of the images here, and emanate from the Willotta Ranch in Suisun Valley, California. All four photographs depict a man on a motorized "spray outfit" in the process of fumigating an orchard. A previous owner's signature on front cover of the album reads, "George E. Laug Shasta, CA," who was possibly an officer of the mining company depicted in the photographs.

[Description provided by William Reese Co.]

Biographical / historical:

Kennett, California was once an important copper mining town near Redding and Shasta in the northern part of the state. It was originally founded as a railroad depot along the California & Oregon Railroad, a subsidiary of the Central Pacific, and the town grew rapidly over the next thirty years, especially after electricity came in 1905 and the Mammoth Copper Company built a copper smelter in 1907. World War I brought Kennett to new heights after a rise in metal prices brought on by the demand for war materials. Success was ultimately short-lived, however, as the town fell on hard times after the war; Kennett was doomed after the Mammoth Mining Company closed in 1923. The Shasta Dam project began in 1935, and by 1944, the town of Kennett was no more.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from William Reese Co., 2021.
Processing information:

Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information supplied by William Reese Co.

Physical location:
Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Physical facet:
Thirty original photographic prints, including twenty-six silver gelatin prints measuring 6 x 8 inches, and four sepia-toned prints measuring approximately 4.5 x 6.75 inches. Contemporary plain cardstock wrappers, oval opening cut into front wrapper, with photograph mounted on verso.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Kennett, California Photograph Album, MC321, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
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