Plymouth area History In the 1850's, Andrew Kennedy discovered gold soon after the inital gold discovery in Coloma. The Kennedy Mine turned out to be one of the richest in the Mother Lode. With its extremely deep mine shafts, a depth of over 5,900 feet. For more information visit; Kennedy Mine.

Mining continued until 1942, when Presidential edict closed mines on behalf of the war effort. However, in recent years, some mining activity has been resumed between the towns of Amador City and Sutter Creek.

Amador County is the only county in the state named after a native Californian, Jose Maria Amador, a wealthy rancher, whose great ranch covered much of what is now Amador Valley. He and his employees mined along a creek in this county in 1848. That creek became known as Amadore's Creek, and soon after, camps called Amadore Crossing and South Amadore or Amadore City were founded.

Miners in the latter camp in 1852 first petitioned that a proposed new county be called "Amador" In 1854, when legislation dividing Calaveras was debated, a motion to name the new county Amador was adopted.

One of the worst gold mining disasters in the state occured August 27, 1922. A fire broke out at the Argonaut Mine of Jackson, trapping 47 men about 4,000 feet below. As the blaze raged through massive timbers, the signal system, telephone and lights went dead and heat preventing communication and escape.

A massive and dramatic rescue effort consisted of driving a tunnel from the adjacent Kennedy Mine. Three weeks later, on Sept. 18, rescuers broke through to the Argonaut. In one tunnel they found a barricade of board, rubble and clothes the miners had built against fumes from the fire. Indications were that the miners had perished within hours after the fire was discovered.