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– Time Travel Tuesday – January 2025, From the Amador Ledger Archives

– Time Travel Tuesday – January 2025, From the Amador Ledger Archives

by | Jan 28, 2025 | Time Travel

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

 

– The back story – 

The mineral reserves in Ione, CA are unique and vast, as well as an extremely important part of our everyday lives. The January 2025 Time Travel Tuesday excerpt comes from the November 13th, 1975 issue of the Amador Ledger newspaper when a pipes and ceramics company called Interpace Corp inhabited the Ione mineral reserve. The article describes the construction of environmental control systems at several Ione mineral locations.
The article first mentions that local Harley Kreth completed the excavation and recirculation ponds in preparation for construction of the environmental control systems. Harley Kreth was the founder of Kreth Inc., a local and family-owned Ione construction company, founded in 1946. According to their website, “Harley drove that dozer all over Amador County doing whatever work he could find, building up his business to the point where he could begin mining and selling clay in 1969.”

The purpose of the installed environmental control systems was to “eliminate the discharge of dust particles” and use a recirculating water pond to conserve water “so that the only water loss would be through evaporation.”

The front page of the November 13th, 1975 issue of the Amador Ledger newspaper, where the above excerpt was clipped from.

Time Travel Tuesday – November 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Time Travel Tuesday – November 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

by | Nov 20, 2024 | Time Travel

– Time Travel Tuesday –

November 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

 

 

 

– The back story – 

 

Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history where the precious commodity was discovered in abundance back in the gold rush era in the mid 1800’s. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to this area in hopes of striking rich. What also was discovered, were other high-value minerals, especially in the city of Ione. You guessed it, kaolin clay was one of those.
Purebase thought it would be interesting to tie in our mineral history from hundreds of years ago and show our audience just how long these deposits have been utilized by locals and beyond for hundreds of years. Once a month, we will show you first-hand newspaper excerpts from the Amador Ledger newspaper that has been in existence since 1855 and is still fully functioning today, now called the Ledger Dispatch.

 

 

The mineral reserves in Ione, CA are unique and vast, as well as an extremely important part of our everyday lives. November 2024 Time Travel Tuesday excerpt comes from the November 19, 1927 issue of the Ione Valley Echo from an article titled “Amador Clay Mines Are One of Ione’s Greatest Assets”.

The entirety of the article is quite interesting, and it is mentioned that “a great deal of interest centers in the clay mines of Amador County and the facts concerning them are considered so important that they have been carefully studied.” We agree to this day that the clay mines in this area are still one of Ione’s greatest assets!

 

There is a particular portion of the article that talks about a man of Ione, M.R. Bacon, who “has been for thirty-five years manager of the N. Clark and Sons interest in Ione clay mines.” It goes on to say that there is a specialty clay called “chocolate clay” and that M.R. Bacon “owns the only mine of this clay in the county and is known as ‘Bacon’s Chocolate’, as it looks like marble cake used for tiling.” To this day, the pit that is just west of Ione adjacent to Mule Creek Prison is still referred to as the “Bacon Pit.”

 

Time Travel Tuesday – October 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Time Travel Tuesday – October 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

by | Oct 9, 2024 | Time Travel

– Time Travel Tuesday –

October 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

– The back story –

Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history where the precious commodity was discovered in abundance back in the gold rush era in the mid 1800’s. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to this area in hopes of striking rich. What also was discovered, were other high-value minerals, especially in the city of Ione. You guessed it, kaolin clay was one of those.

The October Time Travel Tuesday excerpt comes from a more recent edition of the Amador Ledger Dispatch, just 18 years ago in the October 4, 2006 issue. Instead of an article, this time, we found an advertisement of land for sale in the Ione area that mentions a “130 year old vested silica sand & Kaolin Clay mine located in Northern Ca near Gold Country.”

The advertisement mentions a cave on the property, which is actually a method of clay mining that was used called the “room and pillar method”. With this method, a tunnel entry is created into the hillside and the clay is mined by deepening and expanding the tunnel into areas that form “rooms.” Between the “rooms” pillars of the clay are left intact to support the roof of the mine. With this method, there is a limited need for timber support as found other types of underground mining operations.

You can see in the images below a historical photo found in the Amador Archives of local miners in Ione using this room and pillard method. The photo below is the same property of what the tunnels look like today!

 

Time Travel Tuesday – September 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Time Travel Tuesday – September 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

by | Sep 20, 2024 | Time Travel

– Time Travel Tuesday –

September 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

 

Ione Main Street circa 1890. From the Amador County archives.

 

– The back story – 

 

Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history where the precious commodity was discovered in abundance back in the gold rush era in the mid 1800’s. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to this area in hopes of striking rich. What also was discovered, were other high-value minerals, especially in the city of Ione. You guessed it, kaolin clay and silica sand were among those.
Purebase thought it would be interesting to tie in our mineral history from hundreds of years ago and show our audience just how long these deposits have been utilized by locals and beyond for hundreds of years. Once a month, we will show you first-hand newspaper excerpts from the Amador Ledger newspaper that has been in existence since 1855 and is still fully functioning today, now called the Ledger Dispatch.

 

 

This month’s Time Travel Tuesday excerpt comes from the September 3, 1915 issue of the Amador Ledger. The clipping title mentions there are “Big plans for Ione Development Company”, a property full of kaolin clay and sand in the works of being dried from a pond bed to be used in the “making of fine china” by erecting a pottery.

 

 

Their plan was to “install a steam dryer to have day and night service to erect a pottery…thereby using material directly from the banks and saving the shipping to other factories.” Kaolin is highly sought out for pottery due to its plasticity and its fine particle size, making it ideal for shaping and molding ceramics. This is also the reason it is ideal for its use in concrete applications, as its workability is desirable. Other sought out properties of kaolin in concrete include its strength and durability, density, chemical inertness, its bright white color, its affordability, and its highly reactive pozzolanic activity.

 

The front page of the September 3rd, 1915 issue of the Amador Ledger newspaper, where the above excerpt was clipped from.

 

Time Travel Tuesday – Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history

Time Travel Tuesday – Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history

by | Aug 6, 2024 | Time Travel

– Time Travel Tuesday –

August 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

– The back story – 

Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history where the precious commodity was discovered in abundance back in the gold rush era in the mid 1800’s. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to this area in hopes of striking rich. What also was discovered, were other high-value minerals, especially in the city of Ione. You guessed it, kaolin clay was one of those.
Purebase thought it would be interesting to tie in our mineral history from hundreds of years ago and show our audience just how long these deposits have been utilized by locals and beyond for hundreds of years. Once a month, we will show you first-hand newspaper excerpts from the Amador Ledger newspaper that has been in existence since 1855 and is still fully functioning today, now called the Ledger Dispatch.
Take a look at this excerpt from the August 11, 1927 issue of the Amador Ledger. It highlights a “new clay industry” in Ione, and mentions that “this deposit is the only commercial deposit discovered in California.” Almost a hundred years later, it still is the only commercial kaolin deposit of its size discovered in California!

The excerpt goes on to describe that the “clay as found is mixed with sand and requires commercial processing before it is of commercial quality.” The same operations still stand today that the silica and heavy mineral sands are stripped from the clay using a density separator plant before the kaolin clay is sold into its specialty markets. It then says the plant has a capacity of five tons per day, a miniscule blip of what is produce today!

The front page of the August 11, 1927 issue of the Amador Ledger newspaper, where the above excerpt was clipped from.
Time Travel Tuesday – June 2024 See what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area.

Time Travel Tuesday – June 2024 See what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area.

by | Jul 26, 2024 | Time Travel

– Time Travel Tuesday –

June 2024, From the Amador Ledger Archives

Go back in time with us as we dive into the Amador County newspaper archives from the late 1800’s and throughout the 1900’s and see what they were saying about the kaolin clay deposits here in the Ione area, and how they still relate to us and our operations today!

– The back story – 

Amador County is considered the heart of the Motherlode in California because of its ever-so-rich gold mining history where the precious commodity was discovered in abundance back in the gold rush era in the mid 1800’s. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to this area in hopes of striking rich. What also was discovered, were other high-value minerals, especially in the city of Ione. You guessed it, kaolin clay was one of those.
Purebase thought it would be interesting to tie in our mineral history from hundreds of years ago and show our audience just how long these deposits have been utilized by locals and beyond for hundreds of years. Once a month, we will show you first-hand newspaper excerpts from the Amador Ledger newspaper that has been in existence since 1855 and is still fully functioning today, now called the Ledger Dispatch.
   Take a look at this first excerpt from the June 28, 1923 issue of the Amador Ledger. The kaolin clay used to be manufactured into cubes to whiten peoples’ shoes! It also mentions the different grades of clay found on the property.
“‘Kaolin’ is an untreated raw product taken out of the ground here in Amador County.”
The humor found at the end of the article is also of note!
We look forward to showing you next month’s interesting Time Travel Tuesday excerpt from the Amador Ledger Archives! These will also be featured on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages @PurebaseCorporation