Brief
History:
Amador County was created by
the California Legislature on May 11, 1854,
from parts of Calaveras and El Dorado
counties.
It was organized on July 3, 1854. In
1864, part of the county's territory was
given to Alpine County.
The county is named for José María
Amador, a soldier, rancher, and miner, born
in San Francisco in 1794,[9] the son of
Sergeant Pedro Amador (a Spanish
soldier who settled in California in 1771)
and younger brother to Sinforosa Amador.
In 1848, Jose Maria Amador, with
several Native Americans, established a
successful gold mining camp near the present
town of Amador City. In Spanish, the
word amador means "one who loves". Some of
the Mother Lode's most successful gold
mines were located in Amador County,
including the Kennedy, Argonaut, and
Keystone.
There are numerous gold mines in
Amador County including the Argonaut Mine,
the Kennedy Mine, the Central Eureka, and
the Lincoln. The Kennedy Mine in
Jackson was the deepest gold mine of its
time. The federal government closed all of
the
Mother Lode's mines in 1942 because
they were considered non-essential to the
war effort.
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