THE HISTORIC FOUNDATION OF THE MAMMOTH AERIAL TRAMWAY

The Mammoth aerial tramway is shown above conveying ore in large buckets and transporting timber as well. This picture is from the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper edition of December 11, 1906.

The Mammoth aerial tramway was sometimes referred to as an “aerial ropeway” which was built in 1905 for the United States Refining and Mining Company, the parent company of the Mammoth Copper Company of Kennett, by the Riblet Tramway Company of Spokane, Washington, for about $50,000. That year, the Mammoth Copper Company began large scale mining operations at the Mammoth mine when their brand-new smelter was blown-in during October of 1905, which was located on Little Backbone Creek and in the boundaries of the Backbone mining district. This aerial tramway system began operations in the fall of 1906.

In an excerpt of an article the following was published by the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper claiming that it was "...used for the transportation of copper ore from the mine for treatment in the smelter. It is however, used for a double purpose and freight and lumber is shipped by this means to the mine. The tramway is operated by gravity, the weight of the heavy copper ore causing the endless rope to travel around the large shelve wheels and furnish power enough to carry thousands of pounds of freight up the heavy incline. The ore is loaded into the buckets by automatic feeders and dumped direct into the large bins on the furnace floor at smelter. " (SIC)

The Mammoth aerial tramway was two miles long. Some reports say it was longer, but that was false information. The Mammoth mine and smelter closed in 1919, and the smelter reopened for a short time in 1924. The Mammoth mine last operated in 1937. Today, only one concrete slab of foundation from this historic aerial tramway remains viewable off of Westside Road Number 2 behind Shasta Dam.

The Mammoth aerial tramway of the Mammoth Copper Company, circa 1919. Conveying ore 3,000 feet below the Mammoth mine to the Mammoth smelter. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

Filmed on location April 21, 2021.

RESOURCES:


Tram Now Handles Fifty Tons An Hour - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, February 22, 1906

Cable Two Miles Long Used To Transport Copper Ore - The Sacramento Daily Union of Sacramento, June 16, 1906

Mammoth Smelter At Kennett Running To Its Fullest Capacity - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, December 11, 1906

Store Ore In Shasta - The Sacramento Daily Union of Sacramento, September 13, 1910

The Covered Wagon 1977, published annually by Shasta Historical Society

Kennett by Jane Schuldberg, published by Stansbury Publishing of Chico, California; 1st edition (April 1, 2005) 224 pages ISBN-10 : 0970892292