Excerpt from the proposal submitted to the California Cultural and Historical Endowment by the Knight Foundry Corporation, 28 Sept 2004. Question One: Project Description and Project Goals Project Description The Knight Foundry Historic Water-Powered Iron Works is without parallel in California – an almost perfectly preserved late-19th and early-20th Century industrial complex. This unique historic site is the only surviving water-powered foundry and machine shop in the United States, but is currently a threatened historic resource. California has done a poor job of preserving important historic industrial sites. Knight Foundry is an excellent opportunity to begin addressing this deficit. Our first project goal is site acquisition. Set in a small Mother Lode mining town and rural foothills landscape, Knight Foundry is a true anachronism. In uninterrupted operation until it last poured iron in 1996, it is the last American workplace where traditional cast iron foundry production processes and skills have been handed down almost unchanged. These craft-based, iron casting skills were the master key which opened the Industrial Revolution. These skills are a core, threatened, economic and cultural resource. A central goal of our project is to revive historic production and train a new generation in these endangered historic skills before they are irretrievably lost. (Illus. 1) Significantly, Knight Foundry (known in its early days as Knight & Co.) also made trend-setting contributions to the early expansion of the state’s manufacturing economy. Knight & Co. designed innovative machinery for mining and metals refining, harbor dredging and road building, and perfected the impulse turbine as a revolutionary new power source. This turbine, or “Knight Wheel”, was a critical component for launching the hydro-electric industry which announced the dawning of the 20th Century. In 1897, Knight & Co. built the nation’s largest hydro-electric plant. (Illus. 2) Knight Foundry began operation in 1872 in Sutter Creek (population today 2,400) in rural Amador County (population today 32,000) with the Knight Wheel as its signature product. A “one-stop-shop” for hard-rock gold mining enterprises from 1872 up until the Second World War (when it served as part of the defense industry), it provided design and all materials for head frames and mill buildings; steam and turbine driven power systems; custom heavy machinery for “Quartz Mills, Hoisting and Pump Works”; as well as mine skips and ore carts. Our project will restore this remarkable production facility as an interpretive resource. Knight & Co. was an incubator of California’s early technology leadership. Knight & Co.’s guiding genius, millwright Samuel Newman Knight (1838 – 1913), is a virtually unrecognized, prolific engineer and inventor. He is unknown principally because he had no skill in self-promotion (he was an engineer rather than an entrepreneur) and because a disastrous office fire in 1936 destroyed nearly all of his drawings, business records, and patents. Had those been available to historians, Samuel Knight should have long since been celebrated above all as the original inventor of the impulse turbine, commonly, and usually inaccurately, known as the “Pelton Wheel”. Recent oral history research and the discovery of a treasure trove of hitherto-unknown drawings have greatly enlarged our knowledge of his untold story. The Knight Foundry buildings, its still operating Knight Wheels, and many of its machines still give silent testimony to the brilliance of this unrecognized California inventor’s design work. The invention of the Knight Wheel, in about 1866, precipitated the construction of high-pressure, water- power distribution systems all over the West. Comprised of canals, flumes and penstocks, they supplied power to industry at one-fifth the cost of the firewood used for steam generation and greatly increased gold mining productivity. High pressure pipes were run into laundries, shops and residents’ homes where small Knight Wheels powered home-shop machinery, washing machines, sewing machines, and, ultimately, home electric generators. From the 1870s to the turn of the century, high-pressure water-power driving the Knight Wheel and its successors was in widespread use, a now forgotten precursor to modern electric power distribution grids. Miraculously, on a spur of the original 60 mile power canal and penstock system established in the 1870s for Amador County’s mines, the sole remaining fragment of that once extensive infrastructure remains at work in Knight Foundry, tapping energy from the distant Mokelumne River and quietly driving all its old machinery. Our project will bring to the public this significant, but lost, technological era. Samuel Knight’s single most important contribution to the modern industrial era was the sophisticated system of governors, jets and valves controlling his patented turbine.  This system, which he independently perfected for hydro-electric generation in 1896, is still in use today in 125 power plants in California, and remains one of the two major systems currently used worldwide. Samuel Knight also designed and built the first practical mechanized gold dredger (14 years prior to the earliest California gold dredger on record) and a host of other novel machines.  Some were successful, some were not, but all were cutting-edge applications of the emerging hydraulic, electric, and internal combustion technologies of his time, and some are still in daily use all over the world. Our project will rescue Samuel Knight from anonymity. Knight Foundry also opens a new window into the work-life culture of its highly skilled artisans. This form of popular culture gives concrete meaning to the American work-ethic as it evolved in California. Immigrants came from the Eastern United States bringing American cast iron traditions, from Serbia and Cornwall bringing centuries old mining expertise and from Northern Italy bringing a unique brand of family cohesion. In Sutter Creek, a large concentration of these Italians - the Boitanos, the Ramazzottis, the Malatestas  –  became the core of Knight Foundry’s workforce. A number of workers who started as young apprentices under Samuel Knight became regionally respected mechanical and mining engineers in their own right. These immigrant cultures of Amador County have shaped this small community. All of the old families are still here; an as yet largely unmined vein of historic lore. It will be a key goal of our project to tell the untold stories of Knight Foundry and its staff of talented artisans who built up the state’s early prosperity. (Illus. 3 & 4) When Knight Foundry ceased production in 1996 it was designated one of “America’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Trust long has taken a proactive role in winning recognition for Knight Foundry. With the National Trust’s encouragement, Knight Foundry became an Official Project of the joint National Trust/White House Save America’s Treasures (SAT) program – being awarded under that program a J. Paul Getty Fund Planning Grant and one of only two SAT Preservation Grants awarded in California by the National Park Service (NPS) in 2000.  The NPS/SAT grant was awarded to help us eliminate immediate threats to the site, buildings, and equipment; stabilize all threatened structures; perform initial restoration of core structures and equipment; and prepare the site for public access. Condition analysis, detailed planning and temporary stabilization work is substantially complete. The Knight Foundry Corporation has five (5) CCHE project goals: 1. To acquire the historic site, including land, buildings and all related assets. 2.  To complete major permanent site stabilization and infrastructure repair.   3. To complete the major protection, stabilization and rehabilitation of all structures and historic heavy machinery, improvement with an “expected useful life” of 15+ years. 4.  To conduct a more in-depth site survey than the series of preliminary (and negative) toxics surveys done to date, to identify any unknown contamination and plan for its mitigation. 5.  To adapt existing structures for use as an office, visitor center, and interpretive facilities and to create a unique, industrial living-history discovery museum; expected useful life: 15+ years. Question Two: Project Audience and Project Need 1. Project Audience • Local and regional families learn of the historic roots of their community and its economy. • Tourists, (those exploring the Mother Lode independently and those on organized tours), principally from the Sacramento region, Lodi, Stockton and Central Foothills, more broadly from Central California, Reno/Carson City, the San Francisco Bay Area and including greater California and national heritage tourism guests of the Mother Lode. • Historic preservationists and industrial history enthusiasts who have been making a pilgrimage here for many years. 20% of site visitors come to Sutter Creek specifically to see Knight Foundry. Restoration of Knight Foundry to working condition also has the potential of attracting international visitors from the growing industrial archeology community throughout the world. • Volunteers have thus far had an enriching experience at Knight Foundry. Presently some 90 volunteers have performed hands-on historic restoration under the guidance of nationally respected consultants, making valuable contributions to our ground breaking historic research. These volunteers have also begun to learn historic industrial skills, the most important step in preserving them. • Education clients will include elementary and secondary teachers and their students. Trial educational programs have indicated that the foundry can serve as an important adjunct to curricula in history, mathematics, physics, and industrial arts for local and regional elementary and secondary schools. Teachers and school administrators have lent enthusiastic support to this concept. Standards-based course work will be stressed. Emphasis will also be placed on hands-on living history experiences in the roots of manufacturing technology and intern study opportunities in historic research, preservation and restoration. • At the collegiate level, faculty from California’s major engineering schools plan to integrate hands-on training at Knight Foundry for their engineering students.  National Park Service and foundry industry training programs have also expressed interest in participating. In addition, clients from an array of historic preservation institutions have expressed strong support for, and desire to participate, in our overall skills preservation education programs. • Knight Foundry is nationally recognized as the best preserved 19th Century ironworks in the United States and will again attract scholars and students from all over the country and globe to participate in its workshops and apprentice programs. These visitors will contribute significantly to the local economy. The Knight Foundry Historic Skills Archive website being developed will be especially valuable to this audience element. This threatened, but functional, site presents an important opportunity for developing interpretive programs for families and heritage tourism visitors. There is rich potential for creating discovery museum style hands-on exhibits. The Knight Foundry experience brings vividly to life, particularly for young people, a clear concept of the American “work ethic.” Interpretive and education programs have been under development at Knight Foundry since 1991.  When it appeared that Knight Foundry was going to close for good, Sutter Creek residents (led by a descendant of one of Samuel Knight’s prominent protégées) pooled their resources to form Historic Knight & Co.   Engineering and manufacturing faculty from California State University at Sacramento and American River College helped Historic Knight & Co. develop the Industrial Living History Workshop; a three day hands-on survey of patternmaking, machine shop, blacksmithing and molding, culminating in a cast iron pour of workshop projects. People came from all over the United States and the world to experience life in an 1870s iron works.  These workshops will be reinstated.  (There are 281 people signed up for workshop notification.) The Knight Foundry Corporation’s staff, consultants and volunteers have invested four years of work into restoring the facility and early pilot interpretive programs, including a well-developed programs of guided tours. Project Need Local resources in this small rural community proved insufficient, and lacking professional preservation expertise for its ambitious efforts to save the foundry, Historic Knight & Co. ceased operations in 1995. The National Trust for Historic Preservation declared the site one of “America’s Eleven Most Endangered Places” in 1996, which helped to trigger an extensive period of re-evaluation and reorganization, and the launch of this new initiative. Only fragmentary representations of the historic manufacturing industries and early engineering advances that established our state’s economic vitality and world leadership in technology are found in California’s parks and museums. California overall has done a poor job of preserving its historic industries. The site contains a threatened, but intact, 1872 era iron foundry and pattern shop, machine shop, brass foundry, blacksmithy, and sheet metal and pipe shop, all potentially operational, all powered by Knight Wheels. Knight Foundry is so visual and tactile that lessons in mechanics and engineering are almost self- evident.  Careers in these fields suddenly become real, as  machines and manufacturing processes are demonstrated, and as experiments and work projects are taken in hand. (Illus. 5 & 6) • Preserving a vanishing human  resource:  Chief among the surviving skilled workers still alive, Knight Foundry’s Ironmaster is one of the last living Americans in the 500-year-long ironmaster-to-apprentice chain of transmission to inherit those skills. These skills will be irretrievably lost if Knight Foundry is not returned to operation. The preservation of these skills is important for solid practical, as well as historic, reasons. Historic preservation is a  multi-hundred-million dollar industry in the United States. Small run, custom work for historic preservation is now prohibitively expensive because of iron foundry automation and its related retooling costs. Thus, by virtue of its very obsolescence, the Knight Foundry Corporation won a competitive bid to the City of San Leandro to replicate cast iron lamp poles, which were originally gas lamps. Charles Albi, the Director of the Colorado Railroad Museum put it strongly: “Cast iron is the big missing piece in historic preservation.” • Restoring an historic site that has suffered severe deterioration, contains rare and unique artifacts, and is the last remaining structure of an historic district: This project addresses all these needs. 132 year of hard use have left critical components of the site in an advanced state of decay and disrepair. The nation’s oldest surviving industrial machine tools and foundry facilities are housed here. Only remnants survive of the once intensively industrial Mother Lode mining district. Knight Foundry is complete in its original 1872 buildings. (Illus. 7, 8, & 9) • Sharing an important story in the voice of the first person: Oral history projects, which delved into the rich living memory of this well preserved Mother Lode community, and other research provide the foundation for living-history, re-enactments, bringing Samuel Knight and his principal protégées back to life. (Illus. 10) • In addition, the ability to maintain heritage tourism activities will be critical to the City of Sutter Creek’s continuing prosperity when the new Highway 49 bypass is completed in 2006. Knight Foundry is a potential key attraction for Sutter Creek and also a key component of Amador County’s rich mix of historic sites. Heritage tourism forms a major component of the Mother Lode economy. Question Three: Relationship of Project to Priorities of CCHE California’s Cultural, Social, and Economic Evolution The preservation of Knight Foundry as an interpretive and educational resource will greatly enhance public understanding and appreciation of the evolution of California’s economy, culture of work, and technology leadership in the world. • Dr. Kevin Starr, former California State Librarian, aptly described Knight Foundry as having "a living continuity with the engineering and technology impulse of the nineteenth century which created this great state. The “living continuity” to which Dr. Starr refers is incarnate in the Knight Foundry physical plant and the story of the inventor and his apprentices who flourished here. • Knight Foundry and it’s founder Samuel Newman Knight, made signal and formative contributions at the birth of the state’s and nation’s hydro-electric industry.  This industry supplied the inexpensive and clean power that fueled California’s early 20th Century economic expansion. Knight’s Dynamo Motor design provided a forward looking solution to the technical problems of producing reliable, steady alternating-current electricity. Knight Foundry is “the most significant extant hydro-development site in the United States” according to Smithsonian consultant Robert Johnson. From its founding in 1872, Knight & Co. pioneered developments in hydraulics, turbine powered hoist works, and a variety of regulating devices for compressors, sawmills and other variable load devices.  It also was responsible for the specific original invention and development of increasingly efficient turbines with sensitive valve and jet control mechanisms. All of this seemingly diverse work converged in February, 1896, when the Sutter Creek prototype power-plant began to generate electricity. Knight & Co. then produced a number of the first, and the largest, hydroelectric plants in the United States, setting the pace for the hydroelectric industry worldwide. • The culture of work eloquently represented in the life stories of Knight Foundry’s workers stems from the melding of old and new-world cultural values and craft traditions. This culture of work is a living reality in Sutter Creek in the memories and family histories of miners and foundry workers who have been here for generations. Knight Foundry epitomizes this unique heritage; its workers were well paid, highly skilled and highly respected – often pillars of the community in civic leadership and in philanthropy. As an example, Patternmaker Ernie Malatesta, the son of a poor miner, worked at Knight Foundry from 1919 to 1977, using only water powered and hand tools during that entire time. In his workshop, he shared his values with generations of young people, who remember and venerate him still. • The town of Sutter Creek is an historian’s dream.  Over the years, the citizens have united to preserve the historic town (known for good reason as “The Jewel of the Mother Lode”), it’s historic viewscapes, and, since 1991, its old iron foundry. The theme uniting this effort is pride in family heritage and the living memory of its old timers. Knight Foundry will lead a vigorous local effort based on the pilot work-life research and oral history programs already underway to ensure that this rich cultural asset will benefit future generations. • Knight & Co.’s central role in the development of technology for hard-rock gold mining gave an important boost the state’s 1870s economy. Currently, the hard-rock mining era is represented by a few well-preserved mining sites. The Empire Mine State Park and Kennedy Mine in Amador County are notable, among them. The manufacturing sites that provided these gold mines with their structures and capital equipment is represented by a single survivor, the Knight Foundry. • Every dimension of Knight Foundry – its 1872 timber-frame buildings, custom-made heavy machinery, turbine power systems – all are physical manifestations of the genius of Samuel Knight; his work helped shape California in a myriad of ways. Research over the past two decades has progressively revealed the history of this remarkable man. Additional study will unveil to the public a full length portrait of this remarkable California technical wizard • Knight Foundry is one of the premiere industrial archeological sites in the nation. Much remains to be explored in analyzing the on-site evolution of the current and past structures and activities The Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA), the field’s national professional group, provided a forum to spearhead the “Save Knight Foundry” campaign in 1996. The SIA’s newly-formed Samuel Knight Chapter ultimately spun off the Knight Foundry Corporation, and recruited Eric DeLony, one of the founding fathers of American industrial archeology, to its board. Under-representation Walter P. Gray III, Incorporator and initial Chairman of the Knight Foundry Corporation, long-time Director of the California State Railroad Museum and then California State Archivist, eloquently addressed the importance of Knight Foundry’s unique and virtually intact facility: “Industrial history and historic sites are under-represented within historic preservation generally. That this site is one of – and possibly the – most important surviving elements of the state’s industrial past is well documented; the Foundry has been granted formal and informal designations as an historic site by a variety of national, state and local organizations. The number of efforts to save the Foundry that have been undertaken over the past decade by community-based organizations is evidence of broad local interest and the willingness of local citizens to engage this challenge. In addition, more than [currently 90] volunteers regularly work on restoration projects at the foundry under the direction of Knight Foundry Corporation staff members. The largest benefit of preserving Knight Foundry will derive from the Foundry’s use as an educational resource. Industrial history is not interpreted in schools, and a majority of Californians have only a rudimentary understanding of how things are made. Basic industries in particular - foundries and machine shops - are not open or accessible to educational visits. The educational program at Knight Foundry will operate at two levels to help address this deficiency: 1.) Field trip services to school children from the surrounding area - the core school audience will come from within an approximately 60 mile radius, which includes Sacramento and Stockton - and 2.) Formal industrial educational programs using the functioning foundry and machine shop equipment as a means to provide hands-on skills training. . . . In this respect, the restoration of the Foundry’s buildings and equipment is only the precursor to the establishment of programs to ensure the continuation of skills that are disappearing across the country and a broader public understanding of our industrial heritage.” (Excerpt  from “The Noon Whistle” –  Knight Foundry Newsletter – Issue #2 – Nov. 14, 2001.) To Mr. Gray’s appreciation of the role of Knight Foundry in filling this huge gap in the state’s interpretive programs, must be added the lack of recognition of Samuel Knight himself (by all available evidence one of California’s most significant and exemplary inventors). Nor, have the ingenious and resourceful skilled workers of this era been well portrayed. Understanding the accomplishments of these artisans provides insight into careers in engineering and technology, an encouragement that is essential to maintaining our world leadership. Achieving Balance Rural Sutter Creek and Amador County are among the smallest of cities and counties in California.  Both are drastically underserved by state-supported interpretive institutions, such as, parks and museum facilities, yet are rich in volunteer-supported, historic preservation initiatives – which Knight Foundry typifies. The state only provides the area with one Native American interpretive center staffed by one ranger. Question 4.  Ongoing Project Maintenance and Public Accessibility Ongoing Project Maintenance The support of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) will help to assure that this threatened historic resource is preserved. The proposed CCHE project will enable Knight Foundry to become an active producer of traditional, hard-to-source cast iron for historic preservation clients and to develop the facilities needed to conduct a vigorous array of interpretive, non-formal educational programs, skills preservation workshops, and apprenticeship programs. Income from these activities will make a significant contribution to maintaining the physical plant and program services.   The grant will also help to establish a museum shop that will be an important source of income. The foundry will provide cast iron product for this revenue center. There is currently a thriving consumer market in cast iron. Knight Foundry can produce high end products for this market, as well as custom cast iron for historic preservation customers. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the City of Sutter Creek provided support for the development of a Strategic Business and Marketing Plan at the outset of our efforts to preserve Knight Foundry. This document drew on the expertise of foundry professionals, including the past owners and operators of the foundry, as well as historic preservation and business professionals. This Strategic Plan provides a well-reasoned foundation for managing and perpetuating program activities over the long run, including the stewardship of the physical site elements to be restored under the CCHE grant. A review of the Knight Foundry Corporation’s team in Section Six will further underline the first rank qualifications of the human resources who have taken up the responsibility for long-term maintenance of this site. The active continuing alliance with the National Trust for Historic Preservation will be of major assistance to the development of grant support and preservation expertise. Once Knight Foundry has achieved National Landmark status, (an application will be made after site acquisition), expanded national sources of funding will become available. The Society for Industrial Archeology will also be an ongoing source of the professional resources critical to the completion of preservation work and the development of interpretive facilities and programs. Rigorous standards of preservation and cyclical maintenance have been and will continue to be employed in the ongoing stewardship of the site. The Secretary of Interior’s Preservation Standard has been formally adopted and followed. Initiation of revenue programs will fund business management services both in- house and on a contract base. Program development to date has already begun to shape management practices and systems. Full implementation has necessarily been put off until the Knight Foundry Corporation can take full possession of the site and launch necessary capital improvements, expand programs, and initiate historic production. Volunteers will be an important ongoing factor in leveraging program activities and grant supported preservation projects. The founding Knight Foundry Board of Directors was selected for its expertise and extensive track record in establishing operating technology museums; in historic technology preservation and; in professional non-profit administration. As we evolve through restoration and the beginning of operation, appropriate additions from the foundry industry itself and from regional educational institutions will augment this core board. Our directors were central to the formation and early development of the California State Railroad Museum at Sacramento, the National Park Service’s Historic American Engineering Record, the Nevada State Railroad Museum and the Sierra Railroad at Jamestown. The relevance of this experience is multi-fold. Precious historic artifacts had to be resuscitated. Large scale volunteer programs had to be designed and safely carried out. Operation of large industrial equipment (steam locomotives and the supporting shop facilities) had to be well and safely managed. Financial resources had to be organized for long-term support. All these criteria are critical to the success of Knight Foundry; this team of highly qualified professionals has a proven track record of successes. To acquire the site and to fund and launch the program we plan at Knight Foundry, we could not have more talented principals. A highly regarded Amador County Supervisor, with a long family connection to Knight Foundry, has recently been recruited as a Director to provide connection to the local government entities and as a representative of local community interests. We must remember that it was local residents banding together who first rescued Knight Foundry from oblivion and who also designed the brilliantly successful workshop program. A high percentage of residents of this small rural county have also provided a substantial proportion of our financial support over time. Core staff has consisted of a Project Director and a Facility Manager. The Project Director has been a leader in the movement to preserve endangered historic skills and is skilled in team building, project design and resource development. The Facility Manager is also the veteran Ironmaster of Knight Foundry with an intimate familiarity with all dimensions of cyclical shop maintenance. He was one of the lead teachers in the Industrial Living History Workshop program. The workshop designer from CSU Sacramento has recently retired from the manufacturing engineering faculty there and will assist us with program development. Both he and the Facility Manager will have a hand in shop restoration. Staff expansion and maintenance will be supported by ongoing program income and augmented by program development grant support. Our lead preservation architecture firm is Garavaglia & Associates, with a long established practice in historic restoration. They came to us at the recommendation of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and have over-seen the completion of the formal Historic Structures Report funded through the SAT program by the J. Paul Getty Fund and the National Park Service. Robert Johnson, the principal of our machinery restoration consulting firm, Whistles in the Woods Museum Services, has been the prime consultant to the Smithsonian in the restoration of its historic belt-driven machine tool displays.  Mr. Johnson also is curator to the Tennessee Valley Authority and is widely regarded as the foremost practitioner of his craft in the United States. CEQA compliance in relation to all activities funded will be coordinated with the City of Sutter Creek and the Amador County administrations. By virtue of our already existing adherence to the Secretary of Interior’s Preservation Standard, compliance with CEQA historic preservation provisions should pose no difficulty. Related ADA compliance is anticipated, when the project is complete.