Photograph of Knight Foundry — Photograph by Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Knight's Foundry and Shops

Built in 1873. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. 14 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“Knight Foundry, also known as Knight's Foundry and Shops, is a cast iron foundry and machine shop in Sutter Creek, California. It was established in 1873 to supply heavy equipment and repair facilities to the gold mines and timber industry of the Mother Lode.”
Wikipedia article Knight Foundry, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 22 National Register listings published here for Amador County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · built in 1873.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 11 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. 13 Eureka St., Sutter Creek, 95685
When was it listed? July 1975
Category. building
Census division. Sutter Creek-Plymouth
When was it built? 1873
National Register reference number. 75000423 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1993

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Knight's Foundry and Shops, surveyed 1993

Topographic sheet covering Knight's Foundry and Shops, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

261 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 261 fires within 5 miles of Knight's Foundry and Shops between 1992 and 2020, burning about 759 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 23 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	85
Equipment and vehicle use	83
Debris and open burning	48
Arson/incendiarism	23
Power generation/transmission/distribution	9
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Natural	3
Smoking	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 1993	Equipment and vehicle use	4.0 acres	Amador-El Dorado Unit	PINE
8 September 2003	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	SUNSET
7 September 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	SUTTER
7 September 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7.0 acres	Amador-El Dorado Unit	SUNSET
6 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Central California District	SHAKERIDGE
5 September 1999	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Amador-El Dorado Unit	BUTTE
30 September 2013	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	CREEK
30 September 2001	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Amador-El Dorado Unit	RIDGE

Every fire recorded in Amador County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 291 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 291 workings within 5 miles of Knight's Foundry and Shops: 124 occurrences, 78 past producers, 63 prospects, 19 producers. 20 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Allen Ranch	Gold, PGE, Silver	Past Producer
Anita	Gold, Copper, Iron	Past Producer	Gold, Iron
Ayers, Charlers	Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Gravel
Bunker Hill	Gold, Iron	Past Producer	1853
Central Eureka	Gold, Silver, Iron, Zinc, Lead, Copper	Producer	1855
Fremont-Gover Inc. Loyal Lode	Gold, Arsenic	Past Producer	Gold, Pyrite
G. J. Alexander	Stone, Dimension	Occurrence
Johnson Ranch	Copper, Gold, Silver	Occurrence	Underground
Keystone	Gold, Antimony, Arsenic	Past Producer	1851
Mechanics	Gold, Zinc, Lead, Copper, Iron	Occurrence	Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrrhotite, Sphalerite

Every working recorded in Amador County

Storms near this property

2 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sutter Creek, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports in 1999: 2 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
February 1999	Flash Flood	Sutter Creek	-	no account filed
February 1999	Flash Flood	Sutter Creek	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Amador County

Maps showing this location

14 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
1892 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
1897 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000
1902 USGS Jackson quadrangle1:125000 - 7 printings
1941 USGS Sutter Creek quadrangle1:62500
1944 USGS Sutter Creek quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1947 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Sacramento quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1957 USGS Sutter Creek quadrangle1:62500
1962 USGS Amador City quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1962 USGS Sutter Creek quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1993 USGS San Andreas quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Sutter Creek Grammar School	0.1 miles	1976
Chichizola Family Store Complex	2.3 miles	1992
Kennedy Mine Historic District	2.4 miles	2009
Kennedy Tailing Wheels	2.8 miles	1981
Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church	2.9 miles	1986
William J. Paugh House	3.3 miles	2007

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 75000423 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Amador County	All 22 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.