Knight Foundry — Attraction in Sutter Creek

Very interesting and tourist oriented, the Knight foundry is fully operational and offers docent led tours of the foundry and machine shop. The entire operation was at one time powered by a large water wheel and the belt drive system in the ceiling is still operational, powers machines in the shop. If you go, note the largest lathe has only 17 horsepower and that means the more accurate the foundry is with leaving enough but not too much material for that lathe to take off is one fine point of the skills required to do this job. They don't teach those skills...

Not for everybody. If, however, you're interested in learning how stuff that will rust away first started out as molten iron poured into sand cast molds using wooden templates to produce rough castings that are then precision machined into a finished product, then you will be fascinated. Back in the day, this boomtown place was a total manufacturing center. All without the aid of electric power, air conditioning, internal combustion engines, or CAD/CAM software. Water power, sweat, pencil, paper, ruler, and horse drawn...

Knight Foundry was established in 1873 to supply heavy equipment and repair facilities to the gold mines and timber industry of the Mother Lode. Samuel N. Knight developed a high speed, cast iron water wheel which was a forerunner of the Pelton Wheel design. Knight Wheels were used in some of the first hydroelectric plants in California, Utah, and Oregon.

This site is the last water powered foundry and machine shop in California. A 42-inch Knight Wheel drives the main line shaft, with smaller water motors powering...