Arthur De Wint Foote

Infobox Person
name = Arthur de Wint Foote


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birth_date = 1849
birth_place = Guilford, Connecticut
death_date = 1934
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residence = Grass Valley, California
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known_for = Foote's Crossing Road; North Star Mine Powerhouse
education = Sheffield's Scientific School at
Yale University
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occupation = Mining engineer
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partner = Mary Hallock Foote
children = Arthur Burling Foote
Agnes Foote
Betty Foote
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Arthur De Wint Foote (1849–1934) was a mining and civil engineer who built Foote's Crossing (California Point of Historical Interest No. P401) across the Middle Yuba River [cite web |url=http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/listed_resources/?view=county&criteria=29 |title=FOOTE'S CROSSING (P401) 5/9/1975 |accessdate=2008-08-11 |publisher=ohp.parks.ca.gov] and Foote's Crossing Road (a National Register of Historic Places landmark), and designed the hydraulic wheel for the North Star Mine Powerhouse, now a California Historical Landmark.

Early years

Foote was born in Guilford, Connecticut. His relatives came from from Yorkshire in 1630. After attending private schools, he entered Yale University's Sheffield's Scientific School as part of the Class of 1869, but left a year before graduation. [cite book |pages=p. 171 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HcUJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=%22Arthur+De+Wint+Foote%22&source=web&ots=8tOS6_Z0Qn&sig=29ZCwyu1bMJtjcrhDpksq-LoLQ0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA171,M1 |title=Interviews with Mining Engineers |last=Rickard |first=Thomas Arthur |year=1922 |publisher=Mining and Scientific Press |location=San Francisco |oclc=2664362]

Career

In 1873, Foote came to San Francisco seeking work. He worked on the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, Nevada under Adolph Sutro, the Eldorado Canal on the American River which supplied Placerville, California hydraulic mines a source of water, followed by the Tehachapi Loop for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1874. [Rickard, pp. 172–173]

In the three years while at New Almaden Quicksilver Miner in Santa Clara County, California, he married and started a family. Foote moved his family to Deadwood, South Dakota while he worked on the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, and then for two years to Leadville, Colorado at the time of the Colorado Silver Boom. In Leadville, Foote worked as an expert on the Iron Silver Mining Company lawsuit, [cite news |title=Mining Suits Settled |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9A01E7DE123FEE3ABC4A51DFB767838B699FDE&oref=slogin |work= |publisher="The New York Times" |date=1880-11-22 |accessdate=2008-08-11] and then as an engineer on the Adelaide Mine. [Rickard, pp. 173–175]

Because of poor health in the high altitude, Foote went next to Morelia in Michoacan, and then to Wood River Valley in south-central Idaho where he opened up the Wolftone Mine prospect. With friends, he formed the Idaho Mining and Irrigation Company and bought water rights on the Boise River. He returned to Mexico with a job in Baja California where he engineered roads for an onyx deposit, before going to the Fremont Mine in Amador City, California, and the Calumet and Hecla Mine in Houghton County, Michigan. [Rickard, pp. 175–178]

In 1895, the family settled in Grass Valley, California when Foote was hired to design and construct an electric-generating plant for the North Star Mine. [cite book |pages=p. 58 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=QKBh_CIbMLQC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=%22Foote%27s+crossing%22&source=web&ots=iyAFeIuCZI&sig=XOnOWQbP2fYUwEJCVAg96NbHeus&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result |title=Gold Rush Towns of Nevada County |last=Brower |first=Maria E. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2006 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston |isbn=0738546925] He went on to become superintendent and later general manager. Julia Morgan designed his home at the mine, the North Star House, in 1905. [cite web |url=http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_jm_01.html#e03 |title=1905, North Bay, North Star Mine house |accessdate=2008-08-11 |last=Boutelle |first=, Sara Holmes |coauthors= |date=1988 |work= |publisher=verlang.com]

In 1911, Foote and his partners purchased the Tightner Mine in Alleghany, California. [cite web |url=http://www.origsix.com/tmarticle.asp?id=295 |title=Chronological Events |accessdate=2008-08-11 |publisher=Original Sixteen to One Mine, Inc.] He subsequently built the Foote's Crossing Road in order to ease travel between the two mines. Subsequently, the road became a National Register of Historic Places landmark. [cite web |url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/CA/Nevada/state.html |title=Foote's Crossing Road (added 1981 — Structure — #81000180) |accessdate=2008-08-11 |publisher=nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com] [cite web |url=http://www.foothilltheatre.org/pdfs/NORTHSTARHOUSE.pdf |title=New life for the North Star House |accessdate=2008-08-11 |last=Wright |first=Gary |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=foothilltheatre.org] [Brower, p. 42] He retired in 1913.

Personal life

In 1876, Foote married the illustrator and writer Mary Hallock Foote (1847–1938) in her hometown of Milton, New York. They had a son, Arthur Burling Foote, and daughters Agnes (d. 1904) and Betty. [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wjK8YcoBC34C&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=%22Arthur+De+Wint+Foote%22&source=web&ots=9Z4jcUUE-2&sig=V6gpxe8TXZT5dzM-BJ4uI-0whgI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA222,M1 |pages=pp. 221–222 |title=No Rooms of Their Own: Women Writers of Early California, 1849–1869 |accessdate=2008-08-11 |last=Egli |first=Ida Rae |date=1997 |location=Berkeley, California |publisher=Heyday Books |isbn=1890771015]

Arthur Burling Foote graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899. [cite web |url=http://www-tech.mit.edu/V18/PDF/N30.pdf |format=PDF |pages=p. 269 |title=The Tech Commencement Week 1899 |accessdate=2008-08-19 |date=1899-06-06 |work= |publisher=tech.mit.edu] He was accepted as an Associate Member into the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1905-03-01. [cite journal |title=Proceedings |last=American Society of Civil Engineers |year=January, 1905 |publisher=The Society |location=New York |oclc=1480784 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=p. 132 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=c-43AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA132&lpg=RA4-PA132&dq=%22burling+foote%22&source=web&ots=-o5zecHoF7&sig=DFk2t2m8jF168U-5Cue91GFREpw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PRA3-PA185,M1] A.B. Foote worked as an assistant at the North Star Mine, eventually becoming the manager after his father's retirement in 1913.

Partial bibliography

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References

Persondata
NAME = Foote, Arthur De Wint
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Mining engineer
DATE OF BIRTH = 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH = Guilford, Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH = 1934
PLACE OF DEATH =