Because of Kam's overwhelming success with 2008's state fair exhibit, he was asked to carry on that legacy in 2009

last year's amador county state fair exhibit was quite impressive. who would of thought he could top himself in 2009? but that is exactly what he did along with his crew doug wescott, kurt todden and eleanor caputo. they not only topped lasts years exhibit but blew everyone away with his design of the kennedy head frame and tailing wheel!

top dog on the crew was doug wescott, who built the 18.5 foot solid steel exhibit in his yard over a three month period. (see the slide show) this impressive exhibit took an astounding 1200 linear feet of 4x4 steel to frame. at times he had to lift his welding equipment up to the top in a front loader. doug's assistant kurt todden helped in cutting metal sheeting, used in the exhibit, the old-fashioned way with a huge steel cutter. Corrugated metal was dowsed with acid to create rust for authenticity.

once the exhibit was built, it was finished off by signs made at merzlak signs. the exhibit was then disassembled and loaded up on two flat-bed trailers and trucked to the fair. once at the fair, it barely made it through the huge roll-up doors. as we entered, all eyes from other exhibit builders were on us. they all stopped what they were doing to watch the 2 ton fork lift driven by rick kreth of ione,  pull the exhibit off the trucks, assemble the top and stand it erect. It was quite a seen.

once erect, the tailing wheel was set in to place as well as the the solid steel fence that surrounds the exhibit. the creek was assembled with running water, a mechanical talking gold miner, 4 yards of dirt and rock and live plants. two tv screens were hooked up to show a repeating video of the kennedy mine and the making of the exhibit. to finish off this amazing piece of work, was a backdrop photo. It is one of the largest photo banners ever made at 13 ft x 32 ft. the photo, taken by eleanor caputo, is a 5 frame panorama of the kennedy mine vista view. we thought it was important to have a scene of the actual place where the kennedy mine sits.

on judgment day, kam gave his 90 second speech atop the head frame and was mistaken as a mechanical man. we spent a very anxious night waiting for the awards ceremony the next day, where amador was pleasantly presented with the gold ribbon and unexpectedly the best overall design. A new award has been presented to amador for the best of the best!!