Our Mission The mission of California State Parks is mpire Mine State to provide for the health, inspiration and E Empire Mine education of the people of California by helping Historic Park — site of one to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and of the largest, richest, State Historic Park cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. and longest-operating (1850-1956) gold mines in California — produced more than eight billion California State Parks supports equal access. dollars in gold Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the park at by today’s standards. (530) 273-8522. If you need this publication in an alternate format, contact [email protected].
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. 711, TTY relay service
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Empire Mine State Historic Park 10791 East Empire Street Grass Valley, CA 95945 (530) 273-8522 ca. 1898 © 2012 California State Parks (Rev. 2016) E mpire Mine State Historic Park years and claimed it for mining, farming, and preserves what was once California’s logging. Many Nisenan died from exposure richest gold-producing mine. Located in to smallpox, measles, and other diseases to the western Sierra Nevada 50 miles from which they had no immunity. Sacramento, this 856-acre park sits among Today, Nisenan descendants live on and beautifully forested foothills at elevations near traditional tribal lands, teaching their of 2,500 to 2,900 feet. Its 367 miles of deep culture and language to a new generation. mine shafts form a maze that is impressive New Mining Methods to this day. In 1850, prospectors found gold-bearing ca. 1890 PARK HISTORY quartz in what is now Grass Valley. Native Americans Traditional placer-mining methods, in which At the stamp mill, the crushed ore, mixed water was used to wash gold deposits from At least 10,000 years ago, the western Sierra with water, was placed on copper plates the sand or gravel of stream beds, was Nevada was populated by the Foothill coated with mercury. ineffective in this area. Instead, the miners Nisenan. Their lands were made up of the The mercury-coated copper combined used “hardrock” mining methods, in which Yuba, American, and Bear River drainages with “free” gold to form an amalgam. Water men in buckets were lowered into deep and parts of the Feather River. washed away any impurities, and the shafts (coyote holes) resembling water wells The 1848 gold discovery brought tens of cleaned amalgam went to the refinery for to chip and drill through the rock. After thousands of fortune-seekers to California, further processing. filling the drill holes with black powder, they devastating the lives of the Nisenan. These In 1905 the Empire adopted a more detonated it, loaded the blasted rock into so-called “Forty-niners” took the lands that efficient mining method. In this process, ore cars, and took it to the mine headframe the Nisenan had occupied for thousands of cyanide was used to dissolve gold while it for primary crushing.
Mine Manager’s Office Assay Office Refinery Room was still embedded in the quartz. The gold until they became too old to work. he had gone from loading rocks could then be leached out of the quartz ore The Empire Mine did not begin and ore into cars (mucker) to in a liquid form. The cyanide method is still to prosper until 1869, after San superintendent. In 1893 Starr— in use around the world. Francisco businessman William B. by then considered a mining Modernization and Mules Bourn, Sr., acquired a controlling genius — left to work in South interest. Production dropped in Africa’s gold mines. When Until mules were introduced, miners moved 1874, followed by Mr. Bourn’s Starr visited San Francisco the ore-laden cars manually. Known as one sudden death that same year. a few years later, Bourn of the most efficiently operated gold mines convinced him to return in the U.S., the Empire counted among its William Bowers Bourn, Jr. to the Empire, where Starr improvements the use of mules to pull ore In 1879, Mr. Bourn’s 22-year-old worked another 30 years. cars. The mules lived in underground barns son, William B. Bourn, Jr., took After 1929 the Empire over management Mine — first combined with of the mine to keep it William Bourn, Jr. the North Star Mine as Empire- from closing. Fortunately, Star Mines Ltd. and then sold to he was able to lead the mine Newmont Mining — produced enough gold back to profit. He was later to keep the Great Depression of the 1930s able to push several mine just a story in the local newspapers. shafts past the 1,200-foot level that had been considered the End of the Empire maximum depth. The mine closed during World War II when George W. Starr many miners enlisted. In 1945 the mine reopened, but gold was still at its 1934 Mr. Bourn’s 19-year-old cousin, price — $35 per troy ounce. Unfortunately, it George W. Starr, began work then cost more to bring gold to the surface at the mine in 1881. By 1887 than it was worth. However, mining efforts ca. 1870 continued for another decade. In 1956, The Cornishmen when the Empire closed, it had yielded Cornish miners, who arrived from Cornwall, England, around nearly six million troy ounces of gold — a the mid-1850s, brought with them a well-honed work ethic and true bonanza. 1,000 years of history as hard rock miners. They also brought the Cornish pump, which allowed them to pump water out of the Geology 1,200-foot mine shafts. Gold deposits of the Grass Valley mining When shafts were drilled below the earth’s water table, district occur in quartz veins deep under they would fill with water. Each Cornish pump could draw ground. Granite bodies called plutons were 18,000 gallons of water per hour from the shafts, replacing formed when molten rock (magma) slowly manual mud diggers. Between the late 1870s and 1956, cooled below the surface of the earth. when the mine closed, Cornishmen provided the bulk of the During the final stages of cooling, liquids mine’s labor force. Crystalline gold with dissolved silica and gold pushed their from Empire’s Pennsylvania Mine PLEASE REMEMBER • Stay on marked trails. • To ensure public safety, some areas are fenced and closed to the public. • Drinking water and restrooms are not available along the trails. • Watch out for poison oak, ticks, and rattlesnakes. • Roads and trails allow dogs on a six- foot leash only. Except for service animals, dogs are not allowed inside ca. 1940 historic buildings or in mine shafts. • All natural and cultural features are way into the fractures, shear zones, and fault ask at the visitor center, call the park, or visit protected by law and may not be lines of older rocks and hardened, forming http://access.parks.ca.gov. disturbed or removed. the solid veins of gold found in quartz. Exhibits / Programs — The visitor center and These geologic actions, happening miles museum are generally accessible. below the surface of the ancestral Sierra Parking / Restrooms — Parking on the south Nevada, were later uplifted and revealed by side of Empire Street allows close and safe tectonic movement. access. Accessible restrooms are near the south parking lot. ACCESSIBLE FEATuRES Mine shops and exhibits area — Routes Due to historic doorway widths and steep through the park include some paved stepwells, not all exhibits and attractions walkways, some sloping terrain, and shifting are accessible. To arrange for transportation, gravel. Restrooms are generally accessible. to borrow wide-tire wheelchairs, or for Empire Cottage — The first floor of the information on alternative entries or lifts, cottage interior, generally accessible except for one tight hallway, is shown by guided tour only. Formal gardens may be seen from above at the ramp to the cottage.
NEARBY STATE PARKS • Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park 23579 North Bloomfield Park Road Nevada City 95959 (530) 265-2740 • South Yuba River State Park 17660 Pleasant Valley Road ca. 1940 Penn Valley 95946 (530) 432-2546 ca. 1940 E
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BuILdINGS ANd SITES 2. Mining Engineer’s Office 4. Assay Office 1. Visitor Center and Model Room After the 1929 merger with North Star Mine, Values were assigned to each gold sample The former carriage and automobile house this office housed the new engineering staff here; it now serves as a rescue station. is now the visitor center. Gold samples are hired to plan and direct the mine’s growth. on display. 5. Refinery Room The sprawling scale model display of the 3. Mine Manager’s Office Mercury from the stamp mill was recycled, Empire-Star Mine complex dates back to This restored 1898 office represents the and the remaining sponge-shaped gold 1938. The once-secret model was regularly ownership periods of both William Bourn, Jr. nuggets were cast into 89-pound bars updated to reflect the growth of the mine. and the Newmont Mining Corporation. and taken to San Francisco’s U.S. Mint. After the cyanide process was installed in and from the mine. From the headframe’s 1910, additional furnaces more efficiently crusher, ore went to the stamp mill for recovered the gold and silver. further processing. 6. Warehouse 12. Compressor Building Reconstructed by volunteers in 1989, this The compressors pumped air into the mine former hay- and supply-storage area is now to ventilate it, and to operate machinery. a meeting and training facility. 13. Hoist House 7. Welding Shop Site Here, skilled hoistmen raised After the mine closed, the old metal shop, and lowered men, supplies, where equipment had been fabricated and waste rock, and ore to and Garden and greenhouse repaired, was torn down and sold. from the various mine levels. 8. Machine Shop 14. Stamp Mill Site to distinguish it from Mr. Bourn’s By 1886, Pelton water wheels provided Little remains of this building. Heirloom roses other homes. The main floor holds energy to run operations and lights. The Early in the process, its eighty the kitchen, service rooms, living leather belts and ceiling-mounted shafts stamps smashed the raw ore, which was room, dining room, and a reading room later and wheels are still in place. then washed over mercury-coated tables to used as a bedroom by Mr. Bourn, Jr. Four bedrooms and two baths are on the second 9. Shaft Viewing Area capture the gold. floor. The servants’ rooms and a bathroom The ore “skips” that moved the rock to 15. Empire Clubhouse were located above the kitchen. waiting ore cars sped through this portal at William Bourn, Jr. built the clubhouse for 600 and 1,200 feet a minute. The deepest use by his supervisory personnel and as 18. Gardener’s House and Greenhouse shaft is more than 5,000 vertical feet down. a place to entertain visiting guests. The The Bourns loved trees and flowers of all kinds. The nearly 1,000 vintage rose bushes 10. Blacksmith Shop 1905 clubhouse is still used by the Empire seen in the formal garden and on the In the early days, equipment — from door Country Club and for park special events. landscaped grounds were cultivated in hinges to pump covers and stamps — was 16. Starr Home Site their greenhouse. fabricated in the company shops. Only the foundation of Ophir Cottage, 19. Cyanide Plant Site (1910) 11. Headframe Site George Starr’s home, remains. Flames Earlier methods of recovering gold were The mine’s headframe, demolished in 1969, destroyed it on October 28, 1935, despite replaced by adding sodium cyanide to supported a track that carried men, all efforts to save it. crushed ore. The cyanide dissolved and equipment, and rock to 17. Empire Cottage separated the gold from sulfides. This area This English manor home, designed in 1897 is closed to the public. by architect Willis Polk, was called a cottage
Blacksmith Shop Mine Shaft Machine ShopHeadframe Orleans Stamp Mill Foundation — This stamp mill was in operation until the early 1900s. Orleans Mine — Under the leadership of William Bourn Jr. (and later the Newmont Mining Corporation), this small claim was absorbed by the Empire Mine. Pennsylvania Mine — The Pennsylvania Mine site is marked by the concrete foundations of its compressor house. W.Y.O.d. Mine — The “Work Your Own Diggins” mine leased claims to miners. Mule Corral — This old corral was home to the mules before they were lowered into the mine. Sand dam — This waste rock area was high and strong enough to support a narrow- gauge rail line across Little Wolf Creek. Osborn Hill Loop Trail This demanding segment of the Hardrock Trail leads to some abandoned mine sites. WALKING TRAILS Hardrock Trail Area Prescott Hill Mine — To the left The Union Hill, Hardrock, and Osborn Hill This easy two-mile walk circles much of the of the mine’s shaft foundation is the Loop trails wind through nearly a century of Empire’s “outback.” headframe foundation. hardrock mining history. To ensure public Hardrock Trail — Along this road, trucks Betsy Mine — The hoist and pump works safety, some areas of the park are fenced moved waste rock. A wooden pedestrian of this mine were removed before 1900. and closed to the public. bridge crosses Little Wolf Creek. Conlon Mine — This mine, difficult to union Hill Trails Stamp Mill Foundation — On this site, keep drained, closed in 1908. These one- to three-mile trails feature California’s first stamp mill crushed gold- daisy Hill Mine — Two piles of waste wildflowers in spring. bearing quartz, treated it with mercury, and rock mark the site of the small Daisy Pipeline Trail — This trail led from the turned it into almost pure gold. Hill Mine. Empire Mine to the Northstar powerhouse. Cyanide Plant Site (closed to visitors) — Cyanide dissolved gold-bearing sulfides, Indian Ridge Trail — This trail was once This park is supported in part through the allowing the recovery of more gold. used by the Nisenan/Maidu people. nonprofit Empire Mine Park Association Trail Fork (Osborn Hill Trails) — From here, union Hill Trail — This trail loops westward 10787 East Empire St. Osborn Hill Loop climbs upward, ending from the north Pipeline Trail to the edge of Grass Valley, CA 95945 near several abandoned mines. the park next to the town of Grass Valley. www.empiremine.org
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