In October 1850, George Roberts discovered gold in a quartz outcrop on Ophir Hill,[5] but sold the claim in 1851 to Woodbury, Parks and Co. for $350 (or about $12,000 today, adjusted for inflation). The Woodbury Company consolidated several local claims into the Ophir Hill Mine, but they mismanaged their finances and in 1852 were forced to sell the business at auction.[5] It was purchased by John P. Rush and the Empire Quartz Hill Co.[6]:27 The Empire Mining Co. was incorporated in 1854, after John Rush was bought out.[6]:15,28[7]:87 As word spread that hard rock gold had been found in California, miners from the tin and copper mines of Cornwall, England, arrived to share their experience and expertise in hard rock mining. Particularly important was the Cornish contribution of the Cornish engine, operated on steam, which emptied the depths of the mine of its constant water seepage at a rate of 18,000USgal (68,000L; 15,000impgal) per day.[6]:19–21 This enabled increased productivity and expansion underground. Starting in 1895, Lester Allan Pelton's water wheel provided electric power for the mine and stamp mill.[6]:16 The Cornish provided the bulk of the labor force from the late 1870s until the mine's closure eighty years later.
William Bowers Bourn acquired control of the company in 1869.[6]:31 Bourn died in 1874, and his estate ran the mine, abandoning the Ophir vein for the Rich Hill in 1878.[6]:34 Bourn's son, William Bowers Bourn II, formed the Original Empire Co. in 1878, took over the assets of the Empire Mining Co., and continued work on the Ophir vein after it was bottomed out at 1,200 feet (370m) and allowed to fill with water.[7]:87[8] With his financial backing, and after 1887, the mining knowledge and management of his younger cousin George W. Starr, the Empire Mine became famous for its mining technology.[6]:36[7]:87 Bourn purchased the North Star Mine in 1884, turning it into a major producer, and then sold it to James Duncan Hague in 1887, along with controlling interest in the Empire a year later.[6]:37
Bourn reacquired control of the Empire Mine in 1896, forming the Empire Mines and Investment Co. In 1897, he commissioned Willis Polk to design the "Cottage", using waste rock from the mine. The "Cottage" included a greenhouse, gardens, fountains and a reflecting pool. Between 1898 and 1905, a clubhouse with tennis courts, bowling alley and squash courts were built nearby.[6]:39
The Empire Mine installed a cyanide plant in 1910, which was an easier gold recovery process than chlorination. In 1915, Bourn acquired the Pennsylvania Mining Co., and the Work Your Own Diggings Co., neighboring mines, which gave the Empire Mines and Investment Co. access to the Pennsylvania vein. The North Star also had some rights to that vein, but both companies compromised and made an adjustment.[6]:45,48
In 1928, at the recommendation of Fred Searls of Nevada City, Newmont Mining Corp. purchased the Empire Mine from Bourn. Newmont also purchased the North Star Mine, resulting in Empire-Star Mines, Ltd.[7]:87 The business was managed by Fred Nobs and later by Jack Mann.
Gold mines were defined as "nonessential industry to the war effort" by the War Production Board of the US Government on 8 October 1942, which shut down operations until 30 June 1945. After the war, a shortage of skilled miners forced the suspension of operations below the 4,600-foot level by 1951.[6]:74–75
By the 1950s inflation costs for gold mining were leaving the operation unprofitable. In 1956 a crippling miners' strike over falling wages ended operations.[6]:77 Ellsworth Bennett, a 1910 graduate of the Mackay School of Mines in Reno was the last "Cap'n" (Superintendent) of the Empire, and the only person from management allowed across the picket line (the miners' lives depended on his engineering skills and they worked as a team). Bennett oversaw the closing of the Empire on May 28, 1957, when the last Cornish water pumps were shut and removed. In its final year of operation in 1956, the Empire Mine had reached an incline depth of 11,007ft (3,355m).
In 1974 California State Parks purchased the Empire Mine surface property for $1.25 million ($7.42 million today), to create a state historic park.[6]:81 The state park now contains 853 acres (345ha; 3.45km2; 1.333sqmi),[9] including forested backcountry.[3] Newmont Mining retained the mineral rights to the Empire Mine, and 47 acres, if they decide to reopen the Empire Star Mines.[6]:81
Geology
Grass Valley geologic map showing the underlying granodioriteGrass Valley geologic cross section showing the Empire vein
A Granodiorite body five miles (8km) long, north to south, and up to two miles (3.2km) wide, underlies the district. This body intruded into surrounding metamorphic rocks. Gold ore deposits reside in the quartzveins, ranging from 3 to 7 ounces per ton. The Empire Vein outcrops to the east on a north–south strike, dipping at a 35-degree angle to the west. The vein was mined with inclined shafts following dip, with horizontal shafts (drifts) every 300–400ft (90–120m) along strike. The ore was mined by stoping.[6]:25[10]:53–59
Museum
Empire Cottage was built using waste rock from the mine.
On weekends from May through October, volunteers dressed in Edwardian clothing give living history tours of the Bourn Cottage, the 1890s country estate home of William Bourn Jr., and the Mineyard, with demonstrations of mine operations.[citation needed]
The park's museum contains a scale model of the underground workings of the Empire/Star mine complex, exhibits of ore samples from local mines, a recreated Assay Office and a collection of minerals. There are 13 acres (5.3ha) of gardens to tour.[citation needed]
The Sierra Gold Park Foundation (SGPF) provides the interpretive and educational goals of this state historic park through donations, visitor center sales, membership dues and special events. It has a very active volunteer group.[citation needed]
Nevada County is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 census, its population was 102,241. The county seat is Nevada City. Nevada County comprises the Truckee-Grass Valley micropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Sacramento-Roseville combined statistical area, part of the Mother Lode Country.
Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 12,860. Situated at roughly 2,500 feet (760 m) in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this northern Gold Country city is 57 miles (92 km) by car from Sacramento and 88 miles (142 km) west of Reno.
The Gold Country is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines that attracted waves of immigrants, known as the 49ers, during the 1849 California Gold Rush.
Mother lode is a principal vein or zone of gold or silver ore. The term is also used colloquially to refer to the real or imaginary origin of something valuable or in great abundance.
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is a state park unit preserving the largest hydraulic mining site in California, United States. The mine was one of several hydraulic mining sites at the center of the 1882 landmark case Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company. The mine pit and several Gold Rush-era buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Malakoff Diggins-North Bloomfield Historic District. The "canyon" is 7,000 feet (2,100 m) long, as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) wide, and nearly 600 feet (180 m) deep in places. Visitors can see huge cliffs carved by mighty streams of water, results of the mining technique of washing away entire mountains of gravel to wash out the gold. The park is a 26-mile (42 km) drive north-east of Nevada City, California, in the Gold Rush country. The 3,143-acre (1,272 ha) park was established in 1965.
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada, which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock.
State Route 49 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849 California gold rush and it is known as the Golden Chain Highway. The highway's creation was lobbied by the Mother Lode Highway Association, a group of locals and historians seeking a single highway to connect many relevant locations along the Gold Rush to honor the 49ers. One of the bridges along SR 49 is named for the leader of the association, Archie Stevenot.
You Bet is a small unincorporated community in Nevada County, California. You Bet is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills, 7 miles (11.3 km) east of Grass Valley and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Chicago Park.
In the United States, gold mining has taken place continually since the discovery of gold at the Reed farm in North Carolina in 1799. The first documented occurrence of gold was in Virginia in 1782. Some minor gold production took place in North Carolina as early as 1793, but created no excitement. The discovery on the Reed farm in 1799 which was identified as gold in 1802 and subsequently mined marked the first commercial production.
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.
Gold mining in Colorado, a state of the United States, has been an industry since 1858. It also played a key role in the establishment of the state of Colorado.
William Bowers Bourn II was an American entrepreneur and socialite. Bourn ran and controlled the Empire Mine and the San Francisco Gas Company, he was an investor in Spring Valley Water Company, and he led a merger to what later became Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Bourn II was the builder of many estates in California, including Filoli, the country estate in San Mateo County, California.
Graniteville is a small, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Nevada County, California, United States. The town sits on the San Juan ridge separating the Middle and South Forks of the Yuba River, approximately 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Nevada City. The elevation of Graniteville is 4,977 feet (1,517 m) above sea level.
Gold Hill in Grass Valley, California, was the site of one of the first discoveries of quartz gold in California. While quartz gold was also found in other areas of Nevada County, California during the same time, it is this find near Wolf Creek that led to quartz-mining frenzy and subsequent creation of the Gold Country quartz-mining industry. The location is honored as a California Historical Landmark.
The Keane Wonder Mine and mill is an abandoned mining facility located within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, California. It is located in the Funeral Mountains east of Death Valley and Furnace Creek, California
Snow Point was a historic mining town in Nevada County, California on the San Juan Ridge about 2 miles east of Moore's Flat and about 6 miles west of Graniteville. It was located at an elevation of 4321 ft just off present day German Bar Road about midway between that road's intersections with present day Moore's Flat Road and Hagerty Road.
Rancho Las Mariposas was a 44,387-acre (179.63 km2) Mexican land grant in Alta California, located in present-day Mariposa County, California.
Gold Hill is an unincorporated community in Placer County, California. Gold Hill is located 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Auburn. It lies at an elevation of 354 feet.
The North Star Mine and Powerhouse are located on Lafayette Hill a short distance south of Grass Valley in the U.S. state of California. It was the second largest producer of gold during California's Gold Rush. In 1898, the largest Pelton wheel for its time was built for the mine. The North Star Mine Company also owned locations on Weimar Hill, adjoining and south of the North Star Mine. It shut down during World War II after its consolidation with the Empire Mine.
Champion-Providence Mine was a consolidation of two adjoining gold mines in Nevada City, California subsequent to the California Gold Rush. After it became the Champion Group following annexation of additional adjacent mining concerns, it became one of the two most productive mining groups in the Nevada City Mining District, alongside the North Star Mine, which eventually purchased it. The Champion-Providence Mine closed in 1920.
References
1 2 "Empire Mine". Office of Historic Preservation, California State Parks. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
Wagner, H. H. (1939). The Empire Mine, Nevada County: registered landmark #298. California historical survey series: historic landmarks, monuments and state parks. Berkeley, Calif: State of California, Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of Parks.
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