On one of my visits to see relatives Out West, my cousin, Ron, and his wife Claudia, took me to see their town's most popular visitor attraction, which is the Empire Mine State Historic Site (www.parks.ca.gov). I took this photo of the couple at one of many scenic photo opportunities, available within the location.
The Empire Mine State Historic Site is located in Grass Valley, California, and the massive rocks lining the steps at the visitor center, are very appropriate, since Empire Mine was a source of gold that is from a process called Hard Rock Mining. This is a different process of mining from "panning" for gold in a flowing stream (called "placer mining"). Both processes were taking place simultaneously in northern California, after the gold rush of 1849.
After a visitor pays the small admission fee to take the guided tour, they can explore the entire park, including the manicured estate grounds, that includes this picturesque fountain. It is a coincidence that this cousin ended up in a town known for mining, because our mutual grandparents also hailed from a town known for mining---Lead Hill, Arkansas. At one time, the northern Arkansas location was mined for its lead deposits, although all that remains of any old lead mines there, have been covered up, when Bull Shoals Lake was formed, from a dam on the White River.
These "A Frame" structures in the garden area, provide a growing platform for the formation of an outdoor arbor.
Because of its neatly manicured shrubs, intertwined with brick paths, some visitors are reminded of being in a formal English-style rose garden.
The entire tour group was able to sit on a covered porch, as the tour guide pointed out details of the construction of the property, including the type of stone used throughout.
The guided tours are led by volunteers and if one goes to the website, there is a disclaimer with the statement showing the hours that tours are offered, that says if there is no volunteer available, there is no tour. I have done some volunteer work at a state park near me, and I know the important role volunteers play in our nation's park systems, both state and national.
My cousin Ron is looking over an antique stove that is in the kitchen area of the home. Ron and I share the same paternal grandparents, and can recall some of the old-fashioned cooking methods they used on their farm. In fact, one of my memories is when family members gathered to work all day on the slaughter, skinning, chopping, and grinding of a hog, the family raised for food. I remember there was a giant kettle of boiling liquid, that I was told to stay away from, because they were in the process of making lye soap, from the fat rendered out of the hog. I remember my parents brought home a congealed "substance" they called souse, which was used as a protein source, as long as it lasted. Souse is made up of bits and pieces of leftover hog parts, including the organs of the animal, the collagen released during the boiling process, serves as a binder to congeal the substance after it is cooked. Since we ate it straight out of the refrigerator, it was our form of "cold cuts"! (Nutrition research now shows that collagen is very beneficial to our health, but since many more people now used processed meats, rather than fresh meat, collagen is deficient in the American diet. Hence, it is being marketed as a separate powder, to add to one's food or beverage). Any memory of my maternal grandparents cook stove, includes standing beside my grandma as a little girl, and asking her how she knew when the lard she was heating to fry up the chicken she had just butchered, was hot enough to put the raw chicken in. She said she spit into the hot grease, to see if her spit sizzled. Not knowing she was kidding me, I immediately spit into the frying pan of hot grease! The only thing that sizzled was my rear end, after I was spanked for such unladylike behavior!
Since my husband was a hunter, the idea of an animal mount adorning the walls of a home seems perfectly natural to me. However, all of our trophy mounts are white-tail deer, bear, fish, and pheasants, whereas this California family room, shows moose and elk head mounts.
The Visitor Center of the Empire Mine has what is called "The Secret Room", because it was known only to the mine company's owner and board of directors. The room contains a 1938 scale model, of the 367 miles of underground shafts that lay beneath our feet. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to go to work in the very deepest of these shafts, and spend hour after hour, hammering away at the solid rock. The placard told us that about one inch represents the current mine tunnels that one can still enter. Furthermore, anything below two inches, is now flooded, because of the high water table in this part of Nevada County, California. The tunnels went deeper than 1,200 feet, which was considered the maximum, during the time the mine was operational. During that period, it required constant pumping, to keep water out of the lower tunnels.
One can also tour the abandoned mining equipment and out buildings, that surround the visitor center. In addition, there are 14 miles of hiking, horseback riding, and biking trails on the 856 acres of forested land that comprises the park.
It is not surprising that this site has a well-stocked gift shop, with numerous precious metal and precious stones, that one can purchase as a souvenir of your visit. It takes a tremendous amount of refining to get the tiny amounts of gold found in ore, extracted, then melted into a form that can be of use as jewelry. Likewise, it takes a tremendous amount of refining to get ME, to abandon my bad habits and create a pure heart within me! I am using all the sparkling silver and gold items, and HEART pendants, I saw in the gift shop, as a visual aid for one of my First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com) memory verses that says, "
The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart." Proverbs 16:3
This visit to Empire Mine, with my cousins, gave me "MILES OF SMILES"! Tricia
