Empire Mine State Historic Park

Empire Mine State Historic Park (SHP) is the site of one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest hard rock gold mines in California, the Empire Star Mine.  The park is located in the city of Grass Valley, California, and is a tribute to its significance in California history and its owners, the William Bourn family.  

An active gold mine for 106 years, the Empire Star Mine produced 5.6 million ounces of gold from 1850 to its closure in 1956.  It is estimated that this represented only 20 percent of the available gold, even though the mine reached a vertical depth of 11,007 feet before stopping production.

The park contains many of the mine’s original buildings, historic structures, as well as the entrance to 367 miles of abandoned and flooded mine shafts.  Some of the historic structures at the park include the Carriage House and Visitor Center, Mine Office Museum, Refinery Room, Machine Shop and Blacksmith Shop, Cyanide Plant, Empire Clubhouse, Empire Cottage and the reconstructed Mine Warehouse.  The Empire Star Mine was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

The Granite Cottage
Empire Mine SHP sits in 845 acres of forested backcountry, with 12 miles of hiking and mountain bike trails.  Visitors can stroll through years of hard rock mining operations and see 13.5 acres of restored gardens and landscaped grounds that surround the Empire Cottage.  This mansion “cottage” was built in 1897 by mine owner William Bowers Bourn Jr. (1857-1936), using granite waste rock from the mine.

Bourn and his wife, Agnes, had a great appreciation for the beauty of flowers and trees.   Evidence of this appeciation is everywhere in the park, and the park’s gardens and grounds have almost 950 types of rose bushes.  In 1975, the state of California purchased the Empire Star Mine properties for $1,250,000, and it became a California state park.

California Indian tribes occupied the land around the city of Grass Valley, located in Nevada County, California, for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the first Euro-American explorers.  Tribes in this area understood the many advantages of developing their villages in this part of California’s Central Valley, including moderate climate, rich soil and an abundance of waterways.

The Maidu and Nisenan California Indians historically lived in the western regions of Nevada County. Another tribe that lived near Nevada City, California, the city next to Grass Valley and the county seat of Nevada County, gave itself the unique name of the "Oustemahs,” meaning near the town.  In 1877, ethnographer Stephen Powers published a book, "Tribes of California," and he used "meidoo" or “maidu," the word in their language meaning Indian or man, to refer to many Nevada County tribes.  

In 1855, California's Indian Removal Policy moved all California Indians to reservations out of Nevada County.  Today, local descendants of the Tsi-Akim Maidu tribe are pursuing Federal recognition.

Storied History
The Empire Star Mine at Grass Valley has a storied history.   By 1850, the great hordes of ‘49ers had panned out most of California’s gold-bearing stream beds.  Only a few miners had any real idea of the quantities of gold still locked beneath the surface of the Sierra, in sheet-like veins of quartz.

In June of 1850, a miner discovered a gold-bearing quartz outcropping near St. Patrick’s church in downtown Grass Valley.   In October of 1850, a lumberman named George Roberts found flecks of gold in a surface outcropping of quartz, where Empire Mine SHP’s main parking lot is located today.

Hard rock gold mining was dangerous work, and tunnels were continually flooded by underground springs. By 1851, the Empire Mine property was perforated with hundreds of “coyote holes.”  These vertical holes in the ground were 20 to 40 feet deep and resembled water wells.  Cave-ins were frequent, and gold miners were lowered into these holes in buckets, which added to the danger.

George Roberts, like many others, became discouraged and sold his claim for $350 to a group that was consolidating small claims into a single operation, to be known as the Ophir Hill Mine.  In 1852, the Ophir Hill Mine property was purchased by John Rush, who changed the name to the Empire Quartz Hill Company.

Ownership of the mine continued to change rather rapidly during the 1850s and 1860s.  Surface structures and processing plants were repeatedly torn down, rebuilt and modernized.  The Empire Mine began to prosper after financier William Bowers Bourn Sr. (1813-74) gained a controlling interest in 1869.  Bourn Sr. paid $35,000 for the property’s cottage and grounds and oversaw operations until his death.

In 1879, Bourn’s son, William Bowers Bourn Jr. reached the age of 22 and inherited the mine properties. He quickly took over management of the mine even though, at that time, all indications pointed to the mine’s imminent closure.

Many believed that profitable operations were impossible below the 1,200-foot level, but young Bourn reorganized the company and boldly pushed several shafts much, much deeper.  In subsequent years, operating expenses were barely paid, but by 1884 the operation was making a profit once again.

Starr and Prosperity
William Bourn Jr. was also associated with other important business ventures, including the Greystone Winery in St. Helena, now The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone; the San Francisco Gas Company, now Pacific Gas and Electric; and the Spring Valley Water Company, the nucleus of San Francisco’s turn-of-the-century water supply system.  He was active in many civic and philanthropic endeavors and was one of the leaders in financing the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Much of the Empire Mine’s success was due to the work of Bourn’s younger cousin, George W. Starr.  Starr began work in the Empire Mine at the age of 19 and in six years (1881 to 1887) worked his way from “mucker” or clean-up man to mine superintendent.  With Bourn’s financial backing and the mining know-how of Starr, the Empire Mine became a showplace in mining technology at the turn of the century, and a moneymaking proposition.  It was considered the most efficient gold mine in California.

Starr talked about the mine in a 1900 edition of “Mining and Science Press.”   "In the history of gold mining in California the Empire stands preeminent, not alone for its wealth but for what the mine, above all others, has given in the way of example and earnest, well-applied endeavor.  It is the pioneer in deep mining and the first to regard Grass Valley mining a legitimate business, controlled by the same laws and conditions as should govern a well-managed manufacturing establishment," wrote Starr.

Cornish Cousin Jacks
Another critically important factor in the success of hard rock mining in California was the immigration of skilled miners from Cornwall, England, where hard rock tin and copper mining had been carried on for more than one thousand years.  These Cornishmen brought experience, skill and the latest technological advances in mining equipment.  They provided the bulk of the labor force from the late 1870s until 1956.

One of the Cornwall miners’ inventions was the Cornish pumps.  This was a unique system of steam pumps that took care of the mine’s constant water seepage, enabling increased productivity and expansion.  These great pumps lifted one million gallons of water a day and were so efficient that they continued to be used until the early 1930s.

By 1890, the population of Grass Valley, California, was reportedly 85 percent Cornish.  Every Cornish miner seemed to have an unlimited supply of relatives to recommend for every mine job, and since many of the miners wanted to undertake the hard, dangerous work only with trusted friends and relatives, the Cornishmen soon received the nickname, “Cousin Jacks.”

To this day the Cornish brand of humor and other cultural traditions are alive in Grass Valley, including food specialties from the original immigrant generation, such as pasties and saffron buns.  The city has annual Cornish Christmas and St. Piran's Day celebrations.

In 1893, Starr gave up his position to join the famous mining engineer, John Hays Hammond, in the gold mines of South Africa.  Then on his way to Alaska in 1898, Starr stopped in San Francisco to visit Bourn, who persuaded Starr to return to the Empire, where he served as superintendent until 1929.

Empire’s Demise
In 1929, William Bourn Jr., in failing health, sold the Empire Mine to Newmont Mining Corporation for $250,000.  During the same year, Newmont also purchased a controlling interest in the North Star Mine. The combined operation of these mines was then known as Empire-Star Mines Company Ltd.   However, it was the gold from the Empire Mine that kept the Newmont Mining Corporation solvent during the early 1930s.

The Empire Mine’s prosperity continued until World War II, when the War Production Board halted nonessential industries such as gold mining.  The mine reopened in 1945, but the price of gold remained fixed at its 1934 level of $35 an ounce, providing little profit. 

By the early 1950s, inflation had driven the cost of mining to $45 per ounce of gold.  The company could not pay the miners enough to feed their families. Consequently, on July 5, 1956, the miners went on strike.

For several months thereafter, while the strike continued, the big underground water pumps remained in operation in anticipation of the miners’ return.  The removal of underground mining equipment began in Jan. 1957.  On May 28, 1957, the last pump was shut down, and the Empire Mine was finally closed.  Its equipment was sold at auction in September 1959.

Historic Buildings
Empire Mine SHP features a number of historic buildings, many that have been restored and rehabilitated for historians and sightseers alike.  The visitor center at Empire Mine SHP was formerly the carriage house, stable and grooms’ quarters.  With the coming of the automobile, the part of the building that is now the audio-visual center was converted into a garage.  Gold samples are on display in a specially constructed vault.
 
The Empire SHP's Visitor Center has a unique feature, called the Secret Room.  To keep track of the Empire Mine’s 367 miles of underground workings, Bourn and Starr built the Secret Room, named for its blacked-out windows.  The entire room was filled with a scale model of the underground workings of the Empire Mine’s complex.

Few people knew the room existed while the mine was in operation.  The model represents five square miles of underground workings.  When park visitors go into the main Empire mine shaft at the shaft viewing area, they have journeyed only one inch on the model.  Anything past two inches on the model is currently underwater in the actual mine.

A walk-through museum is located in the Mine Office Building.  Originally constructed in 1898 as part of George Starr’s extensive redevelopment of the Empire Mine, the office has been restored to represent both the period of the William Bourn family’s ownership and that of Newmont Mining Corporation.

The Refinery Room is where amalgam from the Stamp Mill was heated in a sealed retort until the quicksilver, or mercury, vaporized and was recycled for re-use.  The remaining gold sponge was melted, cast into 89-pound bars and delivered to the U.S. Mint in San Francisco for payment.  After 1910, when the cyanide process was installed, additional furnaces were added to more efficiently recover gold and silver deposited on zinc chips as part of the cyanide process.

Reconstructed by volunteers in 1989 to serve as a meeting and training facility, the Mine Warehouse was originally used for storage of mining supplies and hay for the mules.

Steam power was no longer economical after 1886, because most of the area’s timber had been consumed.  Thereafter, the drills, lathes and other machines in the historic Machine Shop were powered by the energy generated by Pelton Water Wheels.  Notice the leather belts and ceiling-mounted shafts and wheels that are still in place.  In the early days, mines had to be nearly self-sufficient, and most of the equipment, from door hinges to pump covers and stamps, was fabricated in the company’s Blacksmith Shop.

The Cyanide Plant dates back to 1910.  Unlike earlier processes designed to recover gold by strictly physical means, this chemical process involved adding sodium cyanide to crushed ore to dissolve and separate the gold from sulfides and to deposit it as a coating on zinc chips.  This method improved the Empire Mine’s production by 40 percent.  Concrete foundations indicate the position of processing tanks.

Entertaining at the Clubhouse and Cottage
George Starr convinced William Bourn Jr. of the need for the Empire Clubhouse as a meeting place for supervisory personnel and as a place to entertain visiting guests, and it was constructed in 1905.  

The Bourns and Starrs loved to entertain, and their guests included visiting mining engineers, stockholders and, one of their most famous guests, future President Herbert Hoover.  The clubhouse facilities included a ballroom, billiards room, bar, squash court, bowling alley, tennis courts and, of course, room for croquet and badminton.  The clubhouse still serves as a meeting place for the Empire Country Club, which was organized in 1915.

The Empire Cottage is a beautiful English manor home that was called a cottage to differentiate it from the other homes of William Bourn Jr.  The cottage was designed to look like an English country lodge by the well-known San Francisco architect, Willis Polk, and was built in 1897.

The lower wing, with its arched doors, was used for storage.  The main floor contains the kitchen, service rooms, a spacious living room, a dining room and a reading room that was later converted to a bedroom after Bourn’s stroke in 1922.  The family’s four large bedrooms and two baths were across the front of the second floor.  Two bedrooms and one bath for the servants were above the kitchen area.

The interior of the Empire Cottage is paneled in heart redwood, and the landscaped gardens and grounds around the cottage have beautiful old-type rose bushes that date back to 1897.  The Empire Mine Park Association Gift Shop sells rose bushes propagated from many of the historic roses.

Tours and Presentations
Guided tours and audio-visual presentations are offered to the public throughout the day at various times, including tours of the Mine Yard and Empire Cottage.  There are a number of living history programs presented at the park during the year, some with demonstrations of mine operations.

A video entitled "Tears from the Sun," which depicts various gold mining techniques, is shown in the Mine Office Museum.  A “Walking Trails” brochure is available at the visitor center for exploration of the scenic backcountry trails.  The visitor center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m..

On Mother's Day weekend, a Springtime Open House is held every year at the Empire Mine.  It features special history programs, period food and entertainment.  As an added bonus, the Empire Cottage gardens are in full bloom.  There is also an annual Miners Picnic, usually scheduled for late summer, and during the Thanksgiving weekend the park has a holiday open house.

For more general information on history programs, special events or guided tour times at Empire Mine State Historic Park, visit our websites at www.empiremine.org and http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=499 or call 530-273-8522.