New Idria was an

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

town in

San Benito County, California San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Benedict of Nursia, St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county (United States), county located in the California Coast Ranges, Coast Range Mountains of the ...

. It was named after the

New Idria Mercury Mine The New Idria Mercury Mine encompasses 8,000 acres of land in the Diablo Mountain range, incorporating the town of Idria in San Benito County, California. Idria, initially named New Idria, is situated at and 2440 feet (680m) above mean sea leve ...

, which closed in 1972, resulting in a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

Geography

The area is inside

Area code 831 Area code 831 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for a small region of the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area (NPA) comprises Monterey County, San Benito County, and Santa Cruz County. The area cod ...

. It is included in the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District and the Panoche Elementary School District.

San Benito Mountain San Benito Mountain is the highest mountain in the Diablo Range of California. The summit is at an elevation of . The rock is composed of asbestos (chrysotile), an ultramafic rock. It weathers to produce serpentine soils with characteristically ...

, elevation , is located southeast. The nearest city is King City along

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

. The

was named in honor of the world's then second largest quicksilver mine in what was then Idria,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, now Idrija,

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

; ( Slovene pronunciation �drija

California English California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. A distinctive vowel shift was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of n ...

pronunciation �dria) The town grew to support the mining operations, but the mine closed in the 1970s. The town is currently an abandoned

with more than 100 standing buildings, though vandalism has contributed to their deterioration in recent years. According to the

US Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, an ...

, both Idria (primary) and New Idria (variant) are recognized for federal use in describing the community.

History

The community was established to support the mine, which mainly extracted mercury, since

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and ...

was abundant in the local rock formations. Mercury mining at the location began in 1854. At one time, the New Idria mines were America's second most productive mines, with the

New Almaden , settlement_type = Neighborhood of San Jose , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = , mapsize1 = , map_caption1 = , pushpin_map = United States Sa ...

mines in the vicinity of San Jose, about northwest, being the first. The discovery of mercury ore at New Idria came soon after the discovery of gold in the Sierra foothills, which began the

California gold rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

. At that time, mercury was important in extracting gold from gold ore. Before the New Idria and

Quicksilver Mines, the mercury came almost exclusively from Europe. The New Idria Mining Company was formed soon after the discovery of

(quicksilver ore) in the southern

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the state, north of Southern California, which includes Los Angeles, and south of Northern California, which includes San Francisco. It includes the northern portion of the San J ...

in 1854. The town of New Idria began around 1857 and about 300 men were employed at the mine by 1861. The first school opened in 1867 and the New Idria Post Office opened in 1869, with Edward A. Morse as the first postmaster. In 1894, the New Idria Post Office dropped the word "New" and the town become known as Idria. The New Idria Quicksilver Mining Company closed in 1972. On May 30, 1974, the town and surrounding 2,000 acres were auctioned by Wershow Auctioneers, in So. San Francisco. The town has since become a

. New Idria is a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

(#324) and home of the world’s first Gould Rotary Furnace, which revolutionized ore processing technology worldwide. On July 30, 2010, a fire destroyed 13 buildings on the north side of town. ;Superfund Site In 2011, New Idria was re-listed as a

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...

(EPA)

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site, owing to unchecked mercury run-off and contamination. As of June, 2012, the entire section of the former town site on the south side of New Idria/Clear Creek road is fenced-off.

Environmental concerns in the area

The New Idria Mercury Mine was initially investigated in the 1990s by the

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

, for possible inclusion on the EPA's National Priorities List, but the site did not rank high enough at that time to be listed. A site reassessment was begun in 2002, and an expanded site assessment begun in 2009, which was concluded in October 2010. In March 2011, the EPA proposed New Idria to its National Priority List. Elevated levels of mercury were found downstream of the town, as well as significant levels of mercury and other heavy metals found within tailings piles on the site. The region has a long history of mining, with asbestos and

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

being mined in addition to mercury; the EPA's 2004 Risk Assessment for the nearby Clear Creek Management Area identified 86 separate abandoned mines in the vicinity. The natural rock formations in the area have been shedding asbestos-rich debris into stream valleys for millions of years The average New Idria rock contains 5-15% by volume short fiber asbestos. The 2010 edition of

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping, software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation and education markets. The company is headquartered in Chicago, with a distribution c ...

's ''The Road Atlas'' labels the area immediately south of New Idria as an "Asbestos Hazard Area". New Idria Mercury Mine Polluted Water 2013

Mineral collecting

The New Idria Mining District is known for its abundance of rare minerals such as

benitoite Benitoite () is a rare blue barium titanium cyclosilicate, found in hydrothermally altered serpentinite. It forms in low temperature, high pressure environments typical of subduction zones at convergent plate boundaries. Benitoite fluoresces ...

, named after the

San Benito River The San Benito River is a long river flowing northwesterly between the Diablo Range and the Gabilan Range, on the Central Coast of California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map acces ...

. Gem quality benitoite is only found in this area of the world. New Idria is also home to

serpentinite Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''ser ...

rock. Many thousands of

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

events acting on the serpentinite have produced extensive deposits of short-fiber

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

.Ross, M (2003). ''"History of asbestos discovery and use and asbestos related disease in context with the occurrence of asbestos within ophiolite complexes."'' Geological Society of America, special paper 373

References

External links