Almaden Quicksilver County Park is a 4,163 acres (17 km²) park that includes the grounds of former mercury ("quicksilver")

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

s adjacent to south

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The park's

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

varies greatly: the most used entrances (on the east side of the park) are less than 600 feet (183 m) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, while the highest point in the park is over 1,700 feet (518 m) above sea level. The park is owned by the

County of Santa Clara Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...

and managed by the

Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, sometimes referred to as Santa Clara County Parks Department or Santa Clara County Parks, is a government department in Santa Clara County, California. The department manages 29 parks with a total ...

. Its grounds include the Guadalupe Reservoir and features sweeping views of San Jose. Adjacent to the park is the

Almaden Reservoir Almaden Reservoir is an artificial lake in the hills south of San Jose, California in the United States. It borders on the Almaden Quicksilver County Park, which provides limited fishing ("catch-and-release"), picnicking, hiking, and horseback r ...

. The Casa Grande Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum is located in nearby

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 ...

. The park is named after the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, which were named after the mercury

in (old)

Almadén Almadén () is a town and municipality in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, within the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The town is located at 4° 49' W and 38° 46' N and is 589 meters above sea level. Almadén is approximately 3 ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, and produced mercury that was used to process ore during the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

History

The park's New Almaden Mines were in operation from 1847 to 1976. The mines were highly important during the California Gold Rush, since mercury was used to extract

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

from

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...

. By the time

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...

bought the mines in 1976 and ended operations, 83,974,076 pounds (37,388 metric tons) of mercury (worth more than US$70 million) had been extracted. The remains of a variety of structures left over from the 135 years of mining activity, including housing for the up to 1,800 miners, are scattered about the park, with the biggest concentration at what was known as English Camp, established by Cornish miners in the 1860s. Some structures were built later by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

and there is a memorial honoring the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

firefighters that were stationed there for a time.

Conversion from mines to park

In the period 1976 to 1978, the county developed a number of new large parks in rapid succession including Grant Ranch Park, Sanborn Park and Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Very soon after buying the mining property in 1976, Santa Clara County began planning for park usage, in an era where the county parks program was aggressively expanding. The county parks director envisioned a historic park where visitors could experience the mining past and also enjoy the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of the natural setting. Facilities plans were created and an Environmental Impact Report was prepared.David Crimp, Leda Patmore, C. Michael Hogan, Harry Seidman and Vivian Paparigian, ''Final Environmental Impact Report, Almaden Quicksilver Park'', prepared by Earth Metrics Inc. for the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department (1976) Principal issues assessed in the park proposal were: * biological impacts upon habitat by park users * water quality impacts to creeks draining the watershed * visual and drainage impacts of road improvements * historical analysis of mine usage

References

External links

Almaden Quicksilver County Park Official Website
2009-10-25) {{Coord, 37, 12, 27, N, 121, 52, 51, W, scale:50000_source:GNIS, display=title Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area Mercury mines in the United States Underground mines in the United States Bay Area Ridge Trail County Parks in Santa Clara County, California

History

Conversion from mines to park

See also

References

External links