Almaden Quicksilver County Park
Almaden Quicksilver County Park is a 4,163 acres (17 km2) park that includes the grounds of former mercury ("quicksilver") mines adjacent to south San Jose, California, USA. The park's elevation varies greatly: the most used entrances (on the east side of the park) are less than 600 feet (183 m) above sea level, while the highest point in the park is over 1,700 feet (518 m) above sea level.
The park is owned by the
History
The park's New Almaden Mines were in operation from 1847 to 1976. The mines were highly important during the
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.[3] Some structures were built later by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and there is a memorial honoring the Civilian Conservation Corps 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
The county parks director envisioned a historic park where visitors could experience the mining past and also enjoy the
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
See also
- Shaft mining
- Surface runoff
- New Almaden town and quicksilver mines
References
- ^ "About the Almaden Valley". Almaden Valley Community Association. Retrieved Dec 26, 2009.
- ^ Martin Cheek, "Mercury Uprising," San Jose Magazine 9, no. 1 (January 2006): 80-85
- ^ Parks, Shoshi (2021-04-04). "The Bay Area park at the center of California's other gold rush". SFGATE. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
- ^ Almaden Quicksilver Master Plan, County of Santa Clara, San Jose, California (1976)
- ^ 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)