Excerpts from the San Jose Mercury News story, by Lisa Krieger on the re-opening:
Casa Grande, an 1854 Classic Revival-style home built by architect Francis Meyers, was the official residence and office of mine superintendents, as well as a country retreat for wealthy mine investors. In all of Santa Clara County, only Peralta Adobe is older.
Its heyday came under the watch of manager James Butterworth Randol, a young New Yorker who had been secretary of the Quicksilver Mining Co.
Under Randol's strict supervision, the mining village became a model town. Roadways and cottages were kept trim and newly painted. A tollgate was installed to keep out gamblers, prostitutes and thieves. Randol created an innovative Miner's Health and Welfare Plan, where miners and families received medical care.
But his wife, Christina, a beautiful redhead, was homesick. So Randol diverted Alamitos Creek to create a large private lake in their backyard. The grounds were landscaped with the help of John McLaren, who designed Golden Gate Park. In 1888, Randol remodeled the mansion, installing a gymnasium for sons William and Frederick and enlarging the nursery for the three younger children. Distinguished guests included millionaire William Ralston and the Comstock Silver King's James Fair.
New Almaden gained a reputation as a place of innovation long before Silicon Valley, because its engineers learned efficient ways to pull mercury, or quicksilver, from cinnabar, the red ore that oozes from coastal California's mountains.
This mercury proved very valuable during the Gold Rush, because the element helps extract gold and silver -- revolutionizing the mining process. More than $75 million worth of minerals were pulled from the mines.
In these boom years, voices of miners echoed through the hills, as they worked dangerous 10-hour shifts, six days a week, in hot and wet shafts that were more than 2,000 feet deep. Flumes released sulfur gases into the air. Toxic slag was flushed into the creek.
Explosions reverberated through the valley. Shrill whistles ended each shift. Dirt roads were filled with teams of horses, who carried mercury flasks out to the little hamlet of San Jose, then Alviso, where it was shipped up the Bay to Sacramento and the gold and silver mines.
Then it all ended, the rich veins of cinnabar depleted.
Casa Grande, one of the few surviving artifacts of that period, was saved in 1998 with its purchase by Santa Clara County Parks Department.
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