Empire Mine State Historic Park

This foothill country is the homeland of the Nisenan, a Southern Maidu people who lived along these rivers and ridges for countless generations before the Gold Rush overran their world in a single violent decade.

Gold was found in the Grass Valley quartz in 1850, and unlike the placer gold panned from streams, this was hard-rock gold locked in veins that had to be blasted, hauled up, and crushed. The Empire grew over the following century into one of the greatest gold mines in California history, eventually producing millions of ounces before it closed in 1956, when the fixed price of gold and the cost of ever-deeper mining finally made it unprofitable.

The workings that remain sealed and flooded below the park are staggering in scale: a maze of tunnels totaling hundreds of miles, descending more than eleven thousand feet along the incline. A famous scale model inside the park lets you grasp the three-dimensional labyrinth that once hummed with men and machinery under your feet.

The Empire and its neighbors ran on the skill of Cornish hard-rock miners, who came from the tin and copper mines of Cornwall in England as those failed, bringing generations of underground know-how. They were so numerous in Grass Valley that they were nicknamed Cousin Jacks, and their culture reshaped the town.

The Cornish brought their powerful pumps to keep the deep shafts from flooding, their methods of timbering and blasting, and their food. The Cornish pasty, a hearty hand-held meat-and-vegetable pie a miner could carry underground and eat without washing his hands, became and remains a Grass Valley institution. The town's Cornish carol-singing tradition still echoes their homeland at Christmas.

For decades the mine was owned by the Bourn family, and William Bowers Bourn II built a country home at its edge that could not be more different from the shaft down the path. The Bourn Cottage, designed by the noted San Francisco architect Willis Polk, is a warm, English-style manor of local stone with leaded windows, rich woodwork, and formal gardens, reflecting pool, and fountains.

Walking from the sooty headframe to the cottage in a few minutes is the point of the park. It lays the two sides of a mining fortune right next to each other, the dangerous labor a mile underground and the graciousness it paid for at the surface.

Above ground, the park preserves the industrial heart of the operation: the headframe over the shaft, the hoist house that lowered men and ore, the machine shops, and the yard of heavy equipment, all set among the pines. Interpretive tours and volunteers in period dress help bring the working mine to life.

Beyond the buildings, the wooded hills are laced with many miles of trails for walking, running, and mountain biking, following old mine roads through second-growth forest that has reclaimed the once-industrial landscape. It makes an easy add-on to a day exploring the historic towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Empire Mine State Historic Park, in Grass Valley in California's Gold Country, preserves one of the oldest, largest, deepest, and richest gold mines in the state's history. Operating for over a hundred years, the Empire Mine produced an enormous fortune in gold from miles of underground workings before it closed. Today the park lets visitors explore the historic mine yard with its buildings and machinery, peer into the mine shaft, and tour the elegant Bourn Cottage, the owner's stone mansion, and its beautiful gardens. It offers a fascinating and vivid look at California's Gold Rush and hard-rock mining heritage.

You can explore the historic mine yard with its headframe, buildings, and mining equipment, look down the main mine shaft into the depths where miners once worked, tour the beautiful Bourn Cottage, the mine owner's elegant stone mansion, and its lovely gardens, view a scale model of the vast underground workings, and hike trails on the grounds. Guided tours and exhibits bring the mining history to life. With its authentic mine structures, the grand cottage, and rich history, Empire Mine offers an engaging and educational experience of California's gold-mining past.

No, visitors cannot go down into the mine itself, as the extensive underground workings are flooded and closed, but you can peer down the main shaft to get a sense of the depths, view a detailed scale model showing the miles of tunnels far below, and explore the surface mine yard and buildings. This lets you appreciate the scale and history of the mine without descending. The above-ground structures, the shaft viewpoint, the model, and the mansion together provide a rich picture of the mine's operation and the lives of those who worked it.

Spring and fall offer the most pleasant weather for exploring the outdoor mine yard, gardens, and trails, with spring especially lovely for the Bourn Cottage's roses and gardens, while summer can be warm and winter cool and sometimes rainy. Guided tours may follow seasonal schedules, so checking current hours and tour times before you go is wise. The gardens are at their best in the warm months. For comfortable exploring and beautiful gardens, spring and fall are ideal, though the historic park is rewarding year-round in Gold Country.

The park is in Grass Valley in California's Gold Country, near the historic Gold Rush town of Nevada City with its Victorian downtown, the Malakoff Diggins hydraulic mining site, the South Yuba River, and other Gold Country attractions, with the Sierra Nevada foothills and Lake Tahoe within a drive to the east. That makes Empire Mine State Historic Park a fascinating stop to combine with Nevada City, Malakoff Diggins, and the historic mining towns and scenery of California's Gold Country on a Northern California visit.