On the corner of Central Avenue and Poplar Street in downtown Bayard, New Mexico, the Bayard Mining Park commemorates Grant County miners with a collection of mining equipment and educational plaques. While the park does not warrant a trip in and of itself, the park, like a fine wine, is paired nicely with a trip…
In our travels, few museums are as widely known as the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. The florescent rocks sourced from this region are a favorite of collectors for their brilliant colors and found in collections around the world. The museum itself is a compound of structures and outdoor exhibits spanning mining equipment, regional mining history, a mine tour, as well as an impressive collection of fluorescent rocks and goods.
Jerome may be considered a ghost town today, but between late-1880s and early 1950s it was the “Billion Dollar Copper Town,” with all the challenges and profits that came with a thriving mining operation. The town is perched over a copper mine that once produced 3 million pounds of copper per month. The Jerome State Historic Park chronicles the boom and bust of Jerome through the perspectives of the Douglas family as well as the Jerome area.
At the southern tip of the Great Smoky Mountains is a rich copper deposit with a history of conflict and innovation to out-do that of the Malakoff Diggins. The Burra Burra Copper mine and its contemporaries are commemorated in the Ducktown Basin Museum.
Emerald Village is a privately run collection of mining attractions in the Spruce Pine Mining District of eastern North Carolina. This mountainous section of the Appellation Mountains is unique for its variety and wealth of gems and minerals, including the precious stone that the village is named after: emeralds. Yet, for the emeralds, amethysts, sapphires,…
Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, off the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, is the Spruce Pine Mining District one of the richest deposits of gems and minerals. Of these minerals, over 300 varieties are on display at the Museum of North Carolina Minerals including emerald, amethyst, sapphire, garnet, kaolin, quartz, mica, and feldspar….
In a quiet corner of the Smithsonian American History Museum, in a small case in the shipping transportation section, next to a few coins from the 1800s, is a small fleck of gold under a magnifying glass. One would have expected any gold samples to be part of the extensive gold collection held by the Smithsonian…
Placer county is one of many local governments in the California foothills that was born out of the mass population influx and wealth of the California Gold Rush. The land that became Auburn, within Placer County, was first settled in May 1848 and became a transportation hub for neighboring gold mining operations. Even today, there are over…
While mining may be dirty work, sometimes, there is a time for the finer things. The Crocker Art Museum has a massive collection of early California art, much of which is inspired by—and often funded by those who profited from—the gold rush. Located only a few blocks from Old Town Sacramento and the Sacramento History…
It seems like traffic is up on The Diggings and so it is likely that more and more people may be noting a glaring omission: Where is Alaska? As one of the major hotbeds for mining activity, surely, there must be masses upon masses of mining claims to be found. The short answer is: there…
