Wow! . . I have to admit we are both a bit jaded when it comes to museums, as we've been through so many over the years. It takes a lot to impress us, and this park/museum definitely did!
Our experiences in the Rand mining area of southern California gave us the background to fully appreciate the depth and breadth of the displays and information available here, through the indoor and outdoor museum displays and the scale model of the mine as well as the well informed volunteers. The website for the Empire Mine park contains a lot of information so I won't replicate that here. Please follow that link and read about the mine. It's a very impressive history.
We were impressed by the completeness of the buildings, tool and machinery collections, and the furnishings of the restored offices. We really thought most of this was original, as sometimes happens when a factory is shut down with the idea of reopening it later. Not so in this case.
The docent (blacksmith) we spoke with explained that all the metal buildings, machinery, tools, etc. had been sold off.
Once the decision to restore the mine was made the buildings were rebuilt and they began collecting the other items. They've done a wonderful job, and the park is definitely worth a visit.
If you do plan a visit check the tour schedule on the website. We just missed the opportunity to actually go into the Cottage and some of the other building. The Cottage is beautiful from the outside, as are the grounds, so I can only imagine what the inside is like.
This is a wonderful bit of California history. As well informed on the gold mining area as we are, we had never heard about this park. It's definitely worth a stop!
Check out our album, and the Empire Mine website, for more on the park.
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