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In 1777 Pueblo de San Jose was founded with a population of 66. By 1850 it had grown to 4000 and became the first city chartered in California. It was the site of the first state legislature in 1849-51.
Andres Castillero, a Mexican cavalry officer, arrived in 1845. (1) The local native Americans, the Ohlone, brought him to the source of the rich red pigment they were using for paint. He filed a claim and was granted title to the mineral deposit by the Mexican government. This ore, cinnabar or mercury sulfide, was the first mineral discovery in California and eventually became the richest mine in the state. By 1854 there were thirteen furnaces in continuous operation reducing the cinnabar to mercury. (1)
In 1861 Samuel Butterworth took management of the Quicksilver Mining Company and resolved to increase production and safety. This brought an influx of Cornish miners with their vast experience in deep shaft mining. They established English Town or Camp on Mine Hill. It included white wooden houses with picket fences, a school, boarding house, a community center and a Methodist Episcopal Church. (1)
The mines reached a depth of up to 2300 feet and flourished until 1912. At that time the Mine Hill was abandoned and the English and Spanish towns fell into disrepair. The mining operations were concentrated at the Sedor Mine and the New Indria Mines. Production continued until 1972 when Santa Clara County acquire the area and established the Almaden Quicksilver Park. (1) Today there are a few wooden buildings and several stone smoke stacks to remind us of this once thriving Cornish community. ( Images 1, 13, 14, 16 Jan.20, 2003.)
The Almaden Quicksilver Museum has been established in the town of New Almaden near the park to preserve the history of the mines. Images 1 and 2 show a replica of a mine shaft and equipment. Image 3 shows English Camp at its height. Image 4 shows “a miner’s wife’s attire”. It must have been for special occasions. Image 5 shows Henry Tregoning, a good Cornish name, filling flasks of mercury. Each weighed 76 pounds and contained 99.9% pure metal. Other Cornishmen mentioned in “Cornish Miners in America” by Arthur Cecil Todd (2) at the Almaden mines are: Harry, Pearce, Foote, Berryman, Harper, Randol to list but a few. They tended to stay in the area as these mines operated over a long period of time compared to the boom and bust of gold and silver mines.
San Jose is at the heart of Santa Clara County and it has grown from 21,500 in 1900 to 95,000 in 1950. The valley was known as “The Valley of Hearts Delight” thru the 1960s. It was full of apricot, prune, cheery, peach and pear orchards and tourists from all over the San Francisco Bay area came to see the blossoms every spring. Many canneries packed the fruits into Tin cans for shipment through out the world.
The 1970s-2000 saw the valley grow from 460,000 to 894,943. All of the major orchards gave way to highways, factories and offices and the area is now known as “Silicon Valley”. Image 9 shows a part of downtown San Jose’s Almaden Boulivard in 2003. Fortunately we have almost 4,000 acres at Almaden Quicksilver Park where nature is reclaiming the land to it’s normal state and the museum teaches adults and school children about the days gone by when Cornish miners kept the mercury flowing.
(1) Almaden Quicksilver by Santa Clara Parks. Pamphlet 1500-10 rev. 6/02.
(2) Published by D.
Bradford Barton, Truro and Arthur H. Clark Co., Glendale.
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