The New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, about 12 miles south of San
Jose, held the distinction of being California’s first mining
operation. During the last half of the 19th century, the mines were
considered the most prolific in North America, in 1865 producing
47,149 flasks of quicksilver. The heyday didn’t last, as California
historian Hubert Howe Bancroft noted,
”
The total product of the world in 1881 was 115,600 flasks of a
little over 76 pounds each, of which California furnished 60,851
flasks, or more than half, and of this amount the New Almaden
yielded 26,060.
”
The New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, about 12 miles south of San Jose, held the distinction of being California’s first mining operation. During the last half of the 19th century, the mines were considered the most prolific in North America, in 1865 producing 47,149 flasks of quicksilver. The heyday didn’t last, as California historian Hubert Howe Bancroft noted, “The total product of the world in 1881 was 115,600 flasks of a little over 76 pounds each, of which California furnished 60,851 flasks, or more than half, and of this amount the New Almaden yielded 26,060.”
By 1888, the yield had sunk to 26,000 and just a dozen years into the following century, the major mining operations at New Almaden all but ceased functioning.
For centuries before European settlers arrived, the vermilion-colored deposits in the area were tapped by the natives for use in face paint. An early Mexican settler, Antonio Suñol, discovered the ore in the 1820s. The first mining claim dates to 1845, when a Mexican Army captain, Andres Castillero, who had training in chemistry and metallurgy, determined the deposits were not silver as thought, but cinnabar, and formed a company to develop the resource.
Castillero filed a declaration of intent with the alcalde of San Jose, and when he received a certificate of possession in late 1845, named the operation the Santa Clara Mine. He divided the mine into 24 shares and kept 16 for himself. The following year, he returned to Mexico on military orders. In need of men and equipment to develop the mine, he sold a portion of his shares to the English mining firm Barron, Forbes and Company of Tepic, Mexico. The company arrived at New Almaden to build furnaces and begin the production operation in 1846-47. The name was changed from Santa Clara to New Almaden, for the Almaden mines in Spain, which had dominated the world’s mercury market for centuries. It was the sister mine to the New Idria Mine in southeast San Benito County.
During the California Gold Rush, mercury, or quicksilver, was in great demand, serving as a primary reduction agent of both gold and silver. Production of quicksilver at New Almaden began in 1850-51, and by 1854, 13 furnaces were in continuous operation. A legal battle arose over the title, with a legal injunction closing the mine from 1858 to 1863. After the title was confirmed to the Barron, Forbes and Company, the mines were sold in 1864 to Quicksilver Mining Company of New York and Pennsylvania. The new company controlled over 8,000 aggregate acres of land on which mineshafts, a reduction works, and the workers’ settlements were located.
Mercury, also known as quicksilver, is distilled from the cinnabar ore through a heat-reduction process. After ore is burned in furnaces, the quicksilver in vapor form passes through iron flues into condensing chambers and finally to a tank. The liquid metal, as valuable today as it was then, is used in thermometers, barometers and electric light switches.
Although earnings could be plentiful, life was hard for the workers, both from harsh conditions below ground and the ore’s health threat. An 1898 Santa Clara County promotional book gave an account of the risks: “Where the ore is exceedingly rich, men have to work short shifts, relieving each other every few hours, as constant handling of the ore causes considerable of it to be absorbed by the body…Its presence in the system in large quantities causes the appetite to fail, the digestion to become impaired, the secretions to become thin and copious and the skin to have an earthy paleness. If salivation results, a copious flow of water saliva follows, accompanied with soreness and swelling of the gums, and a peculiar fetor of the breath.”
The New Almaden mining district included the Hacienda area, homes of the miners, and Cinnabar Hills where the operations took place. The Hacienda was the main access to the mine, which lay about a half-mile beyond. The main feature was the 1854 Casa Grande, or manager’s residence, plus company cottages. The Casa’s grounds were designed by John McLaren, famous for his layout of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Today the community that grew around the Hacienda is the village of New Almaden.
Workers’ settlements at New Almaden were called Spanish Town, where
Mexican and Chilean workers lived, and English Town, for the Cornish who later immigrated to work the mines. The towns existed in the hills around the mining area. Chinese laborers for a time also had a camp of their own.
The company town system flourished at New Almaden for several decades, until the 1890s, when the mine yield was in decline. By 1900 output was less than half, and in 1912 the Quicksilver Mining Company declared bankruptcy. Although some mining continued over the years under different management, work was sporadic. Operations ceased in 1976 and all tunnels and shafts were closed. The hill camps, long since abandoned, had been further leveled during the Depression, when many old buildings, including houses, churches and schools, were torn down by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Other sites were destroyed by
vandalism.
Yesterday’s boom town is today’s historic site. Still delightfully off the beaten path, New Almaden became a county park in 1974. The tiny town of New Almaden, which borders Almaden Road, remains a quiet, charming site, where a museum in the Casa Grande, nearby historic structures, and a 4,000 acre park with hiking trails offer a view into a California’s mining past.
Elizabeth Barratt can be reached via email at: [email protected].
