Yesterday we went to Black Diamond Mines!
@susanmagnolia signed us up for a mine tour of the Hazel Atlas mine, which was used after the coal mining era to extract sand, which was prepared in nearby Pittsburgh (California), and then shipped by rail to Oakland to be turned into glass. Wow!
Unfortunately, a piece of sandstone was found that had fallen from the ceiling, so miners had it closed to the public and our tour was canceled. However! We still got to go to the visitor center, which is just wild!
Okay, there was a person named Greathouse, it was they surname. They bought and owned the sand mine, and lend their name to the “Greathouse Room”, just a huge cavern dug out of the sandstone relatively near the surface, a kind of tools and rest space built by the miners. That’s the visitor center, a big human cave!
We had never driven to Antioch before, and it isn’t exactly fun, but it isn’t horrible, and we missed an exit and took Hwy 4 all the way to I-80, and most of the 4 is very pretty, undeveloped hills. Anyhow, we plan on visiting that park again, so many interesting things there! And Clover is already doing pre-interviews for working there, even letting their bonsai garden volunteer work be known… 