Hardrock Trail Area Self-Guided Tour
1. Electric Railway Tracks: Below the Railroad Crossing sign, the remains of railway tracks can be seen in the pavement. Their path can be followed into the trees to your left.
Ore cars traveled on these rails bringing gold-bearing ore from the Pennsylvania Mine (near the Penn Gate parking lot) eastward along an elevated berm made of waste rock (bordering the north side of the overflow parking lot, across the street from the Visitor Center), past the Rowe headframe, over East Empire Street on a tressle, past where you are standing, and then around the south side of the mine yard to Empire Mine's stamp mill. From a raised level, the carts dumped the ore into the ore bins behind the stamps, where it was then crushed.
The carts continued out onto a huge waste rock pile that went from the headframe all the way down to Little Wolf Creek. Parts of the berm for this section of railway can still be seen near the Oyung Family residence, on the south side of the Estate area of the park.
The electric railway worked like a San Francisco Trolley car with an overhead wire, and was operated full-time by an engineer. In the early 1930's, large trucks became available and proved to be more efficient than the electric railway, which was therefore abandoned.
Info from Steve O'Brien pers. comm, FD Calhoon- local guide author
2. Transformer Building: The transformer building for the hoist house and stamp mill is believed to have been built in 1914. It was renovated in 1993.
Transformers ensure that the electrical power is distributed efficiently throughout the mine, maintaining consistent voltage levels required for different operations. This regulation is vital for operating heavy machinery, lighting, ventilation systems, and other critical equipment.
There were three primary sources of energy used for mining operations over the 106-year history of the Empire Mine. In chronological order they were: steam power derived from wood fired boilers, water power developed by water wheels turned by flowing piped water brought down from higher up foothill reservoirs, and electricity purchased from a local power company.
Empire Mine first started using electricity in or around 1896, from the Nevada County Electric Power Company.
Sources: National Register Nomination form, Cultural Resources Survey 2009, CEQA Project Eval 1993
3. ORLEANS STAMP MILL FOUNDATION: This foundation supported a stamp mill that was powered by a water-driven Pelton wheel. The mill crushed ore from the Orleans Mine until about the turn of the 20th century, when it became unprofitable.
To your right are the remains of concrete ramps that led onto large truck scales used around 1960 during rock crushing operations. Thousands of tons of waste rock have been hauled from this pile to be used as road fill.
Opposite the Orleans stamp mill foundation, the Orleans Trail branches off to cross Highway 174 and continues up to the Union Hill Trails.
4. ORLEANS MINE: Set back from the Hardrock Trail is the site of the Orleans Mine. The Orleans was once in fierce competition with the Empire Mine. But the Empire, under the leadership of William Bourn and later the Newmont Mining Corporation, eventually absorbed the Orleans and more than 60 other claims that were being worked on the Empire vein.
5. LITTLE WOLF CREEK RESTORATION AREA: The streamside environment of this creek is being restored to a more natural condition. Non-native blackberries, Scotch broom and other shrubs are being replaced with plants that belong in a stream environment. This is one example of how the park is working to protect California's natural resources.
6. TRAIL FORK (Osborn Hill Loop Trail): Here the Hardrock Trail turns west toward the Penn Gate. The Osborn Hill Loop Trail goes up the hill toward several abandoned mines.
7. LITTLE WOLF CREEK ROAD (Hardrock Trail): This road was built for trucks that carried waste rock from the Empire Mine to road construction sites to the southwest. Note the weigh-station foundation on the roadside.
8. DIVERSION DITCH: This ditch was dug to route Little Wolf Creek around the sand tailings area, thus avoiding possible contamination of the water.
9. SAND DAM: This portion of the Hardrock Trail was originally a trestle from which ore cars of the Pennsylvania Mine dumped waste rock. In time, enough rock was dumped that a road bed could be built for a narrow gauge rail line across Little Wolf Creek. Slurry accumulated in front of the waste rock. During wet years, the tailings area became a large settling pond. Eventually a spillway was added to control the flow into Little Wolf Creek.
10. SAND TAILINGS OVERLOOK (Closed area): This barren plain was once a beautiful meadow with fruit trees. But after 1910, when slurry from the cyanide plant was first deposited here, the meadow became a large settling pond, and vegetation was destroyed. Nature is slowly reclaiming this area, covering some of the effects of man's relentless search for gold.
11. NORTH STAR WATER LINE (Closed area): Although no longer visible, the closed area contains a 22-inch riveted-iron pipeline, built in 1887, that carried water from the Empire’s clubhouse reservoir to the North Star mine’s original inclined shaft fronting Old Auburn Road. The water from this pipe powered small water wheels that were located adjacent to the original North Star mine’s surface works.
If you turn around and look carefully, a rock support can be seen on the other side of the Hardrock Trail.
12. W.Y.O.D. WASTE PILE: You have just climbed atop the largest waste pile in the park. This waste rock was taken out of the W.Y.O.D. Mine to make room for men and machinery. It was brought here in side-dumping cars that traveled on a rail line built on small trestles. The trestles and rails are gone, but the elongated mounds of rock show where they were located.
13. W.Y.O.D. MINE: The Work Your Own Diggins Mine got its name from the practice of leasing sections of a mine to individual miners, who then worked their own "diggins."
The W.Y.O.D. was an unlucky mine. The surface works first burned in 1898 and were rebuilt. In 1902 the courts ruled that the W.Y.O.D. vein was an offshoot of a vein owned by the Pennsylvania Mine. The W.Y.O.D. Mine was abandoned when the last surface works burned in 1912. Post caps of a large Comish pump bob and some machinery foundations are all that remain.
14. PENNSYLVANIA MINE: Up the hill are the concrete foundations of the Pennsylvania Mine's compressor house. From there a compressor supplied fresh air underground for the miners and compressed air for the drill and mechanical muckers. A hoist room was located in the far end of the building.
The Pennsylvania Mine's headframe, with its ore storage bins underneath, was built on the step-down foundations to the left.
The concrete buildings behind you housed transformers that were a part of the Pennsylvania's electrical system.
After the Empire acquired the Pennsylvania Mine 1912, ore was hauled to the Empire stamp mill over a narrow gauge electric railroad that ran parallel to what is now Empire Street.
15. MULE CORRAL: Before mules were lowered into the mine, they were kept in this corral made from old hoist cable and barbed wire strung between large pine trees.
16. EMPIRE MINE: You are back at the Empire Mine Yard. The trail ends in front of the Visitor Center, near the parking lot.