Sutter Gold Mine

We left around 11 AM yesterday to do the tour at Sutter Gold Mine, located in Sutter Creek about 45 miles north of here. It was a fun trip even though we had rain all day. We arrived around 1 PM, after stopping in the town of Jackson to have lunch at Denny's. After you park your vehicle, you walk into the gold store to get information on the tour and to purchase tickets. The store (below) is an event in itself. It is loaded with gold jewelry, gold mining information, maps and tools for mining gold:

There was also a theater in the store where you go and watch a narrative of the gold rush days and the history of the mine while waiting for the tour "buggy" to arrive for the one hour tour. It cost us $30 total for our tickets (after senior discount) and we were ready to go:

There were just 5 of us going on this tour, which is conducted every hour, on the hour. You can see that hard hats were a requirement for everybody. The driver indicated that this tour was not for everybody, since we would be going deep into the mine, in a tunnel, and there would be some close areas. Josie and I both got a little nervous but I suggested we pretend it was a ride in Disneyland or Universal Studios and that settled us both. The opening to the mine (below) was a little intimidating as we approached it:

We rode a long way down this shaft, stopping occasionally in some lit areas to view some mining equipment and tools used by the miners to extract the gold. There were several side shafts along the way (below) that were dug by the miners to follow quartz veins where the gold would be found:

We walked through several different areas of the mine and the tour guide showed us some actual gold that was still in a quartz vein:

This was gold (on the ceiling) that could not be mined because of a water table that was above the rock. If any further digging was performed on this vein, it could potentially flood the whole mine from the water above. Also, they stopped mining here in the early 60's because the price of gold was so low at that time that they were losing money. There is now talk about reopening the mine since the gold price is very high.

The tour was very fascinating and we were glad we went. It was a beautiful drive to the mine and I took some shots of the countryside along the way:

We drove through another neat town - Angels Camp - that reminded me of the French Quarter in New Orleans (except for the traffic):

There are many, quaint little towns like this all over this part of California. We arrived back home around 6:30 PM and had a light dinner while watching the Olympics.

Today is a day to catch up on chores. Josie needs to get here nails done and do laundry, and I need to reorganize our basement storage in the fifth wheel. We still have another day tomorrow to find another fun place to visit. Take care...