It’s a bucket-list destination for Gold Rush-era history buffs — a park in Grass Valley where visitors can get a first-hand, interactive look at one of the largest and oldest mining operations that defined California’s 19th-century obsession with gold.

Located in the western Sierra Nevada about 50 miles from Sacramento, the hugely profitable Empire Mine opened in 1850 and operated until its closure in 1956, producing almost 6 million ounces of gold during its run, worth more than $10 billion in today’s dollars.

In 1975, the State of California purchased the Empire properties, consisting of the mine and adjacent 1890s-era Bourn family garden and estate, for $1.25 million, and it became the Empire Mine Historic State Park. Today, it’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nevada County, drawing around 100,000 visitors annually.

“This park is pretty unique, and one of the aspects of this uniqueness is the Empire Mine, which was the richest gold mine in the history of California,” docent Jim Slouber tells a tour group that included visitors from upstate New York and Denmark. 

Slouber, a docent since 2015 whose father was a mining engineer and worked at Empire, elaborates that it’s estimated that of all the gold that’s been mined throughout history, a tenth of 1 percent came from Empire during its 106-year run.

The park is currently in its winter tour schedule, open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with 45-minute guided tours throughout each day for the mine and 13-acre landscaped estate and historic buildings. The park also totals 856 acres of forested backcountry, which includes 14 miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.

“I come here almost every day just to walk the beautiful grounds,” one visitor who lives in Grass Valley says while waiting for a friend outside the park’s entrance.

The legacy of the Empire Mine and its stamp mills (rock crushers) that operated 24 hours a day began in 1850 when George Roberts, a lumberman, found gold in a quartz vein — about a year after James Marshall discovered gold at nearby Sutter’s Sawmill. That helped intensify the famous 49er rush to the Northern California foothills, when people from all over the world descended on the area.

Roberts sold his stake in 1851 for just $350, and by 1869 the controlling interest was held by San Francisco entrepreneur William Bowers Bourn, Sr., who began building up the adjoining estate. The Bourn family retained ownership until 1929 when the mine was purchased by the Newmont Mining Company for $250,000. 

Operations ceased briefly during World War II and then for good in 1956, due in part to unprofitability with the fixed gold price at $35 an ounce, Slouber says. But with the state taking control almost 50 years ago, the era is preserved through structures like the seven-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot Empire Cottage, built using waste rock from the mine and utilized as the Bourns’ summer residence, and the Clubhouse, built specifically in 1905 for the Bourn family and friends (and not miners). The Clubhouse featured a bowling alley, tennis courts, ballroom and squash court and is still used today for special events.

Touring the mine recreates the miners’ experience in various ways. The actual mine and adjacent North Star Mine shafts covered 367 miles — 11,500 feet at their deepest level — and are almost completely filled with water today. Visitors, however, can look about 150 feet down a screened-off mineshaft portal, which is in front of the “man skips” where hard-rock miners sat in long, skinny cars before rapidly descending into the depths of the mine. Visitors can sit on the 11-person skips and listen to a recording of the roaring sounds the miners heard as they headed off for a day of work. Empire Mine was the site of 26 deaths during over a century in operation, which is relatively low compared to other mines, according to Slouber.

There’s also a “secret room,” which had darkened windows meant to not reveal mining operations to outsiders, featuring a 3D scale model of the mine shafts. Another popular interactive feature at the park is the blacksmith’s shop, where many of the mine’s equipment and other items, such as door frames, were constructed. Today, local professionals put on a daily welding display.

The holiday season isn’t forgotten at the park, with its annual holiday celebration, organized in cooperation with the Sierra Gold Parks Foundation, scheduled for Dec. 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the celebration, park volunteers conduct tours and wear 1890s-style clothing while hosting activities like historic children’s games, chestnut roasting, candle dipping and tin punching.  

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