New Almaden, known in Spanish as Nueva Almadén, is a historic community and former mercury mine in the Capitancillos Hills of San Jose, California, located at the southwestern point of Almaden Valley in South San Jose. New Almaden is divided into two parts: the mines and much of their immediate surroundings, including historic ghost town settlements in the Capintancillas, which together form the Almaden Quicksilver County Park, and the largely residential historic district surrounding the Casa Grande.
Discovered in the 1820s by Mexican settlers, New Almaden mines are the oldest mines in California and were one of the most productive mercury mines in the country. Long before the arrival of the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans, the indigenous Ohlone people had long utilized the area for its cinnabar, which they used in paint production.
History
Cinnabar, bright red mercury ore, was used by the Ohlone people for paint, but the settlers soon saw its potential to produce quicksilver. The first settler to find the mine was Secundino Robles, who discovered it in 1824, and later owned shares in the mine along with his brother. Andres Castillero, a captain in the Mexican Army, obtained a grant to the mine in 1846 but, occupied with his military duties during the Mexican War, soon sold it to Barron, Forbes Company, an English textile firm based in Tepic, Mexico. It was named "Nueva Almaden" by Alexander Forbes. Castillero's mining claim was confirmed by the Board of Commissioners that evaluated private land claims in California on January 8, 1856, but there was continued litigation in the District court, The United States vs. Andres Castillero. A claim of fraud was made on behalf of the Quicksilver Mining Company, which had acquired a competing land claim originating in an agricultural claim to the land the mine was on. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States the claim was found invalid in a decision rendered March 10, 1863. One of the competing land claims was Rancho Los Capitancillos.
The mine is named for a mercury mine in (old) Almadén, Spain, which had operated since at least Roman times. (See Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija.) The term Almadén, meaning "the mine", is derived from the Arabic language.
In 1863, acting on information that title to the mine had not been proven, Abraham Lincoln attempted to seize the mine, but the federal agent and deputy federal marshal were met at the mine gates by armed miners. Mindful of the possibility of losing the loyalty of California during the Civil War, the federal government backed off and Barron, Forbes Company was allowed to sell it to American investors for $1.75 million.
Arthur De Wint Foote worked at New Almaden in the late 1870s under James Butterworth Randol.
Representations of historical life at the New Almaden Mine were drawn in vivid detail by Mary Hallock Foote, the wife of Arthur DeWint Foote, the resident engineer from 1876. Her illustrated correspondence about New Almaden, "A California Mining Camp", appeared in the February 1878 issue of Scribner's Monthly. New Almaden also features prominently in her memoir A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West, which was later fictionalized by Wallace Stegner in his novel Angle of Repose.
Environment
Mining operations resulted in mercury pollution of the Guadalupe River and South San Francisco Bay, impacting birds and aquatic species. In 2005 the responsible parties, which include private companies and local government agencies, agreed to a legal settlement of approximately for restoration projects. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued an environmental restoration plan for the area in 2008.
Geology
The mineralized area in the Almaden mining district where the New Almaden and the nearby Guadalupe mine are located is within the large Franciscan Assemblage associated with the Coast Range. Quicksilver ore deposited by hydrothermal deposition of cinnabar from deep within the earth is found in a gangue of silica-carbonate rock formed locally by hydrothermal alteration of serpentine. The Guadalupe mine produced about 10% as much mercury as the New Almaden. There are several smaller mines in the mining district, but their ore production was not significant. The only significant quicksilver ore is cinnabar; other sulfides are present in small quantities. Mining, other than a single placer deposit of cinnabar, was underground. There is a high probability of undiscovered high-grade ore which could be found and exploited using modern techniques.