Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum

Hg, Latin abbr for liquid silver (quicksilver).
I learned a lot about the history and process of mining from this museum. The ranger was most informative. She showed us pictures of the Hacienda’s past occupants and much more.
Mercury is toxic after being processed into vapor and liquid form. The red dust from cinnabar mineral powder is not toxic unless ingested. It was used by the Native Americans to decorate their faces. It was also traded to the Chinese for lacquer pottery.
The first mercury mine in the world was in Almaden Spain, which our Alamden Valley, 2^nd mine in the world, was named after. Mercury in America became high demand during the CA gold rush; used as gold extraction. This mine saved America from the price setting mercy of trading mercury with Spain.

On the way to Almaden Quicksilver County park to hike, my friend and I stopped by the museum to learn about Mercury mine.
The guide tour had just began, so we jumped in the audience. The guide was really knowledgeble. Actually I didn’t know anything about the mine here, so I learned a lot.
Venue is not very big, but clean and nice. The ranger was also friendly.

Beautiful venue for a wedding or outdoor celebration however wish I would’ve read the previous Unilocal reviews! Recently we got this venue for a wedding however the park rangers and neighbors made it a nightmare!
Music is a must it’s just how a nice celebration functions however upon on the arrival of musicians/​dj park rangers and a specific neighbor were rude and demanded no music to be played, we tried to negotiate to not be so loud when a specific neighbor very unreasonable and hysterically causing a scene dramatically said he would walk into our wedding with the sheriffs and cause an even more embarrassing scene isn’t this beautiful for a happily ever after?! Long story short we had a wedding with no music, where we lost money on both our musicians and our DJ. Park ranger shouldve informed us upon signing the contract for the venue that they have a crazy neighbor and for that reason no music is to be played. That would’ve saved us money, and embarrassment!

We stopped by while visiting the area and were given an expert and informative tour of the museum and the history of the mercury mines by Heidi, one of the park service interpreters. She recommended a trail hike through the state park and showed us a recommended route which saved us a great deal of bumbling about. It was a great day well spent, due in large part to Heidi’s knowledge and friendly enthusiasm.

Beautiful venue and grounds. Quite unfortunate that the administrative staff and all but one of the site staff are extremely rude, condescending, and pompous.
Our family requested facility for surprise 65^th birthday. It was expensive at $ 175:hr though we wanted it to special and it was beautiful.
After much discussion of music, they approved an acoustic trio and we paid the facility fee of $ ⁸⁸³⁄₅ hours. We were ecstatic! Two days prior to our event we received an email indicating our music was not approved and had to cancel our musicians, or had the option of changing venue or simply canceling the event.
This was unacceptable as we had a contract with musicians and would incur monetary damages and changing locations two days prior is not reasonable. I argued for two days and Friday at 4:30 received a restricted approval. On the day of the event they staffed our event with two attendants and a Mean Park Ranger. Two tables that promised were omitted. The male attendant was professional, spoke respectably and kindly though the other attendant and mean park ranger stood on the second level patio staring at our guests with mean faces. Like a prisoner movie– they were prison guards and we were prisoners at yard time. They made us all very uncomfortable. When time came for music to stop and not a minute after, the mean park ranger made sure she told me in a super authoritative tone to «shut it down» extremely unprofessional.
As a contributing member of this county, this is a park area that we are supposed to enjoy. I did not enjoy my event having to argue and justify everything we did. I would never recommend or rent this facility again.

This is a great little hidden gem. Tucked away in San Jose is this great park with lots of hiking trails and a very informative little museum about mining. The museum has two parts to it, there is the building with traditional exhibits and plenty of information about mining in the area and a separate outdoor exhibit with all of the old equipment at the foot of the trails. Neither takes very long to see but if you head out to hit the trails, take a moment to peek in ans appreciate the area’s history.

This is an awesome place to know more about the mining history and San Jose’s backyard. The building is very well renovated, and the exhibits are pretty cool.
People working there are great and friendly. Jim, a local «mercury» mining expert in the old days, voluntarily gave everyone a great talk on the mine’s past and how everything evolved over the years. My wife and I had a great time there. Please check the office hours before you go.

We had a wonderful time. We did the hike in the mining area a week ago and decide to visit Casa Grande. The park manager, J. Lee gave a detailed account of the Casa Grande and how it was restored. Jim Campbell the volunteer also gave his account on the mining of the quicksilver. great day out.

We love the museum and surrounding grounds. Fun place to pick up old fashioned gifts like ‘Jacks‘ and ‘Pick Up Sticks‘ We also picked up Water Table Maps of the Bay Area for unusual stocking stuffers last Christmas. Although a beautiful venue for weddings etc, we just love spending a quiet lazy afternoon here.

I had my (outdoor) wedding here on the last weekend of October and it was fantastic. Beautiful grounds, tons of space, cost efficient, AND the place is historically interesting on top of that. I got tons of compliments on this venue.
Dealing with the Park Use Coordinator was easy as pie — she was extremely responsive to all of my emails, friendly, and helpful. Because of the staff here, wedding planning went very smoothly for me.
Yes, you have to bring in all of your own stuff — but that’s really no problem at all for the DIY-​minded. That said, you can really make everything your own. You can put up your own string lights and décor, bring in your own rental tables/​chairs/​dishes/​flatware, caterer, baker, DJ/​band/​sound system — the large, outside patio is beautiful and spacious and can accommodate quite a lot of people.
The catering kitchen was also awesome. So much space for food and prep, plus two walk-​in fridges to store stuff in.
As for the actual ceremony, there are a number of spaces where this can take place. A lot of people seem to have their wedding right in front of the house itself, which is very nice. We chose to have our ceremony near the water tower — there are a couple of trees there that grow closely together and form a natural arch — shady and beautiful. I was here a couple of weekends ago and another wedding was taking place — they had actually tied bunches of flowers from these trees — a nice touch and very picturesque.
Anyway, highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this place for wedding, parties, or any big event.

We went this past Saturday afternoon, during their posted business hours. The door was locked, but the sign on the door said they were open and to ring the bell for service. We rang the bell and waited. There were people outside setting up for an event of some sort. They looked at us, saw we were trying to get in and ignored us. We waited. We rang the bell again and waited. We looked in the windows and saw people walking around inside. We rang the bell one more time, yet no one ever came to the door. Wonderful way to run a museum. We’re not bothering to go back.

Came here for a wedding. Lovely venue! Beautiful inside and out. Only thing to complain about is no cell phone reception, but that’s not really the venue’s fault at all. It’s just an inconvenience. Otherwise, it’s a marvelous museum.

Just twelve miles from San Jose’s city center and 200 years ago, the Ohlone used the mercury bearing red rock found in a sacred cave in their face paint. They traded it to other Native Americans up and down the Pacific Northwest. It was highly valued. And, it was toxic.
If the Ohlone could have retained the rights to their ancestral land around Almaden and developed it commercially in the 1850s on, they would have owned the largest and richest mine in California, ever. Liquid mercury was the real «gold» during California’s Gold Rush and «silver» from Nevada’s Comstock Lode because it was needed to separate these precious metals from their ores until a more readily available substance, just as toxic, was found… cyanide (!)
Ships from around the world sailed into nearby Alviso with bricks as ballast. They offloaded the bricks for 76 pound vials of precious mercury hauled daily from NewAlmaden. Some of the bricks you can see today, stamped with the brick factory name in the sidewalks of New Almaden next to the Casa Grande/​New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum.
New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum is a small museum inside the Casa Grande. It’s so well done, informative and hands on. The history of many cultures and peoples is represented here: Ohlone, Chinese, Mexican, and English to name a few. Their history and ours are united by this red rock.
Admission is free!
Before you go, it’s a good idea to call for times and events. There are walking tours and costumed docents on some weekends who will guide you through Casa Grande’s Victorian Era period room furnished to resemble the time it was a home to the mine manager and their families.
Kids (and adults) love this place and historic trails nearby. There are even guided van tours of the nearby mine sites on May 19, July 21, August 4, Sept 9 and Oct 27.
P. S. Have you considered replacing those old amalgam fillings?

I came to this museum because I was so interested in the history behind Quicksilver County Park where I went hiking a couple times. This museum is free to visit and it’s well kept! The volunteers who work there were super friendly and very informative. They spent time giving me a free tour and explaining the origins of all of the furniture used inside the display rooms. I found out this place is also used for weddings! I could definitely see myself having a wedding here. The backyard is beautiful with a patio and lots of grass and trees and you can hear the creek run behind the museum.

Nestled into the hills of the Almaden Valley, this museum is a quaint surprise and makes for a great half day trip. Who knew San Jose had anything to offer, right? Anyway, the museum sheds quite a bit of light into San Jose’s history – for example, why the Mercury News is thus named.
The museum itself is quite small, but has some interesting displays and artifacts. All of the employees are incredibly friendly and provide lots of random historic facts.
There appears to be a dining facility next door (not La Foret) but I haven’t had the chance to figure out what it is. Don’t forget to walk down the small street from the museum as well, as a lot of the homes are also a part of the South Bay’s history.

Located within Almaden Quicksilver Park, this museum is a San Jose gem that too few people know about. After the discovery of quicksilver (mercury) in the area, Almaden was named after a similar quicksilver mining location in Spain. The museum is house in the Casa Grande — which was the main house of the manager of the mine back in its heyday.
The museum has all sorts of fabulous old pictures, examples of the tools and instruments used in getting the mercury out of the ground, information on how exactly the quicksilver was removed from the rocks once mined, what quicksilver was used for once it had been extracted, and a mine diorama to show what it was like inside a mine shaft.
The staff are incredibly friendly and open to questions. In fact, when I visited the mine in the month before my winter solstice wedding and complimented them on the amazing swag of real holly they had framing the main door, the person who had harvested the holly from her mother’s property and made the swag offered me bags of holly to use to decorate my wedding venue in exchange for a donation to the museum.
This is definitely a piece of San Jose history that everyone should take the time to visit — and is a fabulous place to take out of town visitors — especially if the museum visit can be followed by a hike through the other historic locations in the park (check out reviews of the park on Unilocal for more info about hiking, etc.)