Empire Mine State Historic Park

10791 East Empire St.,Grass Valley. Ca. 95945, Tel. (530) 273-8522, Empire Mine is the site of the oldest and richest gold mine in California. Despite having only 20% of the available gold extracted (5.8 million ounces of gold by weight) the mine closed in 1956 after 106 years of production and now is preserved as a California state park. The visitor center has diagrams and models of the mine itself, and numerous items of mining machinery are on show inside the park. Visitors have the opportunity to enter the top of the mine shaft itself and an underground train tour is coming soon (2008/9). The state park also has many miles of riding, walking and mountain biking trails.