66. Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve

https://youtu.be/mgsyq3Usszs

The East Bay Regional Park District began acquiring land for Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in the early 1970s. Today, most of the mining district is within the Preserve's nearly 8,533 acres. The area is an ideal location for hiking, picnicking and nature study. Naturalists conduct a variety of programs relating the Preserve's natural and historic resources. Black Diamond is located in Contra Costa County, south of Pittsburg and Antioch. Take Highway 4 to the Somersville Road exit in Antioch, then drive south (toward the hills) on Somersville Road to the Preserve entrance. The Sydney Flat Visitor Center and the Interpretive Information Center are wheelchair accessible, as well as the restrooms and water fountain in the upper lot.

.

Rose Hill Cemetery - Although little remains of the coal mining communities, a historic cemetery serves as a monument to the lives of the former residents. Buried here are children who died in epidemics, women who died in childbirth, and men who died in mining disasters and of other things. Although over 10 nationalities resided in the mining area, Rose Hill Cemetery was a Protestant burial ground, and many of the people buried here were Welsh.

.

Sydney Flat Visitor Center - Behold remnants of the past and peruse the wonders of the park in a building original to the coalfield. The Sydney Flat Visitor Center contains displays of photographs and artifacts from the 1800s and early 1900s.

.

The Greathouse Visitor Center is located in an underground chamber excavated in the mid-1920s. View the workings of a 20th-century sand mine and learn about the lives of 19th-century coal and 20th-century sand miners. The center contains displays, photographs, and artifacts related to the park’s coal and sand mining eras.

.

From the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, the Hazel-Atlas Mine produced silica sand to make jars, bottles, and other glass items. Today, tour participants can take a 1309-foot walk into the mine to see mine workings, ore chutes, the shifter's office, and ancient geological features. For safety reasons, you may tour the mine only as part of a guided tour and all participants must be at least seven years old.