The Mines

The Mines are abandoned tunnels in the hills of Hidden Creek that were used by the miners back in the 1800s to mine for precious metals.

History
Since the Gold Rush of 1848, tens of thousands of mines were dugged up in California. A lot of these mines were immediately abandoned due to insufficient minerals when they were found, others were abandoned later when poor economics of the commodity made mining unprofitable, while still others were abandoned in 1942 after the issuance of War Production Board Order L-208. The result is that California’s landscape contains tens of thousands of abandoned mine sites, many of which pose health, safety, or environmental hazards. Many sites possess serious physical safety hazards, such as open shafts or adits (mine tunnel). Thousands of sites have the potential to contaminate surface water, groundwater, or air quality.