11-24-13 Black Diamond Mines

On a Sunday morning, we got a call from our son, Chris, asking if we wanted to go with him and our two grandsons, Elisjsha (age 10) and Zachery (age 8), to Black Diamond Mines. It sounded fun, so Maureen and I went along. Luckily, Chris has a minivan with plenty of room so we all rode together, including his wife, Jonnie and our granddaughter, Makaila (age 3), who we dropped off in Concord to spend the afternoon with a friend.

When we got to the park, we found out that Chris picked today to come because they were having open house in the mines. As a park district employee he keeps up with events like this. At the Hazel-Atlas mine entrance, they handed everyone a hard hat and a flashlight. Neither seemed necessary, since there were no low ceilings and it was all well-lit. We followed the tunnel deep into the mountain, mostly through sandstone, and it was interesting to see the tilted layers, and in places ripple marks where the sandstone had been deposited beneath the sea. there were holes where we could see into huge chambers that had been hollowed out by mining.

in the mine

Coal mines were started here soon after the gold rush, and it was a busy place for much of the last half of the 19th century with 5 towns and thousands of miners, many of whom were recruited from mining areas of England and Wales. Then, from the 20's through the 40's, mining was resumed for sandstone for making glass. That was the part of the mine that we were exploring. We only went about a quarter mile, but they said that there were over 200 miles of tunnels in the area.

on the trail

Back out of the mine, we continued on the trail up a steep little ravine. At the first trail junction, Maureen and Elisjsha decided to head back down on the trail to the right that led down another little ravine. Chris, Zachery, and I went on up to the top of the ridge and turned left, climbing another quarter mile or so to a hilltop with a great view to the valleys and ridges to the southeast.

Zachery and Chris at the top of the hill

I enjoy hiking with kids, but it takes a lot of patience and flexibility. I thought the boys would be really interested in the mine and the rocky trail, and maybe they were, but didn't show it much. They seemed much more interested in stopping for a snack along the way. The trail is quite steep, and both boys complained about how hard it was and "how much farther do we have to go?", but then a minute later were running ahead up the trail. On the way down, Zachery was running down a steep gravely place, right after his dad had told him not to run, and of course, he slipped and fell. It probably hurt, but no real damage was done.

Back at the bottom of the hill, we met up again with Maureen and Elisjsha, found a table and ate some lunch, then headed back to the car. The boys found a couple of sticks which became light-sabers, and fought a little battle up and down the mounds of tailings on the way. It all added up to a nice afternoon and we all had fun.

View east from Sommersville site

about 1.5 miles, 500 ft. climb