[nickcarraway]

On a serious note, I'm glad you brought up AQCP. The mercury from the mine was necessary for the Gold Rush =, to purify, the gold. There is another abandoned mercury mine about an hour South of AQCP called New Idria. Both Almaden and Idria Were the largest mercury nines in Spain.

Almaden is from Arabic - from the time Spain was occupied by the Moors.

And the 34 miles of hiking trails are great.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I always thought New Idria was named after the Spanish mine, too, but it is actually named after Idrija (Slovenia), where mercury was first found in 1490 AD. The Idrija and Almaden sites comprise a UNESCO world heritage site.

New Idria was the second most productive mercury mine in North America, producing over 38 million pounds of mercury during its lifetime. Mercury mining operations ceased in 1972, with the closure of the New Idria Quicksilver Mining Company.