Two and Two Day: Beach and Julian

This morning two of our foursome wanted a day of relaxing.  Janet and Linda Hasson did just that and had a terrific day at the beach and the pool.

Linda Psomas and I had other ideas. (Folks who know me know I do not sit still for long.)   We headed northeast about 50 miles to Julian, a town that started in the 1870’s when the Eagle and High Peak Gold Mines opened. The town is also noted for its wiildflowers in the spring and its Apple Festival in October when 10,000 pies a week are baked for tourists.   The whole town is designated as an historical district with frontier buildings and restaurants, many of which serve the renowned Julian apple pies.

The tour of of the gold mine was fascinating.   Southern California is dry and therefore there

aren’t rivers as there are in northern California. These mines were hard rock mines, which means the quartz had to be chipped and broken from the tunnels inside the mine.  Next, they were put in a big noisy machine that crushed the rock into dust.  On a water tray,  mercury was then used to attrack the gold dust  to separate it from the dirt.

Did you know that tunnels were made in levels in the mines? We got to tour levels 5 and 6, which were on the ground level and one higher.  In its heyday, miners used candles – no electric back then.  The mine closed in 1927.  Since it took a ton of rock to extract 2 oz. of gold,  hard rock mining was not a get rich quick operation.

While the gold mine tour was memorable it turned out to be costly.  I dropped my camera.  Hitting a rail track, it was a mine casualty.  With Linda’s savvy tec skills, we found a Walmart in them their hills, and with a mere swipe, my problem was solved.