Plumas-Eureka Mill, Jamison Mines District

Within Plumas-Eureka State Park near Blairsden, California, a cluster of mining buildings preserves the story of hard-rock gold mining in the northern Sierra. The centerpiece is the 75-foot wooden stamp mill, built in 1873 and described as the largest and best preserved of its kind remaining in the state. Nearby stand a two-story boarding house, assay office, stable, tramway station and residence from the same period, along with a second group of 1890 structures at the Jamison Mine, including barracks, a blacksmith shop, a stone powder magazine, a barn, a warehouse and several miners' cabins. Most of these buildings are plain, but together they show how a large mining operation worked. The Sierra Buttes Mining Company consolidated local mines in 1872 and employed as many as 400 men during the 1870s and 1880s. Mining dwindled after 1890 and ended in 1943. The state acquired the first park lands in 1959, and the mill was partly restored in 1961.