Powder House

Powder House, originally uploaded by mhall209.

We just needed to go grocery shopping this afternoon. For most Americans thats no big deal, but for us the grocery store is a 40 minute drive. On the way my wife decided she wanted a cookie, so we went the extra few minutes and ended up in Sutter Creek. There is a cool little coffee shop there that has really good cookies. So we then went for a little walk and came across this cool little building.

Turns out this old building was the powder house for the old Wildman Mine, which was founded in 1851, right in the middle of California's gold rush. These old powder houses are not uncommon. They were built pretty well, a requirement when you are going to fill them with explosives! So 160 years ago this little building was full of explosives used to expand the mine, which reached down some 1,500 feet below ground.

In 1924 the mine produced $5 million in gold. In 1924 dollars! In just that year! It amazes me when I think of how much gold was pulled out of the ground around here. And some say that most of the gold is still there, those old miners only got the easy stuff!