Kentucky Mine: This is a mine shaft at the Kentucky Mine.

Tours and hours: Sierra County Historical Society offers guided tours into the underground mine also into California's only remaining workable gold ore stamp mill.
Contact them by phone - 530-862-1310. Price est. $5.00

The museum displays mining artifacts and items from our local American Indian culture. It is a lovely, well laid-out, small, museum! .

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Kentucky Mine: Weekend summer evenings brings "Music at the Mine" and they often have local groups. The one that I attended last summer (2008) is known as "Past Due and Playable", with Barry Angel on mandolin, Gary Sobonya on guitar, Juan Brown hangs onto that standup bass, Rudy Darling on fiddle, and Pete Siese on banjo.

Price depends on the group, highest price $20+ / per person
Before the show BBQ price $15 / per person.

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Kentucky Mine: Standing at the opening of the mine shaft, and looking away from the mine shaft, the stampmill is seen. It's a real joy to take the ore-cart-rail, on foot, into the top of the stampmill. The tour guides are great . They will even introduce you to the rare, and resident, Townsend's Big Eared Bats.

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Kentucky Mine: This is a diagram of a typical California Stampmill for gold mines.

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Big Springs Gardens: This is just one of the many sites of beauty at the Big Springs Gardens in Sierra City, CA

The dining area is to the right of the Monet-type bridge.

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Big Springs Gardens: The afternoon BBQ is quite a spread! There are 3 more tables holding salads, fruit, cooked vegetables, pasta and potates, and MORE...

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Big Springs Gardens: Don Philips, owner of the Big Springs Gardens, is often seen barbequing. During my two visits, he strolled around the seated guests, introduced himself, and made them feel very welcome.

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Big Springs Gardens: It is a treat to visit the Big Springs Gardens, and a double delight when enjoying their summer meals. The setting is, in my opinion, equal or greater than Yosemite, but I'm terribly biased to our area! So? *shrug* Don Philips owns the property and has the property listed for sale. I believe the purchase price is $1.7 Million. As my friend, Donna said when we visited the property, "Homes are sold for more than that!" which was pre-financial-crisis.

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