Archive Record
Images
Additional Images [4]
Metadata
Catalog number |
1997.2.2585 |
Object Name |
Newsletter |
Date |
1987 |
Description |
TITLE: Quicksilver County Park News SUBTITLE: Newsletter of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association Issue # 12 March 1987 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: The response from members to our last Newsletter has been phenomenal. The donations and the dues have kept us going with the Museum. We will be ready to open the Museum shortly after March 18 1987. A group of volunteers is working Tuesday evenings cataloging the items, and members have volunteered to work some hours so that school children may come during the week, and others may view the Museum on weekends. The Almaden Women's Club donated $1,000 to the Museum, Santa Clara County Historical Heritage gave a grant of $2,400, the Opry House donated $50, and along with all of your support we covered the cost of preparing the artifacts for display. Jim Zinardi from the Guadalupe Mines has donated all of the artifacts from that side of the hill so we will have a terrific outdoor display at the Mercury Mining Museum of those workings. Since Pioneer Day, wonderful pictures from private collections have been donated to the Museum - these, too, will be on display. Members are encouraged to come to the Museum to enjoy the collections. The Museum number is 268-1729. Kitty Monahan THE TRAIL INFORMATION AND VOLUNTEER CENTER: The Trail Information and Volunteer Center (TI VC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which promotes volunteerism in the outdoors. The TIVC was formed in mid1983 by a coalition of local recreational and environmental groups as an umbrella organization for outdoor volunteerism in the four-county Peninsula area. The TIVC is one of seven project areas in the National Volunteer Project, a cooperative effort of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Richard King Mellon Foundation to develop volunteer networks nationwide. TIVC's two-fold mission is (1) to mobilize volunteers to caretake and improve our trail systems, and (2) to develop a clearinghouse for information on hiking, running, riding, and cycling trails. The TIVC, with over 200 members, has already trained more than 50 volunteers as crew leaders, reconstructed numerous foothills trails, built a new levee trail in the Baylands, and constructed a wheelchair accessible trail along Skyline Boulevard. On September 21, 1986, TIVC's First Annual Outdoor Adventures Auction was held and NAQCPA donated a hiking tour of Quicksilver Park as one of the items to be auctioned. The event raised well over $1,000 which will enable TIVC to continue its successful outdoor volunteer programs in which people are mobilized as caretakers of the local trails systems and open spaces. Carolyn Lekberg, who has been leading a one woman campaign for trail and open space preservation for eons, was the happy winner. We will be taking her on tour when the wild flowers are in full bloom. PIONEER DAY REMINICESES: In October, my sister, Phyllis Shawhan, and her husband HR (his full name, by the way) visited us from their home in Pleasantville, New York. Among other activities, we took them to the Pioneer Day barbecue and program and the reopening of the refurbished Museum. Afterwards we drove them up Mine Hill as far as the reduction works. On the way they were fascinated by the various rocks and rock formations, and HR found a small especially handsome piece of serpentine -- a lovely bright green. In the days that followed, Friedolin mounted the rock on a small block of vermillion wood to be used as a desk pen-holder. HR was to take it home as a memento of the trip. Several weeks after their return home, we received color photos of the finished piece sitting on HR's desk. Included was a letter of thanks which said in part: "Of all the things we did -- and they were many -- I am finding, curiously, that the one which crops up most in my mind was the New Almaden trip. When I look at the serpentine in the pen stand, I remember the rust and greenish hued face of the scarred hill, the reduction works below, and the magnificent, rough mountains and valleys surrounding us all lit up by the singular sunlight of California. This is the California I remember from forty-five to fifty years ago, and deep in my heart I still love it very much." Carol Kessler MINE HILL 184 GENERAL MEETING: On Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. there will be a General Meeting at the New Almaden Community Center on Bertram Road. The purpose of this meeting is to elect three people to the Board for a three year term. The following Board members are up for reelection: Dick Forst has been vice-president/treasurer of the Association since its inception. e came o the Association because of his interest in the park as a Fleet Feet runner. He and John O'Toole set up the entire financial system for the Association. He has donated the use of his computer for the mailing and membership lists, and is tremendously active in your Association. Peggy Melbourne is recording secretary and has been a board member since the Associaion was founded. She has contributed extensively in guiding tours in the park and New Almaden, organizing Pioneer Days, and doing the art work for the first two Pioneer Day programs the souvenir cards distributed at New Almaden Days and Living History Days, and the Cinnabar baseball shirts. Peggy is your number one cheerleader for the promotion of the Association. Mike Cox has been a board member from the beginning. He is the Association's in- house geologist and mining expert. Ever since his youth, Mike has studied Quicksilver Park and worked with Dr. Edgar Bailey on the geological study of the rock formations within the park boundaries. Mike spent many hours working with Connie Perham to help her develop the fine museum that we have now inherited. He worked for the Santa Clara County Parks Department over the last two years in the mine closure project and during that time he and his wife lived on Mine Hill as caretakers. Mike is our walking encyclopedia on Quicksilver Park. Following the election, a presentation on Quicksilver Park flora and fauna will be delivered by Henry Coletto, Parks Department Fish and Game, and Bob Clement, everybody's Department biologist. These two People, returning by popular request, are fascinating, well informed speakers. In addition, Doug Gaynor, the new Director of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation, will be introduced to Association members. Ken Silvera, our new Park Ranger, will also be present to meet all of you. Refreshments will be served. Your Association is as good as you make it, so let's have a big turnout at the General Meeting. HELP! There's an acute shortage of articles and only YOU can solve it! Sit down today,, write an article and send it to: NEWSLETTER 1765 Hicks Avenue San Jose, CA 95125 Your effort will be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU Our thanks to Bob Clement who wrote the poem which appeared in the December issue of the Newsletter. Bob is a reliable and frequent contributor, of delightful, witty articles about life in Quicksilver Park. The Board is reorganizing its member participation in Association events. Please bear with us during our upgrading by filling out the new volunteer information form. Thank you. UPDATE ON QUICKSILVER TOXIC ISSUE: Woodward-Clyde Consultants were approved by the Board of Supervisors on February 24. They presented their plan to the State the week of March 3 and, presumably, the study will begin immediately (so it says in fine print). The five year plan for Quicksilver Park called for the construction of the Mine Office and Museum in 1985-1986. Obviously this has not happened. The funds for this project are protected, however, by actions taken at the Process Meetings in January. No date has been set for continued work on construction of the building as the site has to be cleared by the State first. The $49,900 contract will be paid for out of the county's capital improvement fund with money that has been set aside for reconstruction of the Almaden Quicksilver mining office. Kitty Monahan MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION / MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL FORM Date: Membership: new renewal Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Phone: (area code:-) Dues: $10 per year per household, tax deductible $ Additional tax deductible contribution $ Total amount enclosed $ Checks may be made payable to "Quicksilver Park Assn." N.B. Please examine your mailing label. Your dues are paid through the year shown on the upper righthand corner of the label. Dues are payable now through the month of January. CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Saturday, March 14 - Poker Ride, Santa Clara Co. Horsemen's Assn. Rain date March 28. Information: Kay Carmody. Sunday, March 22 - Mountain Trails Assn., hike through Quicksilver Park. Leader and Information: Friedolin Kessler. Saturday, April 4 - Endurance Ride, Susan Ellison and Camp Creek Arabians, in Grant Ranch. Information: Courtney Harte. Sunday, April 12 - Almaden Triathalon Challenge. Information: John Hardy. Tuesday, April 21 - General Membership Meeting, New Almaden Community Center on Bertram Road for election of Board members, followed by a program featuring Henry Coletto and Bob Clement. Refreshment time: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2 - Almaden Ride and Tie, Brown's Arabians. Information: Rich Appleton. Saturday, May 9 - Almaden - Quicksilver 50 k. - 50 mi. Endurance Run, Fleet Feet. Information: Bill Maida Saturday, May 30 - Quicksilver Endurance Riders, in Grant Ranch Information: Joe Archibald Saturday, June 6 - Poker Ride, Golden State Appaloosa Club and Campbell Kiwanis through Quicksilver Park. Information: Larry Pederson Sunday, June 14 - Quicksilver Challenge. Half Marathon, Fleet Feet, through Quicksilver Park. Information: John Peabody. Saturday, September 19 - Endurance Ride, Santa Clara Co. Horsemen's Assn., through Quicksilver, Calero, Santa Teresa arks. Information: Jan Roberts. Saturday, November 7 - Quicksilver Endurance Riders in Grant Park. Information: John Hardy. Santa Clara County Mobile Library at Almaden Post Office, New Almaden from 12:00 to 12:30 p. m. Fridays of March 27, April 10 and 24, May 8 and 22, June 5 and 19. PARK RANGER_ OFFICE The Park Ranger office for New Almaden Quicksilver County park is located at Calero Reservoir County Park, The phone number is: 408-268-3883. HARPER'S NEW..MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CLXXXV,-OCTOBER, 1865,-VOL, XXXI, DOWN IN THE CINNABAR. MINES. REDUCTION WORKS - 1865 From: Life In the Mines of New Almaden |
People |
Carmody, Kay Clement, Bob Coletto, Henry Cox, Michael Forst, Dick Kessler, Carol Kessler, Friedolin Melbourne, Peggy Monahan, Kitty |
Cataloged by |
Boudreault, Art |