Explore the hidden history of the Black Diamond Mines

ANTIOCH, Calif. -- Antioch's Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve offers visitors a unique opportunity to learn about California's rich mining history.

"It's not often that you get to go to a park and go underground in a mine that used to be an operational mine," said East Bay Regional Parks Naturalist Jessica Kauzer.

"Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve is definitely one of the Bay Area's hidden gems, because it's something most people haven't seen before," said East Bay Regional Parks Naturalist Jaclyn Caldwell.

Underground tours allow visitors to step back in time to explore how coal miners lived and worked.

"Being a coal miner here was definitely a difficult job and labor-intensive job," Caldwell said.

"When you come and see the rails on the ground, the carts, the shifters office, everything you see here is of the time period," Kauzer said. "Getting to experience what someone almost a hundred years ago would have experienced."

Aside from coal, Black Diamond Mines Preserve also shares the areas extensive sand mining history.

In 1920, Marvin Greathouse, president of G. and M. Gravel company, opened the Hazel Atlas Mine and started mining silica sand for use in glassmaking

"The sand here is a high quality silica sand that is not found in the common beach sand in the Bay Area," Kauzer said.

Whether it's the coal or sand history, Black Diamond Mines provides visitors with an immersive experience. According to Caldwell, the mines still have more history to be discovered.

"One of the exciting things about this place is we're always learning more and unearthing more history and sharing that with the public. I think that's a really exciting thing we get to do here," Caldwell said.

Find more information here.