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California State Mining and Mineral Museum

Museum in Mariposa, California, United States

Field	Value
name	California State Mining and Mineral Museum
photo	California State Mining and Mineral Museum - central gallery.jpg
photo_caption	Interior of the California State Mining and Mineral Museum
map	USA California#USA
location	Mariposa County, California, United States
nearest_city	Mariposa, California
coordinates
established	1999
governing_body	California Department of Parks and Recreation

The California State Mining and Mineral Museum exhibits and interprets the state's mineral resources and mining heritage. It is part of the California state park system, and is located near Mariposa, a town in central California, on the premises of the Mariposa County fairgrounds.

The museum houses a collection that was created in 1880, with the establishment of the California State Mining Bureau. Henry G. Hanks was the first California State Mineralogist and was tasked with managing the collection. The collection was housed in the Ferry Building in San Francisco until 1983. The collection was moved at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds in 1986. Responsibility for it was transferred from the California Department of Conservation to the California Department of Parks & Recreation in 1999. It is the only California State Park without associated land. The international collection holds over 13,000 minerals, rocks, gems, fossils, and historic artifacts.

Popular exhibits

Exhibits include the crystalline gold Fricot Nugget, weighing 201 troy ounces (6.25 kg), the largest found during the California Gold Rush; a working scale model of a stamp mill over 100 years old, demonstrating the process of extracting gold from quartz rock; and a replica hard rock mine tunnel that allows visitors to better understand California's hard rock mines.

The California State Mining and Mineral Museum has artifacts from the Mother Lode, along with international gems, stones, and other artifacts.

Closure proposal

The California Mining and Mineral Museum was one of the 48 California state parks proposed for closure in January 2008 during the Arnold Schwarzenegger Administration as part of a deficit reduction program.

References

"California State Mining and Mineral Museum".
[http://cbs5.com/local/California.parks.budget.2.627476.html CBS5.com: List Of Calif. Parks To Close In Budget Proposal] {{webarchive. link. (February 23, 2008)

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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