bourn house

So much gold rush history here, beautiful home and grounds. A must see and be sure to take a guided tour. The hiking trails around the mine property is fantastic, there are several other little mines within the Empire Mine property.

Amazing step back in history. Beautiful house and grounds. The mine tour is wonderful and so informative.

If you're visiting the Grass Valley, Nevada City, Lake Wildwood, or Lake of the Pines area, the Empire Mine along with the Bourn house is a wonderful park to visit. The park is managed by the California Park Service, but the tours are staffed by volunteers. If you have a 4th grade California student or you have an interest in California gold mining history, this park is a must. From the Bourn house tour to the mine tour to the blacksmiths making candle holders while you wait, this park is really a treat. There is a small fee to tour the park, but it is well worth it. Also, if you like to hike, there are miles of hiking trails surrounding the park (all free).

This park, what else do you call nice large grass covered grounds with water ponds and flowers, is a pleasure to visit! Mind you, back in the day of the gold rush times, the southern part was the workers area that included the mine shaft that flat cars would be lowered deeply into the earth, the very loud stamp mills, which would crush the rocks with gold to the surface, areas to maintain the equipment, a large vat of chemicals that would help extract the smaller particles of gold, and of course the hot kilns that would melt gold that would be poured into bars. It must have been a very noisy operation that is just a couple hundred feet from the owners cottage when they would visit from the Bay area. A lot of pictures, artifacts, a huge model of what the tunnel system would look like in miniature. Well worth taking a couple of hours to tour and to bring your picnic lunch to enjoy at on a warm Spring or Fall day! The house is only open on limited weekend days and so much fun to have the docents explain what life on the property must have been like 120 years ago!

I was at the Empire Mine for the Annual Picnic and got to see this home. I enjoyed the docents dressed and interacting as the owners of the property. Seeing what people of the 1800s could build with their money was interesting. The grounds and gardens were wonderful too. I bet some horticultural society would love to get their hands on that greenhouse!

If you are in Grass Valley, GO see the Empire Mine & the Bourne House. It's a great piece of the CA Gold Rush History. This 4000+ square foot house is actually called a 'cottage' in lots of printed material. We ALWAYS take visitors here....great CA state park!

I was able to get on a guided tour of the Bourn House (note that the title above is wrong - there is no "e" and the brochure refers to it as the Empire Cottage) when I visited the Empire Mine State Historic Park. This is what money can buy in 1897 - an magnificient English country cottage with all the amenities. Better still are the exquisite gardens complete with fountains and a reflecting pool. The guide was excellent and gave a rich historical narrative about the Bourn family. Not to be missed if you are in the area.

On the grounds of the Empire Mines State Historic Park, the Bourne House is a wonderful addition to the tour. Volunteer docents, who assume the roles of the mine owner's family, friends, and housekeeper, do a wonderful job of engaging visitors in conversation as they impart a sense of what it was like to live in the "cottage". They also talk about its design and furnishings as well as their own lives.

If you visit Empire Mine on a living history day, you can take a full tour of this stone "cottage" on the beautiful grounds. The gardens behind the cottage are beautiful in the spring; hundreds of heritage rosebushes, peonies, iris, and hydrangeas later in the summer. A popular wedding site.

This is the home of a major silver baron of the late goldrush era in the foothills. Mr. Bourne called this his "cottage". Tours given with costumed docents representing the owner, the butler, the kitchen staff, the maid. Also a tour of the grounds containing numerous mining equipment and a 3d presentation of the mine itself. On beautiful grounds with picnic tables.

The grounds, the buildings and the history. Excellent state park