New Idria Ghost Town – Paicines, California - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

New Idria Ghost Town

Paicines, California

After the nearby mercury mine shut down, this town was abandoned and declared a Superfund site. 

View all photos
Old church
Mercury extraction plant Jason Hickey / CC BY-SA 3.0
Washed out road
Dry collecting pool Jason Hickey / CC BY-SA 3.0
24
156
Top Places in California
View of the ruins from the hillside. The original stairs would have come down on the far left. The curved edge of the original aquarium and the outline of the diving well are on the right.
Ruins of the Sutro Baths
San Francisco, California
Lyford's Tower
Belvedere Tiburon, California
Stagecoach Inn Museum
Newbury Park, California
 See All

Old mining town named after the New Idria Mercury mine. It’s now a ghost town with over 100 buildings after the mine closed.

The New Idria Mercury Mine was claimed in 1854, during the California Gold Rush. The mercury that was extracted from rocks in the area was an important part of the process of extracting gold from ore. Idria was the second most productive mercury mine in the country. All that mining had steep environmental consequences.

Mining waste contaminated the groundwater around the former mine. The mining operation shut down in 1972, and the area was evacuated due to high ground and water contamination. In 2011, the EPA designated it as a Superfund site because of mercury and other heavy metals draining into nearby creeks.

superfund site pollution mining ghost towns abandoned
Nearby
Pinnacles Condor Sanctuary
26.78 miles
The Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum
30.05 miles
Los Coches Adobe
35.79 miles
Want to see fewer ads? Become a Member.
Near This Place
Paicines, California

Pinnacles Condor Sanctuary

When California condors were hovering on the brink of extinction, this recovery program was charged with helping the birds thrive again.
King City, California

The Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum

This museum honors the farming past of the “Salad Bowl of the World.”
Soledad, California

Los Coches Adobe

This historic home has survived wars, drought, and financial woes to become a California landmark.
Jolon, California

Mission San Antonio de Padua

This mission, established in 1771, is the most remote of California’s Franciscan missions.
Related Places
Near the village, there is this curious building, built in 1870. Inside it there was a steam plant, to lift the lead and silver minerals from the galleries below the ground. The miners nicknamed it "Sa Macchina Beccia" (The old machine, in Sardinian language). The plant stopped working in 1940.
Iglesias, Italy

Villaggio Minerario Asproni

A former mining village that now operates as an open-air museum.
The abandoned La Siberia cement factory and company town.
La Calera, Colombia

La Siberia

An abandoned company town and cement factory outside of Bogotá, now haunted by ghosts and scofflaws.
Laver.
Älvsbyn V, Sweden

Laver Ruins

The concrete skeletons of an abandoned Swedish town hide among the trees.
The ghost town.
Keeler, California

Cerro Gordo

A lawless town deep in Death Valley was famous for its riches and death rate turned YouTube famous.
In partnership with KAYAK

Plan Your Trip

From Around the Web