As most of you who have read my posts realize, I have never recommended anything for anybody to purchase, other than the "Casey Collection", but tonight I have one. I just watched on EWTN TV a short, 40 minute, video entitle "Mr. Bourn's Gold", filmed in 1997, that showed what life was like for Irish gold miners in Grass Valley, California. Extremely well done and very accurate in its portrayal, I would think, from my genealogical research that has informed me that my great grandfather, William Scanlon, from County Waterford, lived there for a time between 1863 and 1869 or so. The time frame of the movie was about 1872. I would bet that Irish miners predominated there in the 1850s and 1860s, after the first gold miners who "panned" for gold had exhausted the easily accessible gold, and the Eastern Money Magnates came in to construct underground hydraulic mines (using water pressure to blow away the loose rock) to extract more gold. The miners became wage slaves then. Because of the unusal length, 40 minutes, it will probably not be seen on local television. But it is a great movie with some very realistic scenes. Ray Marshall Minneapolis "Documents events in the mining town of Grass Valley in 1872. Explains how the decision to use newly invented dynamite is resisted by the miners. Discusses the fate of St Mary's, the local orphanage. Filmed at Empire Mine State Historic Park." Miners wary of a new invention - dynamite - and an orphanage threatened with closure: these are the threads of a true story set in the mining town of Grass Valley in 1872. Location: Empire Mine State Historic Park. FIRST PRIZE TELLY AWARD. Length: 44:00 - $49.95 http://keltyassoc.com/episodes.html James Kelty & Associates 1493 Burton Drive, Suite A Cambria, CA 93428 (805) 927-1719 jkelt@charter.net http://www.empiremine.org/ Grass Valley is in Nevada County, California, northeast of Sacramento. The Empire Mine is the site of the oldest, largest, and richest gold mine in California. From 1850 to its closing in 1956, it produced 5.8 million ounces of gold.This 5.8 million ounces of gold would fill a box 7 feet on each side. It is estimated that this represented only 20% of the available gold...80% remains. The Park contains many of the original mine buildings, the owners cottage and the restored gardens and grounds as well as the entrance to 367 miles (the equivalent of a round trip from Grass Valley to San Jose) of abandoned and flooded shafts and tunnels.