hangtown's gold bug park

Don a hard hat, doff your claustrophobia and bring the kids to experience a real gold mine just a mile or two from Placerville Main Street. Look at a real rock pounder and a model that shows you how it works - learn about how men who operated this machinery earned a higher wage because they would soon go deaf!. A gift shop supplies memorabilia and authentic pine-needle baskets. Many acres of 49er wilderness to hike.

This small park has a gold mine that you can tour and visit a stamp mill. The mine in horizontal, rather than vertical so it is an easy walk thru, just watch your head. That is why they give you a hard hat! You can also try panning for gold and enjoy the small gift shop. Nice place for a picnic. The stamp mill is very impressive.

This little place is well worth a stop. For $6, you are admitted into the mine shaft, along with an audio device that gives you information as you proceed. Having never been in an actual gold mine, I was impressed. Educational, and fun!

My husband and i were exploring Placerville Gold Bug Park looked like a great option as i love historical sites. We visited the Stamp Mill first and the docent Keith is a great story teller throughout the whole exhibit he was very informative about the history of the stamp mill. We checked out the museum and the attendant offered us to visit the mine tour we were more then happy to pay the admission based on the great experience we already had with the Stamp Mill it was appx 80 degrees that day and the cool air was refreshing and the walk was very eye opening insight to the Gold Country past. We saw lots of trails and were disappointed we forgot our hiking boots! Owell for next and time!

You get to go in the actual mine with a recorder as your tour. We had a lot of fun while getting a history lesson.

My husband and I stayed in Placerville for our mini-honeymoon. We decided to check out some of the gold-mining stuff around the area. We checked out Sutter Mill first, and it was ok, but we LOVED the trip to Gold Bug mine. We went in the middle of the afternoon, and it was so HOT, but once we got into the mine it was cold, and it felt SO GOOD! We loved walking through the old tunnel. After the self-guided tour of the mines we decided to try out their gold-panning and we had a blast. We spent probably about an hour panning for semi-precious gemstones. We hit the "mother-lode" when we found a big chunk of fools gold. After panning, we headed up the hill to the blacksmith's shop, and he made me a "prairie-diamond" ring (pioneers used to make wedding rings out of horse shoe nails on the way out West) and showed us how the stamp-mills used to work. Overall we had a blast, and my hubby kept going on about how it was his favorite part of the trip.

It was the first time for us to visit gold mine and it was really incredible. The self guided audio guide through the mine is great, you get a lot of information! I would recommend everybody to visit it's great!!

There are 2 main sites to see here. The audio guided mine tour is a great way to experience what it would have been like to do deep rock mining. Also see the stamp mill where a guide explains the work done there. My kid also panned for gems and had a blast!

This was OK, a nice little view of how a mine looked but probably best for showing the kids, a little blah for adults so the admission seemed a little high

Gold Bug Park's main attraction is the self-guided tour through the old mine, which is interesting. There is a very small museum (one room), and an opportunity to pan for gold and gemstones. The $2 panning price was certainly cheap, but your chances of finding anything are not great. The panning troughs are filled with sand and gravel from a nearby creek which may have some gold in it. You can buy bags of gravel guaranteed to contain gemstones. Closes at 5:00 pm.

We ventured off to Gold Bug Park after years of living here in the town of Placerville. They have a tour system where you are given a hand held device to use as you walk through. The tour guide is a miner from days of old! You learn the history and how life was back in the day of gold mining! Don't forget to head over to the Stamp Mill! The docents there are very informative regarding the process to crush the ore to get to the gold!

We planned a stop on our way home from Tahoe, and I am so glad we did! We took our 7 & 9 year old girls and started in the mine ($18 for our family) where we were given an audio device to take the self guided tour. Took about 20 minutes and was well done. Next we headed to the blacksmith shop and stamp mill. Each volunteer docent in this exhibit was excellent! The blacksmith forged us a small spoon before our eyes for a small donation, the stamp docent was a great story teller, both girls enjoyed these exhibits the best! Finally we panned for some gems ($2 each pan). Didn't really find much and we were done after about 15 minutes. I highly reccomend this place. We drive away commenting in the fun we had!

This was a wonderful end to our travels for the day. Took the mine self guided tour and experienced the life in a mine. The went to the stamp mill where "Black Bart" gave us a tour and history lesson, could have stayed there all day. A great stop, plan on 2 hours or more if you want to pan for gold.

As clearly stated on the Web-site, there is no admission to the gold mine tour if it is less than a half-hour before closing. We came from a distance & rushed to get there, arriving 3 mins. before the deadline, We were graciously allowed to take the self-guided tour which we easily finished in about 20 mins. The audio tape provides a lot of good info about mining & this mine in particular. It has numbered segments that correspond to specific points in the mine. We welcomed the coolness of the mine since the outdoor temp. was in the high 90's.We hoped to see the stamp mill, too, but were told that the docent there was already closing up shop, because it was so hot. We drove up the hill & saw him coming down the pathway. It was obvious he was not going to let us in, saying he had to close up the entire area, incl. the gate on the road, by 4 pm. It was a disappointment.We knew it wasn't the day the blacksmith shop was open, so never planned to go there.There are bathrooms not far from the mine & a covered picnic area, too. There is also a gift shop which we didn't explore. Everything we saw was nice & clean & well-kept up.Incidentally, we were headed on a vacation trip to Virginia City, the location of the famous Comstock Lode. Between this tour of the Gold Bug Mine & info we picked up at the NV State Museum in Carson City, we felt no need to spend the money to see the ruins of any of those silver mines.

While in town we decided to check out the Gold Bug Park. It was very easy to find. We toured the mine which was only $5 per person. You wear a hard hat and a little device that gives you information about the mine as you walk through. It was a little chilly inside, but not too bad. After touring the mine we went to the Stamp Mill. They did not have a blacksmith working that day, but it was still neat to check it out. There was also a little trail nearby that we walked along. It was a fun and cheap activity for a beautiful Saturday afternoon.