A Cornish choir today.	A Cornish miner.	The miners enjoyed wrestling.

      The Cornish migration to Grass Valley began in 1849 with the discovery of gold. However, most of the Cornish population arrived during the l870's. The miners from Cornwall, in the British Isles, were famous for their success as tin miners. The Cornish were not interested in placer mining and were very proud of their skills as hard rock miners.
      The most important factor in the success of hard-rock mining in California was the immigration of these skilled miners from Cornwall, England, where hard rock tin and copper mining had been carried on for over a thousand years. These Cornishmen brought experience, skill, and the latest technological advances in mining equipment. One of these inventions, "the Cornish pump," was so efficient that pumps of its kind continued to be used until the early 1930s.

The Presenter:
Leslie Bromall, Anthropologist

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