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New Idria itself is a ghost town with only a handful of inhabitants. New Idria was built around mercury, and when the last mine closed in the 1970s there was little reason for anyone to stick around. The 19th-century miners dumped their waste wherever it was easiest, and today huge piles of poisonous tailings shed their toxins into San Carlos Creek. (Read more about the geology of mercury)
All photos (c) 2003 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Red tailings, the remains of roasted cinnabar, on the banks of San Carlos Creek.
