Among the East Bay Regional Park District visitor centers offering programs as pandemic-related restrictions ease is the one at Oakley’s Big Break Regional Shoreline.
On Big Break Road off Main Street (Highway 4), Big Break is a window on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s rich cultural and natural history. Outside, there’s a kayak launch, a fishing pier, a small amphitheater, a scale model of the entire Delta and shoreline trails leading to Brentwood and the Marsh Creek Regional Trail, which is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.The shoreline trails at Big Break are open every day during daylight hours. The visitor center is now open from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting June 17) for information and walk-through exhibits. The center also is offering free, 30-minute programs led by a naturalist at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon Saturdays and Sundays on the patio outside the visitor center. The programs are geared for children and their caretakers, but everyone is welcome.
Advance registration is required for the patio programs. You can register by phoning 888-327-2757, option 2. For information on the status of programs at all the park district visitor centers, check the district’s website at ebparks.org.
Antioch: A song written by Merle Travis advises that coal mines are “dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew, where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few.” You can sense the truth of his words, without the danger, by experiencing a great new exhibit at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch.
Lands including the present park were the site of California’s most extensive coal mining industry from the 1850s through the early 20th century. Then from the 1920s through late 1940s, sand was mined there for glass and steel production. The park district later obtained the property and opened the park in 1976.
For many years the district has offered underground tours in the former sand mine tunnels. Now a replica of a coal mine section has been created in one of those tunnels, because the actual coal mine tunnels are too dangerous to enter. Mannequins represent the miners, and there’s recorded dialogue in English and Welsh, since many of the miners came from Wales.
The coal seams were sloped and low in height, so you’ll see a miner on his side digging at the coalface and a young boy called a knobber pushing coal downslope to be loaded onto a steel cart for transport to the surface. Knobbers were as young as 8 and worked long shifts underground.
Tours of the new exhibit are 30 minutes long and cost $3 per person. For safety reasons, only ages 7 and older are allowed. Reservations are required. For reservations and more information, call 888-327-2757, option 2. At the same number you can book a tour of the sand mine. Also open to ages seven and older, it’s longer and costs $6 per person.
The park’s underground Greathouse Visitor Center is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, with limited capacity. Admission is free, and all ages are welcome. Black Diamond Mines is at the end of Somersville Road, 3½ miles south of Highway 4. There’s a parking fee of $5 per vehicle when the kiosk is staffed.
Ned MacKay writes about East Bay Regional Park District sites and activities. Email him at nedmackay@comcast.net.
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June 13, 2021 at 07:00PM
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Park It: Oakley’s Big Break shows Delta’s rich natural, cultural history - East Bay Times
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