Gold Bug Park - Walk Into a Hard Rock MineStop on Goldrush!, a free self-guided tour.Here in Placerville you can do something the first forty-niners never did: walk straight into a hard rock gold mine. The Gold Bug Mine is a 352-foot horizontal tunnel cut into the hillside above Big Canyon Creek, where early miners panned for gold.Once the easy gold in the streams was gone, miners followed quartz veins into solid rock. This claim opened in 1888 as the Hattie Mine, named for an owner's daughter, which is why the museum here is called Hattie's Museum. In 1926 John McKay took over, renamed it the Gold Bug, and worked it until World War II, when the federal government closed gold mines as non-essential to the war effort.The City of Placerville leased the land in 1965 on the promise that it would stay a park, and the city still runs it today. Take the self-guided mine tour, then visit the stamp mill to see how ore was pounded into powder to free the gold. Placerville, by the way, was once better known as Hangtown.Nearby: Restrooms, picnic tables and a gift shop at the park. Food and coffee on Main Street in downtown Placerville, a few minutes away.Stops on this tourColoma - Where the Gold Rush BeganGold Bug Park - Walk Into a Hard Rock MineKennedy Tailing Wheels - The Giants of JacksonAngels Camp - Mark Twain and the Jumping FrogColumbia - A Gold Rush Town Frozen in TimeRailtown 1897 - Hollywood's Favorite RailroadMariposa Museum - The End of the Mother Lode