He wanted the coals red hot and ready for a blacksmithing demonstration at the dedication of the new blacksmith shop at New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association's Pioneer Day on Oct. 9.

"I make small leafs [during the demonstration] and hand them out to the kids," Ferrier said. "When the hammer comes off, the anvil really rings and kids go, 'Ohhh.' "

Looking on was Yvonne Zolna of Santa Clara, who was dressed in period costume, ready to talk to visitors about the blacksmith shop and Casa Grande. She did an internship at the museum a few years ago and still has an affinity for the area, she said.

Pioneer Day also included the 150th anniversary of Casa Grande and the dedication of a donated ore cart, said Kitty Monahan, president of the association.

Monahan said the blacksmith shop is the result of about a year's worth of volunteer work on an existing building that wasn't being used by the museum for anything but storage.

"The building was there. It was the carriage house for the Casa Grande," she said.

It didn't have a roof, so volunteers put on a roof. It didn't have doors, so a Boy Scout, Sean Teague, took on the task of organizing a group to build four doors for the small building as his Eagle Scout project, and another Scout, Tolly Powell, took charge of the patio for his Eagle Scout project, Monahan said.

"They graded land, put down vines and displayed all of our equipment. They dug holes for a waterline and dug holes for a hitching post," Monahan said.

And one day David Miller showed up and said he would be interested in being a volunteer and helping out, so among other things, he repaired the windows, built a floor to display the equipment and steadied the structure.

"Every day he was there for three or four hours," Monahan said. "Every day for a year."

Pioneer Day included speeches given by some of the relatives of miners who once worked at the Almaden Quicksilver Mines and dedications for the blacksmith shop and the ore cart. Members of the association prepared lunch and served it on picnic tables in back of Casa Grande, where display tables were set up for a raffle, and books about Casa Grande, Almaden Quicksilver Park and the wildflowers of the park were available for purchase. Custom-made walking sticks with brightly colored decorative paint and feathers were also available for purchase.

New Almaden is a historic district famous for the mining of quicksilver, which was used to separate gold from the rock in which the ore was found, and was named for a Spanish mining town still in operation. The quicksilver mines were the richest mines in California, beginning before and lasting beyond the gold rush days.

Ferrier, who runs his own blacksmith shop, says his grandparents were from the Bay Area and settled in Almaden during the mining days. He says his grandfather told him that he once had the opportunity to buy the town but didn't, instead opting to buy a resort in Twin Creeks just south of the town.

"He said, 'What am I gonna do with a town?' " Ferrier says of his grandfather.

Equipment used in or around the mines is displayed along with advertisements of the times. There are tire and axle shrinkers, anvils, hammers and various tools typical of a blacksmith shop. Much of the equipment and tools had been stored in the building but had not been put out for display prior to the opening, Monahan said.