Update – Carnegie SVRA General Plan and EIR

Whether an expansive vista of the Sierra Nevada and Great Central Valley of California or the fine detail of a biological wonder – Tesla Park is a special place.Ã?  Act today to help SAVE Tesla Park.
By Dan L. Mosier

The little known coal mining camp of Harrisville, online named for its founder Thomas Harris, remedy
sits on the far west end of Tesla Park. Back in the 1870s, the camp had about 100 Welsh miners and their families living on the banks of Arroyo Seco Creek. In addition to the family cabins, the camp had a school, two saloons, two boarding houses, a blacksmith shop, a carpenter�s shop, and livery stables where the Fashion Livery Stables out of Livermore ran a daily stage.

Because the first major coal mine was known as the Livermore coal mine, this part of the coal field was named the ââ?¬Å?Livermore Coal Mining Districtââ?¬Â by State Geologist Goodyear after his brief visit here in 1876. But it is really an extension of the Corral Hollow Coal District. Coal was first discovered here by Harris and Jenkin Richards in December 1862. The important mines were called Livermore, Summit, Pen Daren, and Richards. From 1862 to 1907, these mines shipped about 9,000 tons of coal to Livermore and other cities in Northern California.

When John Treadwell purchased the Harrisville property in 1890, Harrisville became a suburb of Tesla, where some of the miners continued to live. After the closing of the Tesla mines, Harrisville suffered a similar fate disappearing into history. The building foundations of half of the town of Harrisville, as well as the Summit mine, are situated on the Tesla Park property. The rest are on private land on the north side of Tesla Road. Harrisville is also listed as one of the state�s historic resources.

To learn more about Harrisville, see the book Harrisville and the Livermore Coal Mines by Dan L. Mosier.
We are still expecting the General Plan and Draft EIR for Canegie SVRA and expansion into the Tesla Park land to be issued in Summer 2013  (June – September 2013).  If we get a more specific date we will post an update.  If you can help with comments on the Draft EIR please email us at [email protected].  We also recommend you sign up at www.carnegiegeneralplan.com for update from OHMVR directly.

We do expect that OHMVR will present the alternatives they will analyze in the Draft EIR around the end of April 2013.  We have commented extensively that non-OHV uses for Tesla Park must be included in the EIR Alternatives Analysis.  Thus far OHMVR has stated that Tesla Park will be used for OHV use.  Although the EIR process should consider non-OHV use alternatives for Tesla Park, more about
OHMVR, pharmacy as demonstrated in comments by the Carnegie SVRA Acting Superintendent in recent news articles, therapy
is moving full speed ahead trying to figure out how to open Tesla Park to the maximum OHV use possible.

See recent news articles:

Alliance Aims to Change Plans for Tesla Park, The Independent, April 4, 2013

Tesla land near Carnegie: Off-roaders vs. preservationists, Contra Costa Times, March 11, 2013