New Almaden, San Jose, CA

In San Jose, New Almaden is the oldest chapter in the whole valley's story, and it still lives like one. This was California's first major mining district, where in 1845 Ohlone guides led the Mexican engineer Andres Castillero to cinnabar outcrops in the hills, and within a year Barron, Forbes and Company were mining mercury here, the quicksilver that made Gold Rush ore extraction possible. Homes in New Almaden are scattered along Almaden Road and a few side streets, set among trees and slopes rather than laid out in tracts, with the historic district's old buildings standing right alongside them. Almaden Quicksilver County Park wraps around the village, with trails that climb through the hills past old mine sites and furnace ruins, and the trailheads sit close enough that a hike rarely starts with loading up the car. Casa Grande, the mansion built for the mine's managers, now holds the Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum, which opens on weekends, and its grounds are open every day for a stroll. La Foret, a French dining room in a historic building beside a creek on Bertram Road, is the village's sit-down restaurant. It has cooked in the same classic style for about four decades, with slow sauces built from marrow, wine and herbs. Coffee means a drive down into Almaden Valley, where BLVD Coffee on Meridian Avenue has a patio for sitting outside. Daily life means driving out. The village has almost no shops, groceries mean a trip down to Almaden Plaza on the expressway, and Almaden Road is narrow and slow going. It is a small, history-soaked pocket for people who want trees, quiet and a sense of the past more than sidewalks and shops. Nobody ends up in New Almaden by accident, and that is precisely the appeal.