Beyond Cattle & Farming

Beyond Cattle and Farming. Bernal family seeks new markets with mining businesses. Ygnacio Bernal began mining cinnabar (an ore from which mercury is extracted) in the Santa Teresa hills in 1896. Flasks of mercury were transported by wagon to the rail depot in New Almaden. Although the nearby Almaden Quicksilver mines proved to be much richer in valuable ore, the Bernal Mine continued to produce small quantities of mercury until 1947., Inset Image: , Miner weighing mercury and filling flasks, As a child, Pedro Bernal (Ygnacio’s son) noticed decomposing shells in the hills behind his home at Rancho Santa Teresa. Years later he visited England’s marl pits, where a shell and limestone mixture was mined for fertilizer. Upon returning home, Pedro found his boyhood hills to contain 100 acres of marl, 200 feet thick, enough to manufacture 40 tons of fertilizer a day for 80 years., Inset Images: , Pedro Bernal standing in quarry , Courtesy California Room, San Jose Public Library, Bernal’s Carbonate of Lime Marl , Guaranteed Analysis Calcium Carbonate 80% , Dissolved from Natural Mineral (Marl) , Registered No. 199 California Lime Marl Fertilizer Co., Route 1 Box 654, San Jose, Calif. , Net Weight 100 Lbs. When Packed, In 1915, Pedro founded Bernal’s California Marl Fertilizer Company, offering a much-desired commodity in a valley of agriculture. Eight men worked the limestone quarry during the dry season, pulverizing, sacking and hauling its bounty by horse team to a local shipper., At the time, marl was in large enough quantities to be mined in only three places in the world, England, South America and Rancho Santa Teresa. The marl business flourished until Pedro’s death in 1935., Inset Image: , Bernal Marl Fertilizer business , Courtesy John C. Gordon, Special Collections Department , San Jose State University Library