About the time gold was being discovered in California, a different type of jewel was being found in the Red Rock Area.  Coal was the black gold of the early settlers life. In the Red Rock area, over 500 coal mines once operated.  These mines created new rail lines and towns sprung up all over the prairie.  Melcher-Dallas has developed a reconstructed coal mine in their Coal Mining History museum that lets you experience what life was like in a coal mine.