The City of Pittsburg is a culturally diverse community at the gateway to Northern California's San Francisco Bay Delta. The Port of Pittsburg is one of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay area's fastest growing cities, with population expected to rise to almost 80 thousand souls over the coming decade. Within comfortable distance to the Bay Area, the Napa Valley, the capital city of Sacramento, and the Sierra Nevada foothills, the Port of Pittsburg is restoring and renovating its Old Town to meet tourism demands and to provide greater opportunities to city residents.
The Port of Pittsburg has a Mediterranean climate with summers that are dry and warm, even hot, and winters that are wet and mild. Temperatures range from an average high of almost 33°C (91°F) in July to an average low of 2.2°C (36°F) in December. The Port of Pittsburg gets about 13 inches of precipitation each year. January tends to be the wettest month, and July and August are the driest.
The Port of Pittsburg is home to Delta Discovery Cruises, offering cruise adventures every day throughout the year. Touring the California Delta and San Francisco Bay area, the company offers both public and private cruises on luxury yachts with climate-controlled main salons. Cruises are available for brunch, lunch, and dinner. There are themed cruises that include karaoke, psychic, murder mystery, and weekend wine dinners. Senior cruises are also offered. The Port of Pittsburg's Delta Discovery Cruises also offers the Mothball Fleet Cruise that visits the US Navy's World War II Mothball Fleet, including the USS Iowa, on a four-hour trip that includes a three-course lunch and a history of the fleet.
Sports fishers will want to take advantage of the charter fishing opportunities in the Port of Pittsburg. The Fish Hookers offer open and private charters in the Sacramento River Delta, the Bay Area, and the ocean. With reasonable rates, Based in the Port of Pittsburg, The Fish Hookers provide all tackle and personalized service, including cleaning all fish, for individuals, groups, and businesses. Delta fishing includes catching sturgeon at the Mothball Fleet and stripers at Freeport. The Port of Pittsburg is 30 minutes from San Pablo Bay and just 20 minutes from Rio Vista. Delta fishing lasts from October through May. During the summer, Bay and ocean fishing includes the thrill of shark fishing at the Golden Gate or Farallon Islands.
The Port of Pittsburg owns and operates the Delta View Golf Club, an 18-hole 5.8-meter (6.3 thousand yard) championship course that moves through rolling hills with eucalyptus-lined fairways. There is also a great grass driving range on the Delta View property.
Small World Park in the Port of Pittsburg is a family-oriented park with rides and picnic areas that are open from April through October. There are eight small picnic sites with barbecue pits available to all on a first-come first-serve basis. Picnic areas, and the whole park, can be reserved. Admission to the park is $4 for adults and $2 for seniors and children under 15. This Port of Pittsburg park has restrooms, grills, and picnic tables, play equipment, a play area for toddlers, and rides that include a train, a carousel, a balloon ride, and catch-and-release crawdad fishing. Wristbands for access to the rides are $1.30 each.
Located about nine kilometers (5.6 miles) south of the Port of Pittsburg is the more than 5.3-thousand-acre Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve where visitors can picnic, hike, and enjoy nature. Before coal mining became big business, cattle ranching was the major industry for the Port of Pittsburg area. When the mines closed, miners turned to ranching. Abandoned mining-town structures were converted to barns. Railroad ties became fence posts. Boilers turned into water troughs. Today, the descendants of the early miners graze cattle in the Preserve.
For over a century from the mid-1800s, the Port of Pittsburg's Black Diamond area supported five coal mining towns: Nortonville, Stewartville, Judsonville, Somersville, and West Hartley. Mine workers who lived in those towns came from across the globe, and they produced almost four million tons of coal. Mining underground for sand became important in Nortonville and Somersville during the 1920s. The sand was used for making glass and in the Columbia Steel Works foundry. From the 1920s until the end of the 1940s, almost two million tons of sand were mined.
The towns in the area of the Preserve, which is part of East Bay Regional Park, have all but disappeared. However, the Rose Hill Cemetery remains to hold the men, women, and children whose lives were played out in the era of coal mining. Open on weekends, the Sidney Flat Visitor Center displays photos and artifacts from the era.
The Greathouse Visitor Center in the Port of Pittsburg's Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve may be closed for renovations. When open, the Greathouse Visitor Center offers the experience of being in a 1920s underground chamber and learning about the lives of the coal and sand miners through photos, artifacts, brochures, and videos.
The Hazel-Atlas Mine Tour is a highlight for visitors to the Port of Pittsburg's Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. The Hazel-Atlas Mine was used to get silica sand for glass-making from the 1920s to the 1940s. Visitors walk almost 300 meters (950 feet) into the mine where they see ore chutes, the mine boss's office, and the mine works.
Lasting about an hour and a half, tours are limited to 15 people for safety in the limited space. Beginning at noon and 3pm on weekends from March through November, the tour tickets are $5 per person (purchased at the Sidney Flat Visitor Center). Advance-reservation tours are available on weekends at 11am, 1pm, and 2pm. School groups and other organizations can make reservations for weekday mine tours.
The Port of Pittsburg's Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve has over 100 kilometers (65 miles) of trails that lead visitors through grassland, woodland, evergreen forest, and chaparral. Special areas contain exotic plantings of black locust, almond, pepper tree, and eucalyptus introduced by the coal miners who came to the Port of Pittsburg. Springtime brings amazing displays of wildflowers. Wildlife common to the Preserve include coyotes, snakes, mountain lions, foxes, deer, and bobcats. More rare species for this area include the side-blotched lizard and the Alameda whipsnake.
The Port of Pittsburg Preserve has two camping areas that can be reserved. Accommodating as many as 40 people, the Star Mine Group Camp Area is open all year for two-night trips for organized educational groups only. The site has picnic tables and a pit toilet, but campers must bring water and then carry out their garbage. No water is available there.
Open to the public, the Stewartville Backpack Camp offers two-night camping for up to 20 campers during the fall, spring, and summer. This campsite has picnic tables and a pit toilet. There is also non-potable water for horses that must be filtered for people. It is located a little almost 5 kilometers (over 3 miles) from the Preserve headquarters.
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