Jan 29, 2004

Wild West fascination leads to dream job for Park Interpreter John Slenter

By Jeanne Lewis
Staff Writer

People dream of turning a hobby into a vocation, others wish for the day of retirement when they can do whatever they wish. Parks and Recreation Department Park Interpreter John Slenter achieved both. A pastime of collecting mining and old West artifacts culminated in his appointment to his dream job as guide and historian at the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park and Mining Museum.

Slenter recently dramatized the difficult job of mining in the late l800s to a group of 31 fourth graders from Booksin Elementary School.

“Imagine being in a big dark cave thousands of feet below the surface of the earth. How would you see?” The tall, robust Slenter asked.

“Turn on a light,” a boy said.

“No, there wasn’t any electricity yet,” Slenter said, pointing to another child.

“A candle?” A young girl asked.

“That’s right,” Slenter said.

The children are enthralled as he lights the wick. So are the adults. And we have yet to get to the explosives.

“John’s knowledge of mining is incredible,” said Robin Schaut, park interpreter program supervisor. “He knows all about the equipment, too. He’s very dedicated and conscientious. All the plexiglass displays in the museum are done by him and they’re so professional. He has an eye for detail. Plus he’s great with the people who come in, answering all their questions. We’re lucky to have him.”

Slenter studied to be a ranger before being drafted and sent to Germany. Returning home, he married and started a family while working as a visual merchandiser for Montgomery Wards and JC Penney, studying art in his spare time. Fascinated with the old West, he became enamored with mining and western paraphernalia 25 years ago and a collector was born. Accepting an early retirement, he spent more time in antiques stores, buying and trading mining equipment, certificates, old sepia photographs and listening to the stories of life in the mines and Wild West.

In the early 1980s, he spent many hours at Connie Perham’s Carson Adobe on Almaden Road, where she directed the Almaden Museum and shared her vast knowledge of the Almaden Quicksilver Mines. He displays an old brass lamp with a hunter green shade from Perham that hung over a bar in a saloon as a shot of whiskey or sarsaparilla was ordered. Perham introduced him to Kitty Monahan, who recognized that his expertise of mining and artistic talent would be an invaluable asset with the move of the Mining Museum.

“John is the ultimate responsible person,” said Kitty Monahan, president of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association. “He is totally dedicated to his daughter, mother, grandchildren, home and job at the museum. He has a consummate love of mining. Once he takes on a task he never gives up until it is finished. Besides that he is a wonderful artist. He has such great artistic ability and he shares it with us. He joined the association five years after it started because of his love of mining and after meeting Connie Perham. He’s been a wonderful member of the board of directors all these years and he’s very special to us.”

In 1996, when plans to close the old museum and move the artifacts to the present location at Casa Grande began, Slenter was there to lend a helping hand. He helped with inventory, boxing and moving the items. With his design and display proficiency, he assisted the parks department with plans for the new museum, storyboards and display cabinets to illustrate the life of the miners in the area. His collection of mining equipment and documents of the time period were put to use as well. He worked seasonally for two years, becoming a permanent park interpreter last September.

Besides knowledge of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, Slenter has researched Bodie, Calif., the eastern Sierra town—now a State Park—known as the best preserved ghost town of the 1880s with 30 original buildings that he says are in “a state of arrested decay.” The booming gold rush town reputes to be one of the wildest and most violent of the era. Last August, he led a group of Almaden residents there for the annual Bodie Days. Costumed docents have Wild West gunfights, bank robberies, stagecoach holdups with captive young ladies plus music and a good old fashioned barbecue. An accomplished photographer, Slenter exhibits his work at the event for the last five years and is featured in Bodie’s yearly calendar.

Asked if any of Slenter’s family were involved in mining to cause such a kinship to the time period he said, “The closest connection was a grandfather who was a blacksmith in San Francisco. His shop was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. He went by stagecoach to Virginia City looking for work. He was offered a partnership but declined. He was a simple man. My mom remembers being told about it.”

Slenter’s 97-year-old mother lives with him since he moved to New Almaden two years ago. Annual visits to Tucson, Ariz. provide time with his daughter and three grandchildren, a look at the mining artifacts in the area and a tall tale or two.

As park interpreter for the Museum, Slenter shares his knowledge with the public who visit and presents special programs for school children spinning yarns about mining life, teaching history with the exhibits he creates and artifacts from his own collection. Twice a month he leads hiking tours into the Quicksilver Park. A member of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association, Slenter was the master of ceremonies at Pioneer Day 2003 for the dedication of El Senador Mine, dressed in period costume complete with felt hat and skinny bow tie.

“My biggest regret is that I never got to go in the mines, but the best thing about what I’m doing is that I’m always learning something new and meeting people,” he says.

Even Slenter’s home has a history.

“It was once the toll gate’s home. He collected fees for travel and entry across the bridge over Los Alamitos Creek into the Hacienda on Bertram Road, one fee for a man on a horse, another fee for a wagon, a different fee for herding sheep,” Slenter said.

Through the years, the building housed a post office, barber and tamale restaurant. Entering Slenter’s home is a stroll into the past, adorned with mining equipment of picks, scales, lanterns, maps, certificates, mint condition old bottles and miniature replicas of mining scenes. Even an old spittoon. Catalogued binders contain postcards, programs, handwritten inventories and photographs. An imaginative display of an ore cart on a track and melting pot—named Josephine’s Mine after his mother—landscapes the backyard.

The historian tells about the woman who lived in the Hacienda and swore she would build a church if her son came home from the Spanish American War. He did and St. Anthony’s was built on Bertram Road. Traveling circuit riders would come and give the service for the miners and their families. Slenter attends the church, which still has one service a week, and assists with the upkeep and decorates it at Christmas.

“It’s strange where life leads you,” said Slenter. “In my youth, my family visited many state and national parks enjoying the tours the rangers gave. I aspired to be a park ranger or naturalist, but my life took another direction and I went on a different path, I never thought I would end up doing this. It is a dream job for me.”

Slenter doesn’t collect like he used to. He can’t. He’s too busy living his dream in New Almaden.

To hear more of John Slenter’s stories, visit The New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum at 21350 Almaden Road, New Almaden. (408) 323-1107. Open Friday 12 p.m.–4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.–4 p.m.