Monday, February 19, 2024
NJ History Nerd Tour #8 ... Edison's Sparta Mountain Factory + Sterling Mine Mine Tour, 21Aug-23
NJ History Nerd Tour #8
Edison's Sparta Mountain Factory, Sparta, NJ & TOUR of Sterling Hill Mine, Ogdensburg, NJ...
August 21, 2023, Bill Bogertman, John Breur, Gary Link, Mark Yost (Newbie Nerd)
Plans today included a visit to Edison's Sparta Mountain as well as a "ticket only" tour of Ogdenburg's Sterling Hill Mine. Bills Notes:
1) Edison’s Ogden Mine, Sparta Mountain, Sparta, NJ
- Viewed the Edison Marker in the small parking lot, then walked from mine shaft to mine shaft and foundation ruin to ruin. What an incredible history of the Sparta Mountain area (technically “The Works of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Concentrating Company” 1881-1900); when viewing an original map/schematic, as well as photos, the complex was huge with 20 industrial buildings, mines, crushers, separators, engines, and 500 employees. Some of the mine shafts were hundreds of feet deep, now flooded with water. Iron ore was the main product, made into “concentrated” iron ore hockey-puck sized briquettes. After touring a number of shafts and building sites, we drove to…
2. The Sterling Hill Mining Mine and Museum, Ogdensburg, NJ. We took a two+ hour guided walking tour of the Zobel Hall Museum, the Sterling Hill mine, and the Warren Museum of Fluorescence. (about half an hour is to Zobel Hall Museum, about an hour to the mine, and half an hour to the Warren Museum). To realize the mine itself is completely flooded and is at certain locations over 1,000 feet deep, is quite amazing history. At one time, this mine was one of the world’s richest zinc ore deposits. We walked down 56 degree shafts, one level only, to view blasting stations, drilling equipment, miner lockers and cleaning stations, electric locomotives. Quite a learning experience about New Jersey’s ore and mining history.
VISIT X Naugle House and Easton Tower, 8Feb-23
VISIT X ... Naugle House, Fair Lawn, NJ and Easton Tower, Paramus, NJ,
Bill Bogertman, February 8, 2023
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)