the Ely Mine
The Ely
copper mine is in one of three areas of mining operations in Orange
County, Vermont: the Foster (or Cleveland) and Elizabeth mines on
Copperas Hill
in South Strafford; the Union, Cuprum and Eureka mines on Pike Hill in
Corinth;
and the Ely mine on Dwight Hill in Vershire. To the first
group goes the
honor of being the oldest, the Foster mine dating from 1793
(1).
Thompson’s History of Vermont (1842, p. 167), says the
discovery was made by
two men out tapping trees. The earliest mention of the
discovery found by
Abbott was in Niles’ Register, XXXIII (November 17, 1827), p.
181 (2).
The first group also claims the longest-lived of all the
copper mines, the
Elizabeth mine, operating (with interruptions) until 1958.
The second
group includes the Union mine, which produced 31,504 tons of ore (of
8.5-10%
copper, after cobbing). The Union mine was reported to have
been
discovered by a fox hunter chasing a fox into his den in 1847 (as
reported in
the [Burlington] Daily Free Press, June 6, 1854, p. 2, col. 4, again in
the
Daily Free Press of January 25, 1855, p. 2, col. 3, both quoting the
Northfield Star), but Hemenway disputes this, stating the mine
was
discovered by three men on an excursion (3).
But it is the Ely mine which boasts
the deepest shaft, at three thousand four hundred feet (4) or three
thousand
six hundred feet (5) or even four thousand feet (6), and the most
remarkable
history. From the discovery and investigation of an outcrop
with a “burnt
appearance” (7), some four hundred feet above the valley
floor (8) reportedly
causing fire-balls and smoke (9) or, according to Blaisdell, when John
Richardson’s daughter Betsey pulled her leg out of a soft
hummock she stepped
on after a rainstorm in 1812 and noticed it was covered with orange
dirt (10)
or, as Dee asserts, the notice by a farmer of a rock scuffed by his
oxen’s shoe
(11), interest was generated in 1821 in what lie under Dwight
Hill. The
Burlington Daily Free Press alludes to reports dating back to 1800, but
was
unable to verify any such report, even by the “oldest
inhabitant” (12).
Around 1820, group of local
farmers formed the Farmer’s Company (13) and produced
copperas intermittently
until 1853. Isaac Tyson, whom Abbott regards as
“probably the leading
industrial chemist of the day” (14) began
purchasing mineral rights as
early as 1830 to the area. The Vershire Copper Mining Company
was
incorporated by Stephen F. Spencer, Hiram Bliss, William Richardson,
Philip
Matoon, Junior, Sherborn Prescott and others (15). Sometime
thereafter,
(1833? -with the charter of the Boston Copper Mining Company, Act 40,
Laws of
Vermont 1833, p. 84 or 1838? -with the charter of the Vermont Copperas
Co, Act
17, Laws of Vermont 1838, p. 83) he and Amos Binney (and William
Reynolds, John
Head and Richard Sullivan) began to drive an adit (a horizontal tunnel)
to
intersect the vein at some distance from the southern surface of the
hill. In two years, they had driven in ninety-four feet
without striking
ore (16) and Tyson’s partners became uneasy and
discontinued the project
over his objections (17). Abbott suggests the financial panic
of 1834
influenced this decision (18). The Company remained in
existence, assuming
from the presence of an amendment to their charter in 1858 (19).
Little digging was done until the
Vermont Copper Mining
Company (chartered 1853, Act No. 89, Laws of Vermont 1853, p. 93)
commenced
work in the Spring of 1854 (20). The primary stockholder (with
five-twelfths)
was Mr. Henry Barnard of Morristown, New York, who purchased the
property for
$1,000.00 (21). In the meantime, Isaac Tyson, John Reynold,
S.R.M.
Holbrook, R.H. Rollins, Benjamin Preston and E.P George formed the
Vermont
Union Copper Mining Company (22). The U. S. Congress had
banished foreign
copperas from American markets, and prospects of domestic
production seemed promising.(23) In the mine, now
operated by
Barnard, under the direction of Captain Thomas Pollard, an able Cornish
mining
engineer with experiences in Michigan, California, and
“British America” (24),
Tyson’s adit was driven another four feet when it struck the
vein Tyson failed
to find. Later, another shaft was driven 778
feet horizontally
under Tyson’s adit (not higher as stated in Collier, First
Annual
Report...1872, p. 628) to strike the main shaft 300 feet below the
surface. Cobbed ore, comprising usually eight to ten per cent
of pure
copper (25), was produced, as follows:
1854..............134 tons (also: Hager, Report on the
Geology of
Vermont, vol. II, p.855)
1855..............198 tons (also: Hager)
1856..............137 tons (also: Hager)
1857..............246 tons (also: Hager)
1858..............314 tons (also: Hager)
1859..............788.5 tons (also: Hager)
1860..............1312 tons (Stone, The Vermont of Today,
vol. II, p.
536)(plus 140 tons unsold)
1861..............1240 tons (Hemenway), 1812 tons (Jacobs,
Report...1941-1941, p. 8;
Howard, Peter,
Geology
of the Elizabeth Mine, Vermont, p. 68)
1862..............1113 tons (Hemenway), 2224 tons (Jacobs),
1430 tons
(Peters)
1863..............1400 tons (Hemenway), 1430 tons (Jacobs)
1864..............897 tons (Hemenway), 1430 tons (Peters)
1865..............1430 tons (Hemenway), 1430 tons (Jacobs)
1866..............3615 tons (Hemenway)
1867..............4932 tons (Hemenway)
1868..............5682 tons (Hemenway, as above, quoting
Geology of
Vermont, vol. II, p. 1136)
