Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-02-07
agricultural.
The Copper Mines Of Grange County

From a paper read by Hon. Roswell Farm
ham of Bradford, at the late meeting of the
State Board of Agriculture, Manufactures
and Mining at Burlington, VIC make the fol-
lowing extracts
Col. Fsrnham said that copper ore WIS
discovered, and known as such as carly as the
year I65 IN the town of STAFFORD. iu the
southern part of Orange county About
hity years ago copper ore, in c0nsl dcrable
quantities, was found in the southern mart
of NershIrc, the town next north of StraH1rd
And more than 20 wears ago a deposit of
copper ore was found n Pike Hill in the
northern part Of the town of C0rinth which
lies next north of Nershrc. AZ these thi &c
places mines have been worked TO some OK
tent since.
The character Of the ores al all three of
these points Is nearly the same The corner
ore Is the yellow sulphuret Of IRON In
some places the vein carries q very much
larger proportion Of iron than of copper
The mine at STAFFORD has been worked for
the manufacture ofcopperas, most Of the time
since Its discovery, and copperas is OBJ
tanned from the sulphurct Of iron and no use
is made of the copper orc, this process does
not come under the head of copper mining
At the present time the mine at StrafOrd If
not worked Tor the copper ore hut the pro
prletors are now making copperas at the
mine, and arc sending quantities Of t. eli
ore to Maiden, Mass, to be used in tn,
manufacture of sulphuric acid. From 1885,
to 1889 copper mining was carried on a
STAFFORD to some extent and smelling work
were erected, but the business was found I,
DC Improbable and was abandoned. After
wards in working deeper, for iron pyrites t,
be used in the manufacture of copperas
richer deposits of copper ore were found, ant
IN such quantities as to warrant mining f.
this metal. A new smelling furnace wa
erected, and during the early part of the wa
when the price of copper was higher thai
ever before, reaching at one time as high a
35 cents per pound, the business was pushe
with good deal of energy and was foun
profitable. But when the war closed. an
government not only had no use for c0ppe
but threw upon the market almost two year
stock of that metal and the shipyards Of th
country were silent, the attempt to min
copper at STAFFORD was abandoned thong
there is doubt that there are large d,
POsits of valuable copper ore in that towr
Col. Farnham went on to detail the hi
tory Of the copper mining enterprises
Corinth. \ great deal of money has bee
expended at the two mines, the Old Min
and the Union Mine, which arc but fe'
rods apart but the dividends have alway
turned out to be assessments. The farmer
who teamed the ore to the railroad at Bra,
ford made money; but it was a losing bus
ness for the owners and for the towns whic
had to repair the roads and bridges owe
which the heavy ore teams passed. II
Old Mine is now silent, and its works golu
to decay, and at the Union Mine, only sill
gle pair of sledges, at work in a vain CT
deaVor to find the . true vein,' resound
the deep caverns, mournful with the o.
story that hope deferred maketh sick Il
hearts of New York capitalists
Dir. Farnbam next described the mine
the Vermont Copper Mining Company
Vershire-the only mine in Orange coun
now IN operation and one OF the very few
the country-perhaps the only one exec
those on Lake Superior. And these wou
stop did they not produce native copper
The stockholders of this company a
mostly business men Of New York city T
President, Smith Ely, Esq, owns abo
81 900 shares of the 100 900 shares Of t
capital stock. F. A. Palmer, Preside
Of the Broadway Bank, owns, also, a lar
number of shares.
Since 1854, when the present compa
commenced work, the main shaft has be
pushed down in the vein, until now it
reached a depth of nearly 900 feet from t
surface, and new adit has been opene
which has been driven in till it reaches I
main shaft, a horizontal distance of 900 fe4
A stationary steam engine stands at t
point where the main shaft and adit uni
A track extends from the bottom Of the ma
shaft up its inclined plane of from % to
degrees, then out through the adit to
outer world. The products of the mine
pass over this track. The expense of dra
ing this mine has always been slight, a
the apparatus for doing this is simpl,
water tight car holding several hogshea
into which the water is dipped from res
voir blasted into the rock down in the mil
A few carloads per day keep the mine f
rom water.