Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Michael Herrick
Taken: June 22, 2009
Caption: Mine Hill
Additional Description: Where Roxbury’s Natural and Industrial Heritage Meet

Once known as Spruce Hill and set aside as “common land” because it was too steep and rocky even for hardscrabble Yankee farmers, Mine Hill gave rise to a thriving industrial center in the late 1860’s. Fortunes were made and lost on the rich veins of quartz, siderite and granite that cut through the wooded slope. The mines spawned a bustling boom town called Chalybes and employed hundreds of immigrant workers.

At their height, the iron mines produced 10 tons of pig iron per day. Whole forests were cut down to make into charcoal to fuel the furnaces at the mines. Despite substantial initial investment and elaborate planning, the steel-making operation was plagued by problems from the outset. Just five years after the enterprise began, the furnaces hut down. The granite quarries, however continue to flourish to this day.

Purchased by the Roxbury Land Trust in 1978, Mine Hill became a National Historic Landmark a year later. Today, the forest has reclaimed the land and healed most of the scars on the 360-acre preserve, but the remains of the mine and furnaces stand as a reminder of our industrial heritage.
Submitted: July 5, 2009, by Michael Herrick of Southbury, Connecticut.
Database Locator Identification Number: p69550
File Size: 0.475 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.