Reading Sienna Mine

A Former Pigment Mine on Neversink Mountain

- ROBERT BEARD

The Neversink Mountain Sienna Mine was a mineral pigment mine on the north side of Neversink Mountain in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The mine was in a limonite-rich section of the Cambrian Hardyston Formation, which is a coarse quartzite that is also used as a source of sand and road aggregate. The mine produced sienna, a mineral pigment derived from limonitic iron oxides. Sienna from the Reading area was an important source of pigments for the Crayola crayon factory located in nearby Easton, Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF NEVERSINK MOUNTAIN

Thename “Neversink” is from the American Indian word “navasink,” which means “at the promontory.” Neversink Mountain overlooks the Schuylkill River and nearby valleys. During the early 1800s to early 1900s, the main industry on Neversink Mountain was tourism. From 1880 to 1930 Neversink Mountain had Ive hotels, an entertainment complex and the Neversink Mountain railroad, which operated from 1890 to 1917. Thehotels eventually burned down and were never rebuilt. Theresorts, picnic groves and railroads disappeared and were overtaken by nature.

HISTORY OF THE SIENNA MINE

Pigment mining was also important. Around 1903, a bed of sienna ore in weathered Hardyston quartzite was found in sand pits on the Haak Estate on Neversink Mountain and identified as a potential mineral pigment. Drifts were run into the quartzite and mining began.

The C.K. Williams and Company, a mineral pigment business, also operated a mine on Neversink Mountain, but I am not sure of the location. Prior to 1910, the only mining done on Neversink Mountain was by John P. Lance of Reading, an heir to the Haak estate. The mine was small and employed only a few men, and annual production was 125 to 200 tons.