MINING New Jersey

The History of the Franklin & Sterling Hill Mines

- PAT RAIA

In the 19th century, immigrants from Russia, Ireland, Hungary and Poland flocked to Franklin, New Jersey to coax zinc, iron and manganese out of the earth in the mine there. These days, the mine is long played out, but the place where it was located is still a draw for a range of visitors from the curious to serious geologists.

"I have all types of people visiting the shop, from beginners to novice to high-end collectors and dealers and people who are just curious about Franklin minerals," says Ted Bayles, proprietor of Franklin Mineral Rock and History, LLC on Main Street in Franklin, New Jersey. "People who come in the store are split half between locals and half those from around the country, and I have had people from Germany and China, one gentleman from Greenland plus a lot of geologists from museums in New York and around the country."

So what's the draw? History, mainly, says Bayles and a desire to study what's been buried in the earth.

FROM THE BEGINNING 

The mining industry in Sussex County New Jersey began as long ago as the 1630s when the Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg was established by a land grant from King George III to William Lord Sterling Alexander because it was thought to contain an extensive copper deposit. Its twin site, The Franklin Mine site was discovered in 1750 as part of the Franklin-Sterling Hill Mining District.

By 1765, Sterling sold the mine to Robert Ogden. Thereafter it was found to contain 357 types of minerals including Franklinite, found nowhere else, as well as zinc silicate and zinc oxide; none of which was commercially mined anywhere else in the world. Esperite, clinohedrite, hardystonite as well as johnbaumite and mcgovernite were also found there.