Copper and Iron

A series of five lectures and two field trips Wednesday evenings in March & April 4, 2001, 7:30 p.m. with Saturday field trips in May

In the year 1800, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences sent out a questionnaire to every town in Connecticut. Judging from the responses, town leaders had a better sense of their landscape’s geological context-river flooding, groundwater budgets, soil chemistry, mining, etc.-then do many elected officials today. This was due to their agricultural, self-sufficient economy; to the general, rather then specialized, nature of their technical knowledge; and to the fact that they paid considerable attention to such earthy phenomenon as minerals, moisture, and manure.

From early local usages, commercial quarrying of brownstone began in earnest in 1783, and flourished through the first decades of the 20th century. During the 19th century it became the material of choice for important municipal buildings and city row houses throughout the Northeast, and as far away as San Francisco and Europe. “ Brownstoners,” as the special barges were called, transported hundreds of thousands of cubic yards-millions of tons-to New York City alone. The steep cliff outcroppings were adjacent to the river in Portland, and made getting at and moving such vast quantities of material easier there than elsewhere. Other quarries in the valley had the same advantage: trap rock from Rocky Hill, gemstones from Haddam, and paving material from the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Clay beds, products of post-glacial runoff, abounded in the Connecticut River Valley, and were widely exploited by the early settlers. A few of the most extensive deposits are still being worked today and modem bricks produced. How the clays and other materials used in colonial brickmaking were mined, and how early bricks were made is a fascinating story. One need only

OUR GEOLOGIC HERITAGE - AND CONNECTICUT’S EARLY INDUSTRIES, the theme of this year’s March Lecture Series, builds upon topics addressed in two prior seasons: one the geology of Connecticut; the other the State’s river shipping- trades. How the first colonists assessed the landscape in which they found themselves and capitalized on its assets is this year’s story.

The land - bedrock and glacial overlay - would determined the settlers’ future. Keenly aware of their surroundings, they appraised the arable soils and forest timber, rock outcroppings and clay pits; viewed bogs for the possibility of peat and bog iron, and streams for their potential waterpower. No matter what his other profession might be, the first migrant here was a farmer who lived close to the land and could read its signs.

It wasn’t long before the easily carved red sandstones were being quarried for foundations and tombstones, and formulas devised to turn squishy local clays into bricks. Bog iron sufficed for several generations until a rich vein of ore was discovered in the northwest hills, which along with large deposits of limestone, heavily forested hillsides, and rushing rivers turned that corner of the state into what was long known as the Iron District. Local prospecting also lead to the opening of the first chartered copper mine in North America, the Newgate in Granby.

It is hard to envision this early commerce and industry in what was essentially a rural landscape. But the air rang with chisel on stone and the clanging of iron on iron. Smoke cloaked the northwest hills and the night skies glowed red from hundreds of fires as forests were reduced to charcoal needed for making iron. Hundreds of sailing vessels waited at Riverside docks to carry the varied products of these industries to market. Look at examples of the earliest products to see that the process was one of evolving techniques. Methods used in making brick, both on a small scale and on a production basis, will be discussed. Where did the most properous manufacturing of brick take place? And how and why was brick utilized as a building material in the first place? All these questions will be examined.

By 1760, British North America was running the world’s third largest iron industry. With superior ore, found in the northwestern section of the State just thirty years before, Connecticut became a leading producer and exporter. The “Iron District” developed a national reputation by forging premium quality metal needed by the early republic’s new manufacturing centers, many of them right here in the Connecticut River Valley. They also furnished iron for the national armories at Harpers Ferry, VA and Springfield, MA. For nearly two hundred years these early industrialists made iron with renewable resources by managing woodland and waterways for sustained yield. Aspects of their particular culture enabled them to make a gradual transition in their use of the land away from heavy industry to give us a heritage of forest preserves and lakes for recreation today.

Early settlers were quickly attracted by bright green weathering particles in the red sandstone beds of the Connecticut River Valley. By the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, a great number of these copper showings had been discovered. Of these deposits the Newgate and Bristol were the most productive. Newgate was the first chartered copper mine in North America and was actively worked for 30 years in the 1700’s. The Bristol deposit was an important source of copper in the mid-l9th century. Mineralizing solutions for these deposits were deep, circulating groundwaters, heated by a period of volcanic activity, that briefly interrupted the deposition of the red beds.

About the Speakers

Robert M. Thorson is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where he teaches courses in geology and environmental science, and performs research on earthquake processes, wetland history, and archeology. In 1992, as a Fullbright Scholar, he was a visiting professor in Civil Engineering at the Universidad Tecnica de Federico Santa Maria, in Valparaiso, Chile. Although originally from the midwest, he came to Connecticut 16 years ago from Alaska. He lives in Storrs with his family and has the luxury of being able to walk to work.

Alison C. Guinness is currently curator at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, CT. It was there that in 1995, as visiting curator, she mounted an exhibit on Portland Brownstone which included a 700 pound “sling” used to move the quarried blocks. Also on display were tools, pictures, documents, and examples of the carved stone. Ms. Guinness, who has been researching the valley quarries since the late 80’s, has traveled extensively, tracking down Portland stone. She will bring with her examples from valley quarries. She holds a Masters degree in history from the University of Connecticut, Storrs.

William H. Parsons is a consultant and contractor who specializes in restoration of masonry structures. He apprenticed during his college summers with Peter Jones, a Welsh-born stonemason, who was in his 80’s at the time. He has managed the restoration of Belvedere Castle in Central Park, NYC, several Connecticut historic industrial mill conversions, and worked on countless 18th to 20th century buildings, bridges and monuments, most of them National Register of Historic Places sites. He has been a speaker for Old-House Journal seminars. He holds a degree in Geology from Vassar College.

Robert Gordon, who grew up in New Milford, teaches courses in geology, natural resources, and archaeological metallurgy at Yale. He has been a fellow of the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and the Regents’ Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. His recent.books include: American

History and Archaeology. Another, A Landscape

Connecticut, will come out this year.

University of Connecticut, Storrs. Although his main research is developing quantitative models of geological processes, his interest in the copper deposits of the Connecticut Valley evolved from his background in mineral exploration in the Canadian Arctic, Ireland and Australia.

About the Field Trips 
There will be a half-day trip to Portland, CT, to view the brownstone quarries, buildings and graveyards, with Alison Guinness, on Saturday, May 5.

On a Saturday, in May (TBA), historian, Walter Landgraf will lead a full-day excursion into the northwest hills which will include stops at a typical colliers’ village, a charcoal burning site, a glimpse of the road laid out in 1772 to transport iron to Hartford and Springfield, and the remains of one of the first iron refineries. Then, the tour will go on to the Salisbury Iron District itself for stops at the Beckley Furnace and other sites along the Blackberry River. The ghost town where the Mt. Riga Furnace once made anchors and chains for the U.S. Constitution, will be included, as well as the Stockbridge marble quarries.

Walter Landgraf has been active in all aspects of the preservation of sites along this trail. He has done archival research as well as hands-on archaeological work of the Beckley Furnace and the Richard Smith Project among others, and made an extensive study of the iron and charcoal industries in the northwest corner. It was Mr. Landgraf who, in 1992, reopened the Stone Museum in the People’s Forest, a CCC project which had been closed since W.W.II. From there he runs numerous programs on natural and social history for student groups and adults.

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