Mineral extraction/mining industry history
including jasper, limestone, iron ore
Jasper Mining and quarrying have been important activities in the Macungie area for many hundreds of years. The first rock to be extracted from the ground to be used by humans was jasper, which the Lenape Indians used for their tools and weapons. Jasper is hard like flint, and was shaped by striking it with a round, hand-held stone. It was “knapped” into arrowheads, spear tips, scrapers, and knives with very sharp edges. Jasper was traded far and wide across North America, and many of the roads we use today follow the Indians’ trading paths.
Limestone Early German settlers had a decided preference for limestone soils, which are found here throughout the valley floor. To maintain fertility farmers used animal manures, and learned to spread their fields every few years with lime that they burned in small limekilns on their farms. Lime for mortar, plaster, whitewash, and disinfectant for outhouses was burned in large limekilns. Some large limestone quarries sold the rock for flux in iron furnaces.
Iron Ore You are standing very close to Jonas Bastian’s mine, one of many mines in Lower Macungie Township. Iron ore was extracted here from large pits, cleaned in a washery on the site to remove clay, then hauled to furnaces in Macungie, Alburtis, Emmaus, and elsewhere. Some was taken to loading wharves along the East Pennsylvania Railroad. Bastian’s mine was ten to fifteen feet deep; it was described in 1941 as “a large pit partly filled with water.”
Making and shaping iron became the biggest industry in Lehigh County after the first commercially successful anthracite-fueled iron furnace in the United States was “blown in” in 1840 at Catasauqua, along the Lehigh Canal. Within a very short time, iron furnaces were built at other locations along the Lehigh River between Catasauqua and Allentown and later along railroads.
Before iron became cheap and plentiful, most tools had been made of wood, often reinforced with iron. With an abundant source of affordable iron, mechanics, engineers, and farmers all found ways to use the material to make new types of tools, engines, and equipment. One of the innovative farmers who secured patents on improved farm machinery was Elias Bastian, who owned and operated the farm where Hamilton Crossings stands.
Iron ore was extracted from mines in the sections of Lower and Upper Macungie that were underlain by limestone. Before it could be used in a furnace the very sticky clay found in the same mines had to be washed off. A very long water-filled sluiceway washed the clay off the ore and deposited the clay on the ground, or in an exhausted part of the mine. The ore was hauled by wagons to furnaces or railroad sidings. The one here (circa 1888) provided ore to the Macungie Furnace. (Two photos of a washery, taken from opposite sides. Use whichever one has the best orientation for your purposes.)
including jasper, limestone, iron ore
Jasper Mining and quarrying have been important activities in the Macungie area for many hundreds of years. The first rock to be extracted from the ground to be used by humans was jasper, which the Lenape Indians used for their tools and weapons. Jasper is hard like flint, and was shaped by striking it with a round, hand-held stone. It was “knapped” into arrowheads, spear tips, scrapers, and knives with very sharp edges. Jasper was traded far and wide across North America, and many of the roads we use today follow the Indians’ trading paths.
Limestone Early German settlers had a decided preference for limestone soils, which are found here throughout the valley floor. To maintain fertility farmers used animal manures, and learned to spread their fields every few years with lime that they burned in small limekilns on their farms. Lime for mortar, plaster, whitewash, and disinfectant for outhouses was burned in large limekilns. Some large limestone quarries sold the rock for flux in iron furnaces.
Iron Ore You are standing very close to Jonas Bastian’s mine, one of many mines in Lower Macungie Township. Iron ore was extracted here from large pits, cleaned in a washery on the site to remove clay, then hauled to furnaces in Macungie, Alburtis, Emmaus, and elsewhere. Some was taken to loading wharves along the East Pennsylvania Railroad. Bastian’s mine was ten to fifteen feet deep; it was described in 1941 as “a large pit partly filled with water.”
Making and shaping iron became the biggest industry in Lehigh County after the first commercially successful anthracite-fueled iron furnace in the United States was “blown in” in 1840 at Catasauqua, along the Lehigh Canal. Within a very short time, iron furnaces were built at other locations along the Lehigh River between Catasauqua and Allentown and later along railroads.
Before iron became cheap and plentiful, most tools had been made of wood, often reinforced with iron. With an abundant source of affordable iron, mechanics, engineers, and farmers all found ways to use the material to make new types of tools, engines, and equipment. One of the innovative farmers who secured patents on improved farm machinery was Elias Bastian, who owned and operated the farm where Hamilton Crossings stands.
Iron ore was extracted from mines in the sections of Lower and Upper Macungie that were underlain by limestone. Before it could be used in a furnace the very sticky clay found in the same mines had to be washed off. A very long water-filled sluiceway washed the clay off the ore and deposited the clay on the ground, or in an exhausted part of the mine. The ore was hauled by wagons to furnaces or railroad sidings. The one here (circa 1888) provided ore to the Macungie Furnace. (Two photos of a washery, taken from opposite sides. Use whichever one has the best orientation for your purposes.)