One gentleman, a native son who learned to fly after WWII, says he was astonished at the number of mines he saw below him when he flew from the Trexlertown Airport.
Why so many mineholes? What was extracted? Where was it taken?
An iron craze swept the Lehigh Valley from the 1840s to the 1890s, and beyond. New iron-smelting technology was introduced in 1840 at Catasauqua, where larger furnaces than had ever before been constructed in America produced cheap, plentiful iron. The needed fuel came initially by canal from the anthracite fields to the north; the flux needed to separate metal from the ore came from limestone quarries all across the Lehigh Valley. Iron ore was found throughout the limestone valley and magnetic ores on South Mountain.
As the number of “anthracite iron” furnaces increased along the Lehigh River, then along new railroads, the need for these raw materials increased. The East Penn Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (now operated by Norfolk Southern) was completed in 1859 to carry anthracite from the Schuylkill coalfields. Along its way,, several furnaces were built, fueled with anthracite. Topton, Lock Ridge, Macungie, and Emmaus are those closest to Lower Macungie.
Before the Panic of 1873 shut down most of the operations at least temporarily, there were nine iron companies in Lehigh County (nine more were in Northampton County), with 28 blast furnaces. Although Lower Macungie had furnaces at Lock Ridge (built 1868) and Macungie (built 1874) within its borders, most of the mines here were leased by larger iron companies and their agents.
At least sixteen mines were opened in Lower Macungie before 1859. That number eventually climbed to more than 76, almost one-third of all the mines in Lehigh County. Most of them were described in state geological surveys. A few, including the one on the Kratzer Farm, now owned by Lower Macungie Township, were not described in any published reports.
Ore was hauled by horse- and mule-drawn wagons to the local furnaces, including the Emmaus Furnace, and to wharves along the East Penn Railroad where it was stored in great heaps. One wharf was east of Macungie along present-day Indian Creek Road, and one was west of the borough. Trains pulled into a siding daily to pick up carloads of ore. O.P. Knauss, who recorded much history of Macungie in print, wrote:
The delivery of this ore, by strings of teams, every weekday throughout the year was an interesting sight. Roads were generally poor and this continual hard wear by heavy wagons made and kept them worse. In summer months especially the procession of ore trains raised clouds of dust that hung over the wagons. In winter the snow was ground up and creaked, making an eery sound.
In 1884 Macungie attorney E.R. Lichtenwallner, writing about Lower Macungie in the History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, described the “golden age” of mining in the township:
it seemed as if almost everybody who owned a tract of land, however small, had been seized with the mining fever. Leases were made, shafts sunk, and the “hidden treasure” sought for everywhere. Ore-washeries and smoke-stacks seemed to spring up throughout the township like mushrooms in a hot-bed, while the fires from the chimneys of two furnaces and a foundry … lit up the night with their lurid flames. Although many beautiful farms were laid waste, the owners thereof reaped a rich harvest in the shape of royalties, and considered themselves amply compensated for the unsightly gaps made in their land …
Mining was described again thirty years later in the 1914 Anniversary History of Lehigh County, stealing some of its descriptions from the 1884 account:
The mining fever seized the people. Leases were made, shafts sunk, and the hidden treasure sought after everywhere. Ore washeries sprang up abundantly. Many a farm was partly laid to waste, but no one cared as long as the returns came in the shape of rich royalties. Let coming generations gaze upon the unsightly holes in beautiful fields, and strive to bring the mud-dams back to a state, so as to reward the husbandman for his labor expended. The section known as the “Flats,” situated eastward from East Texas, was especially devoted to this mining fever. About a score of washeries were located in the space of a couple of city-blocks. … now one can traverse the township from one end to the other and scarcely anywhere even find the abandoned ruins of what were once active washeries.
Much of Lower Macungie is underlain by Allentown limestone, from which iron ore precipitated. These limonite ores (termed “valley ores”) were always mixed with clay, which needed to be washed off before ore could be sent to furnaces. Steam power was used to bring the ore out of the mines to the washery, where it was dumped into long log washers that scoured the clay off the ore, and deposited the clay-laden slurry onto surrounding fields and into deep holes in the ground where all the ore had been extracted.
The enormous mines in the Minesite area were the largest in the township. Now a wildlife habitat full of trees and vines, the precipitously deep excavations can be seen from the southeastern end of Rodale Park. A mine on the property of the Alburtis Rod and Gun Club, full of water today, was also very large. Many small local mines were used as local dumps and slowly filled up. Some are marked by rough terrain covered by clumps of trees that grew up around the washery. Smaller test pits that yielded nothing more than a depression in the ground are scattered around the township.
The mining craze did not fully recover after the Panic of 1873, and ended when Lake Superior ores began to be transported to Lehigh Valley furnaces around the turn of the twentieth century.
Why so many mineholes? What was extracted? Where was it taken?
An iron craze swept the Lehigh Valley from the 1840s to the 1890s, and beyond. New iron-smelting technology was introduced in 1840 at Catasauqua, where larger furnaces than had ever before been constructed in America produced cheap, plentiful iron. The needed fuel came initially by canal from the anthracite fields to the north; the flux needed to separate metal from the ore came from limestone quarries all across the Lehigh Valley. Iron ore was found throughout the limestone valley and magnetic ores on South Mountain.
As the number of “anthracite iron” furnaces increased along the Lehigh River, then along new railroads, the need for these raw materials increased. The East Penn Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (now operated by Norfolk Southern) was completed in 1859 to carry anthracite from the Schuylkill coalfields. Along its way,, several furnaces were built, fueled with anthracite. Topton, Lock Ridge, Macungie, and Emmaus are those closest to Lower Macungie.
Before the Panic of 1873 shut down most of the operations at least temporarily, there were nine iron companies in Lehigh County (nine more were in Northampton County), with 28 blast furnaces. Although Lower Macungie had furnaces at Lock Ridge (built 1868) and Macungie (built 1874) within its borders, most of the mines here were leased by larger iron companies and their agents.
At least sixteen mines were opened in Lower Macungie before 1859. That number eventually climbed to more than 76, almost one-third of all the mines in Lehigh County. Most of them were described in state geological surveys. A few, including the one on the Kratzer Farm, now owned by Lower Macungie Township, were not described in any published reports.
Ore was hauled by horse- and mule-drawn wagons to the local furnaces, including the Emmaus Furnace, and to wharves along the East Penn Railroad where it was stored in great heaps. One wharf was east of Macungie along present-day Indian Creek Road, and one was west of the borough. Trains pulled into a siding daily to pick up carloads of ore. O.P. Knauss, who recorded much history of Macungie in print, wrote:
The delivery of this ore, by strings of teams, every weekday throughout the year was an interesting sight. Roads were generally poor and this continual hard wear by heavy wagons made and kept them worse. In summer months especially the procession of ore trains raised clouds of dust that hung over the wagons. In winter the snow was ground up and creaked, making an eery sound.
In 1884 Macungie attorney E.R. Lichtenwallner, writing about Lower Macungie in the History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, described the “golden age” of mining in the township:
it seemed as if almost everybody who owned a tract of land, however small, had been seized with the mining fever. Leases were made, shafts sunk, and the “hidden treasure” sought for everywhere. Ore-washeries and smoke-stacks seemed to spring up throughout the township like mushrooms in a hot-bed, while the fires from the chimneys of two furnaces and a foundry … lit up the night with their lurid flames. Although many beautiful farms were laid waste, the owners thereof reaped a rich harvest in the shape of royalties, and considered themselves amply compensated for the unsightly gaps made in their land …
Mining was described again thirty years later in the 1914 Anniversary History of Lehigh County, stealing some of its descriptions from the 1884 account:
The mining fever seized the people. Leases were made, shafts sunk, and the hidden treasure sought after everywhere. Ore washeries sprang up abundantly. Many a farm was partly laid to waste, but no one cared as long as the returns came in the shape of rich royalties. Let coming generations gaze upon the unsightly holes in beautiful fields, and strive to bring the mud-dams back to a state, so as to reward the husbandman for his labor expended. The section known as the “Flats,” situated eastward from East Texas, was especially devoted to this mining fever. About a score of washeries were located in the space of a couple of city-blocks. … now one can traverse the township from one end to the other and scarcely anywhere even find the abandoned ruins of what were once active washeries.
Much of Lower Macungie is underlain by Allentown limestone, from which iron ore precipitated. These limonite ores (termed “valley ores”) were always mixed with clay, which needed to be washed off before ore could be sent to furnaces. Steam power was used to bring the ore out of the mines to the washery, where it was dumped into long log washers that scoured the clay off the ore, and deposited the clay-laden slurry onto surrounding fields and into deep holes in the ground where all the ore had been extracted.
The enormous mines in the Minesite area were the largest in the township. Now a wildlife habitat full of trees and vines, the precipitously deep excavations can be seen from the southeastern end of Rodale Park. A mine on the property of the Alburtis Rod and Gun Club, full of water today, was also very large. Many small local mines were used as local dumps and slowly filled up. Some are marked by rough terrain covered by clumps of trees that grew up around the washery. Smaller test pits that yielded nothing more than a depression in the ground are scattered around the township.
The mining craze did not fully recover after the Panic of 1873, and ended when Lake Superior ores began to be transported to Lehigh Valley furnaces around the turn of the twentieth century.
