Tales of the Devil to Date

The new entrance to Mine #1 The shaft is 40 feet deep with an adit going off from the bottom northweat for 10 feet that is 6 feet wide and 7 feet high.  The adit is well timbered and the shaft was filled with debris dating back to the 19th Century.
Photo by John Carter

We have rediscovered an old mining complex in western Connecticut that to date comprises two mine shafts with accompanying adits.  The first mine consists of a shaft approximately forty feet deep with an adit going off to the northwest that is ten feet long, six feet wide and sever feet high.  Town records reveal the first mine was a prospect hole that may have been created in pre-Revolutionary days; the second mine was just discovered on July 30, 2012 and is yet to be explored.  Town records indicate this mine may have an adit up to 140 feet long.

At the end of May 2012 a blue ribbon committee was convened at the site consisting of Charles Merguerian of Hofstra University, Nicholas Bellantoni of Uconn, Stefan Nicholescue of Yale, John Carter of Geotek and two engineers, none of us could determine what they were mining.  The town P&Z Officer finally discovered some old records that divulged the fact the second mine was dated to 1858.  The mineral mined was chalcocite an ore of copper.

The mines were found within two miles of Cameron’s Line a major fault system that extends from Staten Island, NY the western mountains of Norway under a series of different names.  There are several important mines located in the proximity of this suture zone producing gold, silver and copper.  The largest copper mine in the U.S. before the discovery of copper in the Keweenah Peninsula of Michigan was the Argo Mine in Vermont that is also associated with this large fault system.

The property where these mines are located is highly mineralized containing in addition to chalcocite, malachite, pyrites, quartz, kyanite, ilmenite, magnetite, cerrussite, beryl and many other minerals yet to be identified.  Although there are no plans to resume mining operations at these old mines mineral specimens will be available for sale.  For further information contact John Carter at geotekllc@gmail.com or 860-469-4804.

Many of the specimens of kyanite, ilmenite and magnetite are of museum quality and are really spectacular.  Some of these specimens are on display at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, CT.