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MISCELLANEOUS
What is your policy on web-site links? In general we link only to educational web sites that offer authoritative information on topics relevant to our museum. We do not link to commercial or personal sites unless these offer much educational material as well, and we do not link to sites that offer mostly “recycled” material from other sources. Please contact us via e-mail if you wish to link to our site or would like us to link to yours. Can scout groups meet requirements for geology merit badges at Sterling Hill? Yes, and many do. In most cases a scout can accomplish everything he or she needs for a geology merit badge with a single trip to Sterling Hill. Note: participation in the Rock Discovery Center is necessary to this goal, and is an add-on to the basic tour. Please call us beforehand to make your needs known and to book a tour that includes the components you will need to fulfill merit badge requirements. Do you have employee records or photographs of former workers at Sterling Hill? We have numerous photographs depicting Sterling Hill and some of its employees when the mine was in production, but all employee records were destroyed when the zinc company suspended operations. Photographs featuring people are mostly group shots rather than of individuals. What is in your archives? Can I search them? Our archives feature numerous old maps, photocopies of historical documents such as mine leases, property sales, stock prospectuses, and testimonies from legal proceedings, and photographs of local mining operations. We are not a lending library and do not encourage curiosity-driven inspection of our holdings, but qualified researchers are welcome to call for information and an appointment to visit. When time allows we also try to assist those wishing to locate information on a family member that worked here. Do you have information on Thomas Edison’s activities in the area? Yes, some. Thomas Edison spent years developing a large iron-mining operation on Sparta Mountain, just two miles east of Sterling Hill. This complex once employed 500 people but went out of business in the early 1900s. Edison also opened the historic Lime Crest marble quarry in nearby Sparta. We have some records of Edison’s activities in this area, but far more information about Edison and his life’s work can be obtained from the Menlo Park Museum (Click Here) for their web site), the Edison National Historic Site ( Click Here) , or the New Jersey Historical Society (Click Here). Do you host special events such as birthday or graduation parties? Yes – we often host birthday parties and graduation parties, and also weddings and corporate retreats on occasion. Some people supply their own food, but we can provide snacks, refreshments, and sheet cakes for celebrations, and refer you to local caterers if you wish to have full meals. We do not serve alcohol. It is not necessary for participants in your event to take a mine tour, though many do. It is necessary, however, to make a reservation with us well in advance if you wish to hold a party or other function here. Are you affiliated with the Franklin Mineral Museum? No. However, the Franklin Mineral Museum offers an excellent tour, and we recommend it highly. Franklin is so close to Sterling Hill (2.5 miles) that some people elect to visit both museums the same day, generally Franklin in the morning and then Sterling Hill for the daily public tour at 1 p.m. What else is there to do around there? The Sterling Hill Mining Museum is located in the scenic (really, no kidding) Highlands of New Jersey, a region of forested hills, farmland valleys, and rural villages. The countryside offers opportunities for hiking, biking, fishing, canoeing, birding, horseback riding, swimming, camping, and boating. Golf courses, museums, and dairy farms open to the public offer additional enjoyments. (Click Here) link to recreational opportunities as described by the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce. Where can I stay? What motels or campgrounds are in the area? For a list of local motels, B&B’s, and campgrounds (Click Here.) When did the Sterling Hill mine open? In truth the only correct answer is “We don’t know.” The presence of a piece of “zinc” in a Native American burial site on Minisink Island, xx miles north of Sterling Hill, might refer to a piece of zinc ore from Sterling Hill, but could just as easily refer to pewter obtained in trade from some of the early European colonists. In any event, the Sterling Hill orebody, like that at Franklin nearby, outcropped in plain sight of the Wallkill River, and small excavations on the outcrop had probably been made since the earliest years of Dutch and English exploration and settlement. All we know for sure is that a small mine pit (no longer extant) at Sterling Hill was worked and abandoned sometime before 1739, a date established by tree-ring dating of trees that had taken root in the pit. The orebody might have been worked in a minor way far earlier, but the 1739 date already makes Sterling Hill one of the oldest mines in the United States. In the nineteenth century the Sterling Hill property was broken into lots, and sometimes the rights to the zinc and iron were sold separately, so there were different operations mining the ores at or near the surface, and a lot of entangling litigation, until all the local zinc mining interests at Franklin and Sterling Hill were consolidated under the New Jersey Zinc Company in 1897. Organized underground mining at Sterling Hill began around the end of World War I, after two decades of development work, mill-building, etc. The Sterling Hill mine closed in 1986, but the surface workings have been preserved as part of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum. |
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Send mail to tacco@ptd.net with questions or comments about this web site. |