38 m:\v vouk sTATr: M^sI•:^•^r 



A detailed account of the Clinton ores and their local occurrence 

 was pujjlished in 1908 by the New York State Museum.^ The 

 resources in these ores were found to be very large, the estimated 

 quantity available in the three principal areas takini^ into account 

 only seams above 18 inches thick and within 500 feet from the sur- 

 face reaching 600,000.000 tons. Though, of course, much of this 

 will not be commercially mineable for a long time to come, yet 

 there are large quantities so situated as to permit extraction at 

 a comparatively low cost. 



MILLSTONES 



The production of millstones, although much smaller than for- 

 merly, is still an imjx^rtant industry in certain sections of Ulster 

 county. This area furnishes nearly all of the millstones produced 

 in the United States, the other producing states being Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia and North Carolina. In addition to the domestic supply 

 a large number of millstones and buhrstones are annually imported 

 from France and other European countries. 



The New York stone is known as Esopus stone, a name derived 

 from a former name for Kingston, which was an imjxjrtant ship- 

 ping point. It is a firm white conglomerate varying in fineness 

 from that of a coarse sandstone to a coarse conglomerate with 

 some pebbles 2 inches in diameter. It is composed of partially 

 rounded whitish quartz pebbles in a silicious matrix. The stone 

 is obtained from certain beds of Shawangunk grit, a rock Iving 

 unconformably upon the Hudson River shales and formerly cor- 

 related with the Oneida conglomerate, but now known to lie in 

 the horizon of the Salina. Its thickness varies from 50 to 200 feet. 



The quarrying operations are carried on along the northern 

 border of the Shawangunk mountain, in Rochester and Wawarsing 

 townships, Ulster co., mainly along the line of the New York, On- 

 tario and Western Railroad at Wawarsing, Kerhonkson. Accord, 

 Kyserike, Granite, St Josen and Alligerville, while New Paltz and 

 Kingston also are shipping points. 



Quarrying is carried on with but a sniall equipment, the stone 

 being worked out by hand bars, wedges and sometimes with the 

 use of powder. It is dressed by hand at the quarry into millstones 

 and chasers. The millstones are dressed into stones varying in 



1 Iron Ores of the Clinton Formation in New York State, bj- D. H. 

 Newland & C. A. Hartnagel. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 123. 



