Adirondack Region — Magnetic Iron Ores. 9 



shoots of the Arnold Hill mine, the bends and faults at Chateaugay 

 are interesting features for study. 



The magnetite, as it occurs in the Adirondack region, varies much 

 in the degree of crystallization, in texture and color. In the Port 

 Henry mines it is, as a rule, rather coarsely crystalline and lustrous 

 black. At Palmer Hill and at Arnold Hill martite, a hematite crys- 

 tallizing as magnetite, appears to replace the latter mineral. The 

 titaniferous ores are noted for their hardness, dull black fracture sur- 

 faces and general fineness of grain. In the nature of the associated 

 minerals also, there is much variation. The more commonly occurring 

 rock constituents are found everywhere. Apatite also, is a common 

 associate, as in some of the ore at the Port Henry mines. In general, 

 the iron ores of this region average high in the percentage of metallic 

 iron, especially the non-Bessemer ores ; and on account of their rich- 

 ness the Port Henry magnetites are widely known and esteemed. 

 Bessemer ores are obtained in quantity at Crown Point, in the western 

 range at Mineville (Port Henry), at Chateaugay, and at other locali- 

 ties, given in the notes of mines, further on in this report. 



The beginnings of iron-ore mining in the Lake Champlain valley 

 were early in the present century. Some of the forges were in oper- 

 ation in 1801 and 1802, and they were run upon the ores in their 

 vicinity.* But the output was small, in the aggregate a few thousands 

 of tons. The rapid increase was after 1840. In 1868 the town of 

 Moriah, Essex county, produced 230,000 tons. The tenth census 

 reported 742,865 tons from all of the mines in the Adirondack region. 

 In 1888 the output was 812,000 gross tons, of which 418,000 tons 

 came from the Port Henry mines. In the course of the last ten years 

 a notable change has been in the suspension of work at the mines 

 which supplied the ores for the forges, or bloomaries. All of the 

 bloomaries are idle, excepting those belonging to the J. & J. Rogers 

 Iron Company and the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company. The 

 mines away from railway or lake navigation lines have all been closed. 

 The capacity of production in the few mines, which are in operation, 

 has been increased greatly by their better equipment and improved 

 facilities for sending: their ores to market. Another characteristic of 

 the region is the great size of some of the ore beds. The great sheet, 

 as it were, opened in the Chateaugay slopes, the thick beds or shoots 

 of ore at Mineville (Port Henry), the great outcrops at Adirondack 



* Swank : " History of the Manufacture of Iron in All Ages," Philadelphia, 1S88, 

 p. 106. 



