GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF NEW YORK 35 



and the plaster was shipped by canal all over the ccLtntry. :\Ir 

 Yavvger is quoted by \'anuxem as stating that plaster was used 

 tJhere as early as 1811 while by 1842 the quarries were producing 

 10,000 tons yearly, the price delivered by boat to Ithaca being $1.50 

 to $2 per ton. From Ithaca it was transported by the Ithaca-Owego 

 Railway and Susquehanna river to points in Pennsylvania. In 1840 

 five quarries were in operation, owned by Richardson, Partenheimer, 

 Cresis, Rowland and Yawger, while the Cross Roads quarry was 

 owned by Mr Thompson. 



At the present time and for some years back the only active 

 quarry has been that of the Cayuga Plaster Co., of which C. T. 

 Backus of Union Springs is president. The mill and quarry of 

 this company is at present leased and operated by the United States 

 Gypsum Co. The mill is situated along the Ithaca branch of the 

 Lehigh Valley Railroad, about 2 miles north of Union Springs at 

 Cayuga Junction. It is equipped with a Sturtevant cracker and 

 nipper and five buhrstone mills. The rock is sold in lump or groimd 

 form to cement factories and others ; none is calcined. The quarry 

 is situated about % mile back from the mill. The gypsum varies 

 from 20 to 30 feet thick and is overlain by. as much as 25 feet of 

 glacial drift that contains many waterlime boulders. Stripping is 

 efi:ected by means of a steam shovel, and the earth, is carried to a 

 convenient dumping place at one side. The gypsum is worked at 

 the pre^:ent time by quarry methods and by means of a tunnel 

 driven into the lower course of the gypsum. Steam drills are used 

 and on the open face the rock is blasted off in benches. The tun- 

 nel has been only recently opened and extends but a few feet into 

 the face. The rock is loaded on cars and transported to the mill 

 on a narrow gage cable railway. 



An analysis of the plaster as quarried in rjo? showed tl:e pres- 

 ence of 80 per cent lime sulfate. 



The future of this field depends upon the uses w'hich can be 

 found for rock of this grade. Transportation facilities are good, 

 the deposits are large, and mining could be carried on cheaply. 

 Although the cement firms at the present time are demanding, gen- 

 erally, a higher grade of gypsum, which is supplied by the beds of 

 western New York, the low cost of production and the advantages 

 for shipment are favorable to an increased development at Union 

 Springs, and in time the once flourishing industry mav be revived. 



Another gypsum deposit was formerly worked at Cayuga Bridge 

 (now Cayuga), the gypsum occurring Ix.th above and below the 

 bridge. This deposit was in small pockets, however, and was soon 

 abandoned for the better material south of it. 



