THE ADIRONDACK GRAPHITE DEPOSITS 9 



built. Among the enterprises that entered the field at this time 

 was a company which attempted to mine the Tovvne property. This 

 company, after a year, abandoned work and moved to a site near 

 Overshot pond, operating as the Columbia Graphite Company. 

 There it found more ore but soon worked out all the available supply. 

 Then it moved again, having dismantled its mill, and took over the 

 holdings of the Ticonderoga Graphite Company at Rock pond. 

 Much activity prevailed here for a time, but the property was soon 

 leased to Pettinos Brothers of Bethlehem, Pa., who worked it for 

 only a short time as the ore was cut off by a fault. 



Another attempt at mining was made at the Buck Mountain pond 

 locality, which also was not permanently successful. The property 

 was worked for a time by the Consolidated Graphite Company and 

 at another time by the Amalgamated Graphite Company. A huge 

 mill was prematurely constructed and exists today as a dismal ruin. 



Many companies that had started operations during the boom 

 period failed to weather the financial stress of 1907 and have not 

 attempted operations since. Fortunes have been lost in vain attempts 

 to win the shining flake from the rocks of the Adirondacks. The 

 history of the industry has been characterized rather by the number 

 of failures that have been recorded than by the few examples of 

 success. 



One of the conspicuously successful enterprises has been the 

 American Graphite Company. This company began operations on 

 Lead hill, sending the graphite for treatment to its finishing mill at 

 Ticonderoga. The pockety character of the graphite in the locality 

 led the company to seek a more regular source of supply and it 

 secured control of deposits of graphitic quartz schist in the town of 

 Hague, Warren county, and began experimentation in the mining 

 and treatment of this type of material. At Graphite, 5 miles west 

 of Lake George, the company has developed the most important 

 mine in the' State. It has worked the graphitic quartz schist in 

 Warren county ever since and has mined an immense amount of it. 

 It would appear that the company was the first to abandon the 

 northern area with its pockety contact form of graphite for the 

 bedded or blanket type found in the southeastern Adirondacks. The 

 large flake of the spectacular limestone and contact types still 

 attracts attention. When, however, the mining of this kind of ore 

 was found to be unprofitable, in general, the interest shifted south-, 

 ward, and several very promising mines have been opened and are 

 operating on graphitic schist. 



