60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Bear Pond Mountain Region 

 The Bly and Rock Pond Properties 



Location. This district is situated in the township of Ticon- 

 deroga within the Paradox Lake quadrangle. The Bly property is 

 on the northern and southwestern slopes of Bear Pond mountain. 

 The Rock Pond mine is located on the shore of Rock pond to the 

 southeast of the other. As the two properties are close together and 

 each shares in the same geological conditions, they have been mapped 

 as a single unit and will be described together. The properties can 

 be reached by a road leading west from Chilson, following a fairly 

 good dirt road to a farmhouse just north of the junction of Putnam 

 creek and Bear pond outlet. From there a wood road leads to Bear 

 pond. On the shore of the pond are the camp buildings belonging 

 to Mr John D. Bly of Crown Point, who is the owner of the graphite 

 property. 



The Bly pits. The road on the north side of the mountain 

 follows the outcrop of the graphitic schist, which here stands on 

 edge with nearly vertical dip. A number of prospect pits have 

 been opened to test the extent of the graphitic strata. The most 

 important is the Eutoka pit. Near the end of the north road is 

 the Joan pit. Mr Bly has not traced the stratum any farther to 

 the west. South of the Joan pit on the other side of the hill is the 

 South Side pit. The stratum here exposed has been regarded by 

 Bastin 1 as another and distinct bed, but careful examination in the 

 field shows that the two exposures very probably exhibit the same 

 bed that has been isoclinally folded. The Bly property is still 

 undeveloped. 



Rock pond. In 1901 Gray Brothers began to develop a deposit 

 at Rock pond. A well-designed ten stamp mill was erected during 

 the following year by the Ticonderoga Graphite Company, organized 

 for the purpose of working it. In 1903 the Ticonderoga Company 

 allowed the Columbia Graphite Company, which had abandoned its 

 former location near Overshot pond, to experiment with the deposit. 

 In the following year the Rock pond property was formally taken 

 over and worked during 1904 and 1905 by the Columbia Graphite 

 Company, backed by Pittsburgh capital. The next year the plant 

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

 for only a brief period as the ore was cut off by a fault, it is said. 



Bastin, E. S., EconomicTGeology, 1910, 5:141. 



