GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF NEW YORK 3 1 



Quarries at Jamesvilie. The second area in which active opera- 

 tions have been conducted is 2 miles north of Jamesvilie and east 

 of the road leading to Dewitt (Orville). As in the other quarries 

 the gypsum outcrops on the slope of a hill capped with Helderberg 

 limestones. The north and west faces of this hill are abrupt slopes 

 of which the lower portion is gyipsum. 



The quarry of Thomas Millen Co. is situated about ^ mile east 

 of Reals station on the Jamesvilie trolley road. The gypsum is very 

 similar to the Lyndon product and occurs in the same manner. It 

 averages about 30 feet in thickness and is overlain by 50 feet of 

 limestone. Until two years ago quarrying was carried on in the 

 usual manner, but now the gypsum is excavated underground by 

 means of a tunnel driven along a 6-foot layer of the best rock. In 

 the fall of 1908 the workings extended 150 feet into the bill and 

 100 feet to the west. Much timbering is needed. The rock is 

 drilled by electric drills, and the mine equipped with electric lights. 

 The broken rock is loaded into i-ton side dump metal cars which 

 are hauled by wire cable from the working face to the entrance 

 and up an inclined trestle, the cable being operated by a small engine 

 and drum. Owing to the grade of the tunnel, the cars return to 

 the face by gravity. From the cars the rock is dumped directly 

 into 3-ton wagons and hauled by a team to the mill. The mill is 

 situated about )4 mile north of Jamesvilie station, on the Delaware, 

 Lackawanna & Western Railroad. No plaster of paris is made, the 

 rock being shipped crude or after a preliminary crushing in a But- 

 terworth & Lowe jaw crusher. 



One half mile east of Milieu's mine, on the same escarpment, 

 is the mine of E. B. Alvord & Co. The gypsum is overlain by a 

 few feet of thin shale, 15 feet of massive limestone and 20 feet of 

 thinly bedded limestones. The company has recently begun mining 

 the rock by means of a tunnel driven in an old quarry. A 5-foot 

 layer is worked. The mine is lighted by electricity and the drills 

 operated by the same power. No mine cars or track are used, but 

 the wagons and horses are driven directly into the mines and to 

 the working face. This necessitates wide gangways and large 

 rooms, but no trouble is experienced with the roof. The mill of 

 this company is situated at Jamesvilie, across the river from the 

 po'st office. The power is furnished by a 70-horsepower turbine 

 and the equipment consists of a jaw crusher, cracker and buhr- 

 stone mill as well as an unused kettle. The rock is sold crude, or 

 with only preliminary crushing, to cement factories, or is gronnd in 

 the buhrstone mill and sold as land plaster. 



