TUSCAEAWAS COUNTY. 77 



of Tuscarawas county may, indeed, congratulate themselves that they are 

 the possessors of nearly all this valuable deposit found in the State, and 

 that so large an aggregate area of the county is underlain by it; that it 

 has already largely contributed to the wealth of the county, and is des- 

 tined to be an important source of revenue for many years to come; but 

 it is greatly to be regretted that oaly a small fraction of the original de- 

 posit now remains. This evidently wd.3 once continuous throughout the 

 greater part of the county, but lying as it did high in the series, and- 

 near the surface of the plateau, which once occupied all this portion of 

 the State, it has suffered terribly by the erosion that has carved the 

 present varied topography out of that plateau, and only a meager rem- 

 nant in the hilltops bordering the broad valleys marks its horizon. 



Outliers of the blackband stratum are found in the highlands of 

 Osnaburg and Paris, in the central part of Stark county, in those of the 

 western side of Carroll and 'the north-eastern part of Coshocton, while 

 local representatives of the deposit are found in nearly all the townships 

 of Tuscarawas county. It is evident, therefore, that the basin in which 

 it accumulated once stretched over all the interval between these limits. 

 It may have reached much further to the north and west, as in this direc- 

 tion all the old landmarks are cut away by the erosion of the surface; 

 but on the south and east we are apparently able to trace its former boun- 

 daries; since, with abundant exposures of the horizon where the black- 

 band lies, no indications of its existence are found much beyond the line 

 of Tuscarawas county. 



The blackband ore of this region was first discovered and utilized by 

 the Zoar Community over forty years ago. The portion of their lands 

 which lie in the northern part of Fairfield township, includes hills that 

 run up into the Barren Coal Measures, and these were found to contain 

 valuable beds of blackband and mountain ore. To work these, a char- 

 coal furnace was erected near by, where iron continued to be manufac. 

 tured for twenty years. This is the most northern outcrop of the black - 

 band in Tuscarawas county. Both varieties of ore occur here, varying 

 much in their respective developments; the blackband from three to 

 eight feet in thickness ; the mountain ore from two and one-half to five, 

 perhaps averaging three feet of good ore. 



From the Fairfield furnace the blackband deposits run through the 

 highlands toward Dover, and south between the Conotton and Tuscarawas. 

 In this district the best known ore beds are those of Clover Hill, so long 

 worked by Messrs. Tod & Rhodes, the Junkin bank, and the mine of the 

 Tuscarawas Coal and Iron Company. Ore is also found on the farm of 

 Benjamin Riggle, worked by Mr. Burton, of Massillon. The blackband 



