civilized ku # 2394-96 / # 2389 (repost) ~ play it again (and again) Sam / recycling

Ghost town building ~ Tawhaus /Adirondac, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMcIntrye Furnace ~ Tawhaus / Adirondac , NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMc Intrye Furnace ruins ~ Tawhaus / Adirondac, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAs previously mentioned, I recently paid a visit to the abandoned village of Tawhaus, formerly known as Adirondac. Over the last 170 years, the village has been an on-again off-again iron ore mining community.

The first ore was mined from the site in 1827. The McIntrye Furnace and iron works (pictured above) were added to the site in 1854 but was only in operation for approximately 18 months before it closed down. The closure was due to 3 issues - 1) the difficulty and expense of getting the iron out of the area (poor roads and no railroad), 2) a recession which drove down the need for iron, and, most interestingly, 3) impurities in the ore which made it difficult to process into clean pig iron.

After the mine closed, it remained dormant for 3/4 of a century when it reopened with the backing ($$$$$) of the US Government. That backing was instigated by the fact that the previously noted "impurity", aka titanium, was in demand for the war effort (WWII). A large part the government largess was used to construct a railroad line which solved the transportation issue.

The titanium operation ceased in 1980s (the rail line was abandoned in 1989) and, once again, the mine sat idle. The operation left behind mountains, 3 million tons worth, of tailings (materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore). That "uneconomic fraction" has just sat there ever since, until ....

... it recently came to light that those tailings are now quite valuable. Not only are they in demand as road aggregate but the mine is also loaded with an uncommon concentration of rare earths, elements which have a range of applications from batteries and lasers to wind turbines and energy-efficient lighting. China provides about 97 percent of the world's rare earths but has been reducing its exports, apparently to supply its own growing technology sector. So ....

... the rail line is being restored and the mine will, once again, be turning one generation's shit into another generation's shinola, giving new meaning to the adage of, one man's garbage is another man's gold.

FYI, the blast furnace (being restored) and mill works (as they were when the mill structure collapsed, c. 1857) pictured above have recently been unearthed from 160 years of dense forest and earthen concealment. Note the remnant of an enormous stone dam which impounded water, from the adjacent Hudson River (no more than 20-30 feet wide at this point), which was used to drive a water wheel, which drove the gears, which drove the armature, which drove the pistons, which provided the furnace with blast air - all of which are visible in the diptych pictures.

The village of Adirondac is also notable for the fact that, in September 1901, then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt - staying at the McNaughton Cottage (currently being restored) at the Tahawus Club in the now ghost town of Adirondac - was descending from a climb on Mt. Marcy when he was met by a forest ranger and received the news that President William McKinley had been shot. Roosevelt immediately embarked from the club on an historic midnight carriage ride along the back roads of the Adirondacks to the North Creek Railroad station. At the station, Roosevelt received a telegram informing him that President McKinley had died. As a result, Roosevelt became the nation's 26th president.

All in all, Tawhaus / Adirondac is very interesting place.

Comments

[Colin Griffiths]

That's an interesting tale. Around an hour's drive from here lie huge spoil heaps surrounding shut down coal pits. They had all been 'landscaped' in an effort to make them environmentally acceptable. However, today's modern boilers in coal fired power stations run better on the lower calorific slag. So railway lines have been relaid and the area is heaving in bulldozers and dumper trucks. It's a good thing.