Here are some photos from a past trip to the Grand island Iron mine, the only mine I've ever visited that required a canoe to access. The mine was apparently first worked for a few months in 1879-1880 and then purchased in 1881 for $40,000 by the Mahopac and Cornwall Iron Company and worked for several years. The ore was shipped to the mainland on a barge which is said to be sunk right off stone dock on the island. I tried to verify this but could not due to the murky water. Maybe a snorkeling trip is in order. According to a 1935 interview of a Putnam County man who worked in the mine in 1880, 6 men where employed at the mine who carted the ore out through a small drift and dumped it on the barge. A steam tug pulled the barge to the shore and the ore was then taken by horse drawn cart to the railroad and sent to the Cold Spring furnace. The mine is roughly 300-400 feet long but only a quarter of the workings are accessible due to soil erosion in to the surface workings. We were able to examine the original entrance and farthest most face of the workings but not much in between.
Arriving on the island we plot out coordinates
We first come upon this collapsed shaft
heading to the west we encounter these partially collapsed surface workings
Here is the view of the large tailings pile from the open cut workings
Standing in the open cut which continues deep underground
looking inside the partially collapsed adit where the ore was removed and loaded on the barges
Just inside the adit lots of quartz and magnetite is evident
A drill steel is found in a rubbish pile between the adit and the stone loading dock
Into the main workings via the open cut
The workings a slightly flooded
Soon we get past the flooded stope and into a small proportion drift
which continues for about 100' before reaching surface fill most likely the collapsed shaft we first encountered
An iron rod is seen in the hanging wall
exiting the open cut
We even made it back before dark!
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