It is both incredible and sad to believe that this couple, who lived practically on top of a relatively well known arsenic mine, was completely oblivious, drinking and wallowing in toxic water.

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Putnam County gold

This link from early 1900's shows they were looking for gold and aparently found it at Pine Pond.


http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pc ... corp&hl=en


Gold rush Putnam NY!

Wow, great find Jonnyblade! I might just have to take another visit to this area, with a gold pan. Also there was an enterable adit with some shallow water that me and Mike found but did not explore on one of our visits, I don't think any one has posted a photo of it yet.

Where are these adits in relation to the fire tower and road leading to the fire tower?

I actually tried panning there a while ago- got a little lead shot. From what I've read, most gold in NY is microscopic if it exists at all. Mining investment scams were all the rage in the 1800's. That being said, since any gold in NY belongs to the state; A mining operation might have sold ore for worthless arsenic, that just happened to have a hefty gold by prod- just speculation. Those pits are just below the road to the tower. It does sound like there is other stuff more toward pine pond on the other side of the street- I think jackstraw may have seen this?
I want to find gold in the hudson valley as proof of concept. There is a guy on youtube who does well in Vermont, Yankee gold prospecting new england.

Here is a NY Times article about a NY gold find that probably never "panned" out.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 5F4C8684F9

I've seen another article from the same period talking about a near riot because of gold found in middle Westchester Co.

trident, I think the adits are marked on the Carmel USGS quadrangle.
It looks like all the shafts are flooded but it would be interesting to sample the quartz vein, if there is one, in the adit. Maybe the microscopic gold can be amalgamated, might be a fun project.

Me and Sofie paid a quick visit to the Pine Pond arsenic mine today. After following the stream a short distance back I noticed a tailings pile with what looked to be an adit.

Sofie stands in the trench leading up to the adit.


Moving some leaves and debris out of the way revealed the top of the entrance.


I looked in and snapped this photo. It doesn't seem to go it more than 15' or so. It would be interesting to enter it and find the vein that they were after.

CT Mike- If you go to the highest vertical shaft on the hill up the trail, you will find lots of rusty quartz near the entrance and in the dump on the other side of the trail towards the stream. I believe at some point they were chasing the quartz in this shaft rather than the arsenopyrite. I have read that the rusty crumbly quartz would be likely to contain gold if gold is present. My sample has none visible to the naked eye. One of these days I will get a look under a microscope.