Just to let everyone in the IronMiners forum know, I plan to give my tour of the Ferromonte Railroad (a.k.a. the Ferro Monte Railroad) in Mine Hill, N.J. on Sunday, April Second, starting at 10:00 A.M., with April Ninth being the alternate date in case it rains.

The complete tour is about six miles in total, and usually takes about five to six hours, depending on the number of questions that the participants have and the degree of interest they exhibit at each site.

Also, please note that the iron mines which we shall see are all flooded, so no one is able to enter them (we always need to explain this to people, so they won’t be disappointed).

I'll have a number of my guidebooks printed for those who would be interested in purchasing one. The guidebooks, which are sixty pages in length, contain a history of the rail line and a segment on iron-ore mining in the Nineteenth Century, along with period photographs, maps, and aerial images of the route. These booklets are produced at the cost of printing and are $6.00 a piece.

If you are interested in joining the hike and/or purchasing the guidebook, please contact me via E-Mail,

ferromonterailroadtour@tri-state-rail-history.org ,

as soon as possible. Due to space constraints and practical considerations, I need to limit the number of participants to around fifteen.

While none of the historical sites or mines are featured on IronMiners.com, this is a very comprehensive and enjoyable tour of the Ferromonte Railroad. It goes over many of the mines serviced by this very important and historical railway. The information package put out is like a book and has lots of valuable photos and information about these sites. None of these mines can be entered as they are all flooded, but this is a very safe an informative walk to some of the most important mines in NJ.

For people who are not familiar with the Ferromonte Railroad, do you mind listing some of the sites covered by this tour?

Here are the mines that we will see during the tour:

Dickerson Mine at the site of the former village of Ferro Monte (owned by the Dickerson and Canfield Families, it was one of the largest mines in the state, shipping more than one million tons of ore over a period of two hundred years);

Black Hills Mine (not served by the Ferromonte Railroad directly, but it's in the vicinity, and might end up with some condominiums on top of it in a few years, so it should be visited while it still exists);

The Canfield Mine and the West Canfield Mine, which tapped two parallel ore veins;

and the Lower Baker Mine (also known as the "Swamp Baker Mine").

The rail line served several other mines, including the Byram Mine, but these are now unfortunately located under a housing development.