John Allen Ramage, left, and Oscar Stoll at New Jersey Zinc Co. in Franklin in 1920. (Photos courtesy of Bill Truran)
The Hurd Mine about 1890s.
The Hurd Mine map.
Route 80 sinkholes. Highway closed in both directions! Why?
I’d like to present some personal history along with information about why the road closures are not totally surprising.
I’ve written a book about the great zinc mines in Franklin and Ogdensburg. In the book, I described the miners who came to this area along with their families.
My family history includes many miners. Briefly, my connections are from locals and immigrants. Mining families among my ancestors include Roleson, Mitchell, Ramage, Hall and Truran.
After the Revolutionary War, the Rolesons, including three or four brothers came up to Sussex County from Elizabethtown. My link is Matthias, born in 1812, who lived in Lubbers Run. He probably was a miner associated with the Columbia Forge.
His son Decker A. Roleson was a trooper in the Civil War under our own Gen. Hugh Kirkpatrick. Decker was shot in the leg and lost his horse on the railroad track at Brandy Station in the largest cavalry charge in the Western Hemisphere. Gen. Robert E. Lee watched the action from a nearby ridge.
After the war, Decker ran canal boats on Lake Hopatcong, then was an iron miner at the Stickle Mine, which is now the site of St. Kateri Catholic Church in Sparta.
Decker was married in the Hurdtown Church. My great aunt Stella Ramage Sparnon was born in the multifamily house across from Smitty’s Marina in Hurdtown.
Her father, my great-grandfather John Ramage, born in 1859, worked the Hurd Mine there.
The Hurd Mine is a story for another time, but the mine closed, so John Ramage came to Franklin to work in the zinc mines.
Northwestern New Jersey had a large amount of iron ore deposits, and for more than a century, this was a major source of iron in America. Iron was certainly a leading product of our state.
When the high-grade iron ore was found in Upper Michigan in the late 1800s, it became unprofitable to continue the mining here, as Thomas Edison found out up on Sparta Mountain above Ogdensburg.
This was also the reason that the large blast furnace in Franklin closed. Most of the iron mines were abandoned by the year 1900.
It just so happened that John Ramage’s grandson Richard Ramage was an experienced miner from Sterling Hill in Ogdensburg. In 1992, he assisted the state in documenting a compendium of the old mines in the area.
When Route 15 was built more than 50 years ago, it went near the old Hurd Mine. After the road was constructed, there were several closures near the overpass. This was because of a mine shaft cave-in, similar to the current Route 80 problems.
Back to the question of why?
If you look at the mine cross-section map, focus on the middle sketch. The straight lines running at 45 degrees are roughly showing the iron-ore body that they wanted to mine.
There are vertical lines, too, and these are shafts that were struck for men to enter, for air supply and for hauling up the ore in a fashion shown on the postcard view.
There are some shafts that are just blind drill holes; they dead-end and go nowhere.
These vertical holes are the problems on Route 80.
In building the highway about 1960, workers filled in the vertical shafts of the iron mines in that area. The blind holes are probably not too bad, but the shafts connecting with tunnels or drifts would keep consuming fill and distribute it out into the tunnels.
Unless properly plugged, they could have the same problem in a few years. It has been said that the minor earthquakes of the past few years and the heavy downpours we have seen may have contributed to the settling. Or it might just be the long time that the shafts have been there.
Good luck to those repairing the road and best of luck in your daily commutes!
Bill Truran, Sussex County’s historian, may be contacted at billt1425@gmail.com