| A
Mile Deep and Black as Pitch An Oral History of the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines |
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(Table of Contents, Excerpts from Introduction and Chapter 2: They Came to Work)
DESCRIPTION
The Franklin and Sterling Hill mines of northern New Jersey are
known worldwide to geologists, mining historians, and mineral collectors for the
quality, diversity, and complexity of their zinc ores and associated mineral
wealth (unequalled anywhere else in the world), for the important role they
played in the mining history of the United States, and for the national
recognition of their corporate mining communities.
A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: An Oral History of the Franklin and Sterling
Hill Mines is a record of mining, community, and corporate life in the
towns of Franklin and Ogdensburg, New Jersey, as told by thirty-four narrators
whose lives have intersected with the history of the New Jersey Zinc Company and
its Franklin and Sterling Hill mines. Particular attention is devoted to (a) the
mines and the miners, (b) life in the company towns, (c) the demise of the
mines, and (d) efforts to preserve and interpret the legacy of the mines through
the creation of two museums and representation of the mines in the National
Museum of Natural History's mine exhibit created in 1997.
The legacy of the Franklin and Sterling Hill mines includes the following:
 | The New Jersey Zinc Company (NJZC) operated the Franklin and Sterling Hill mines from 1897 through 1954 and 1986, respectively. |
| The mines are important in the history of corporate mining in the US because the zinc industry, as practiced on a corporate scale, was born here via the NJZC. |
| The NJZC built and maintained company towns at Franklin and Ogdensgurg and Franklin was recognized as "The Model Mining Town of America." |
| One of the first two stations in the worldwide network of seismographic stations set up by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey/ Lamont Geological Observatory was established at the Sterling Hill Mine. |
| After the mines were closed, museums were established in each community to preserve and interpret the legacy of the mines and the ores that supported them. |
| The minerals and legacy of both mines figured prominently in the National Museum of Natural History's mine exhibit and fluorescent mineral exhibit that opened in 1997. |
| The Franklin and Sterling Hill mines are world-renowned because of their valuable, diverse, and complex mineral deposits, which included an unusually complex zinc ore, over 300 species of minerals -- more than any other single deposit known anywhere else in the world -- including more than 30 species of minerals that are found nowhere else in the world. |
| Mineral collectors throughout the world know of these deposits, in part, because of both the overall mineral diversity as well as the high number of fluorescent minerals that the deposits have yielded. |
| Subjects covered in the book include the ethnic, social, and educational diversity of the miners and other employees of the NJZC; work in the mines; life in the community; lore among the miners; mineral collecting; company towns and life in the towns; closing of the mines; the transition from company town to public municipality; and efforts to preserve the legacy of the mines and to develop the museums and museum exhibits. |
Research for this book was partially funded by the New Jersey Historical Commission. A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch contains primary source material, photographs, and other documents that have never been published before. This oral history both chronicles an important and controversial part of American mining history and gives voice to the individual miners, many of them immigrants, who made the industry possible.
About the Author
Carrie Papa lives, studies, and writes in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Her avid
interest in people and their history began when she earned a degree in history
from Rutgers University, but was cultivated during her thirty years of living in
foreign countries with her husband who was on assignment with the US Diplomat
Corps. When the Papas retired to New Jersey, Carrie became involved with the
efforts of a local historical society to preserve a two-centuries-old one-room
schoolhouse and establish a museum. While serving as founding director for the
Old Monroe School Museum, Carrie received awards from the New Jersey Historical
Society and the National Association for State and Local History for the
museum's interpretive programs.
In addition to A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch, Carrie has been involved
with several other oral history projects. Included among these are The
Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousels (published
by McDonald & Woodward 1988);
Bicentennial Voices;
Stones and Stories: An Oral History of the Old Monroe School (which resulted in
a book of the same name); and Farm Women of Sussex County. She is
currently working on a book about antique carousels.
Carrie Papa is a member of the M & W Speakers Bureau and is available for
presentations and book-signings.
REVIEWS
"Those interested in NJZ (New Jersey Zinc Co.), the mines and unique mineralogy of Franklin and Sterling Hill, New Jersey, hard-rock mining east of the Mississippi River, or the character and dynamics of mining-company towns, will find this book a welcome addition to their bookshelves." (Mark Langenfeld, reviewer for the Mining History Journal, 2005)
"Carrie Papa's
father, Paul Moore, was a deep shaft miner in the Franklin Mine in northern New
Jersey. This is an area well known to geologists, mining historians, and mineral
experts for the quality, diversity, and complexity of zinc ores and associated
mineral wealth. A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: An Oral History of
the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines is a unique regional history
drawing upon the memories and experiences of thirty-four mine workers, their
families, and others whose lives were intertwined in the New Jersey mining
industry in general, and the New Jersey Zinc Company in particular, between the
years 1897 and 1986. A superbly presented and original work of seminal history, A
Mile Deep and Black as Pitch is especially recommended to the attention
of students as well as non-specialist general readers with an interest in
America's mining industry and the contributions deep shaft ore mining has made
to the development and expansion of the American nation."
(The Midwest Book Review, Small Press Bookwatch: September 2004)
Other oral history titles:
The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousels