Mining for Souls page 45a = souls45a.htm

Several miles westward of the Chateaugay Mine and on the same strike as the Chateaugay ore bed, is an old opening (81 Mine), which had evidently been worked to a considerable extent at some remote period. A shaft had been sunk from which quantities of waste, which today would be good ore, had been thrown out and left. Trees of considerable size had grown over some of this waste pile. Lloyd N. Rogers purchased this land containing the mine in 1822 and in the following year a trapper, Collins, is credited with having found the body of ore, practically phosphorous free, known as "Chateaugay".
Even after the ore bed was known, it excited little interest among capitalists, for it was far from lines of transportation, lying in a region abounding in natural obstacles, held to be practically insurmountable against the building of roads. So not until 1868 were the first steps taken toward utilizing this treasure. In that year Foote, Weed, Meade & Waldo made a contract with Edmund L. Rodgers of Baltimore, the son of Lloyd N. Rodgers. Soon after they obtained possession of the property. Even then little development was done in the next five years.
Small groups of men dug ore during the summer, piling it on the surface to be loaded during the winter months and hauled by horse-drawn sleighs through the wilderness to the Catalan forges on the Saranac River. In 1874, twenty Catalan forges together with charcoal kilns were erected at the outlet of the Chateaugay Lakes at Belmont. All the charcoal and ore were moved on the lake in barges hauled by steamboat in the summer and by horses and sleds in the winter. The blooms and billets of almost pure iron were hauled to Chateaugay and shipped by rail to the steel mills in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The Catalan forge furnace in which iron was made direct from ore, was an open hearth, similar to a black-smith forge but larger in size. The hearth was about 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 with a stack 20 to 25 feet high. Blast was furnaced either by a bellows or means of a trompe. The pipe that carried the air to the hearth was coiled in the stack of the furnace, the object being to preheat the blast, thus saving fuel. The operation consisted of a charcoal fire, stimulated by a blast of air, to which iron ore and charcoal in small quantities were added alternately by the bloomsmen who also regulated and adjusted the fire until the batch of iron, called a "loupe", weighing about 300 pounds was made. This usually took about three hours.

About 1880 the company reopened the 81 mine which was located a short distance east of Williamtown (now called Standish) to supply ore to the forges located on the Saranac River at Clayburg approximately 11 miles southeast of the town. A separator containing the latest types of roasting, stamping, screening, and jigging equipment was built on the brook. The concentrated ore was loaded into wagons and hauled over a plank road, which had been built recently for that purpose, to Clayburg; however, within a year the forges and equipment were moved to Standish, and in 1881 the first forge began operation.
The new location was ideal, for it was in the heart of what seemed to be an almost endless supply of wood. A large stream which was harnessed for water power to operate their large bellows, trompe, and later for cooling their furnaces. Charcoal kilns were built near the furnace at first, and then later, closer to the woodland. Some of the sites choosen that are known to most of us are Twin Pond, South Inlet, Middle Kilns, Stuart Kilns and Herron Kilns. Homes were built near the site for the lumbermen and also the charcoal burners.
Charcoal ovens or kilns" as they were commonly called are bee hive type structures that are constructed of bricks. The top of the oven had a large opening from which they would charge (place the wood) the kilns. There were three other small openings one about 1 foot from the bottom, the other two were spaced about 2 feet vertically of one another. These were used to light and adjust the draft. Go to page 47a ....

Go to Page 1 of The History of Lyon Mountain.
Go to Page 3 of The History of Lyon Mountain.
Go to Mining History for The History of Mining in the North Country.
Go to Page 5 of The History of Lyon Mountain.(for article on Lyon Mt. and Mineville)