The Secret History of Mica: America's Forgotten Mineral
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- Exploring an abandoned Mica mine deep in the Connecticut forest.
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This is a cool aside from your typical content Rex! And thank you for being a proponent of leave no trace principles! It’s so important to leave things exactly the way you found them, not only for environmental reasons, but also to ensure the natural beauty of the world will be the same for the next generations to come.
If we all left no trace then there would be no abandoned places to explore
@@TheTrashologistexactly! Instead of abandoned places, one would be visiting pristine places
Agreed!
Geologist here: really cool to see a mineralogical oriented video from you! Really appreciate it. And I have to say, the specimen you picked up in the video are.. they're worthy to be displayed in a museum. I should know, I work in a mineralogical museum. The turmaline is even more fetching. I know a good many people that would hike many hours to carry back kilos upon kilos of those rocks (myself included). Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it a ton =)
As an amateur geologist, I am very excited when others get into exploring their environment. It's just fantastic.
You're one hell of a good storyteller, Rex. Good travels and adventures! And thanks for sharing.
We're used to seeing your beautiful woodwork, Rex, but you really brought the beauty of the post industrial landscape to life here with your thoughtful script writing.
This video is a work of true art. Ever the educator, Rex takes us home, gives us a bit of history, and builds respect for something new.
I love the history of my home, too. When I was 2 years old, my parents moved our family from Arkansas to Bismarck, Missouri. My dad was transferred here by MO Pacific Railroad. He was a signal maintainer. In my 20s, I moved to another nearby county for my paramedic job. After an ambulance crash left me disabled with a spine injury, I moved back to Bismarck with my wife and kids, and my kids have grown up here, too. My wife grew up in another nearby town. Our area was previously know as The Leadbelt. Later, it became known as The Mineral Area. Since most of the mines have closed and our rural area is full of amazing parks and natural areas, we're now The Parkland. Years ago, we had mines for lead, iron ore, cobalt, trap rock, tiff, and incredibly beautiful red granite. Old churches and homes around here were built from red granite. The site of an old granite mine is now Elephant Rocks State Park, where there are several huge granite boulders said to resemble elephants. My step dad worked in an iron ore mine when I was a kid. He used to bring home all kinds of cool rocks, like pyrite (a.k.a. fool's gold). Bismarck was built to be a railroad town. It was built on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. That famous railroad was built to haul iron ore from the mine in the tiny town of Iron Mountain, where my step dad grew up, to St. Louis. The "Iron Mountain Baby" was thrown from a train, in a suitcase, not far from here. A family found him and raised him in a nearby town.
In the '90s, my dad owned property about about 60 miles from here, near Gad's Hill, where the James brothers robbed their first train. We deer hunted every fall, just a couple of miles from the robbery site.
My little home town of Bismarck was also the home of the Echols Company, makers of sno cone machines and popcorn poppers. The only other sno cone machine factory in the world bought parts from Echols. Sam Echols and his wife got the idea from something they saw at the St. Louis World's Fair, and made a very successful business from it. We were also the home of Elm Farm Ollie, the first cow to fly in a plane, and the first cow to be milked during a flight. I'm completely serious. They dropped bottles of milk she produced midflight over St. Louis, with tiny parachutes. Charles Lindbergh drank a glass of her milk when she landed in St. Louis. I bought my house from the owner of Sunnymede Dairy, Elm Farm Ollie's home. Bismarck is probably the only town in the area that isn't built in top of mine tunnels. Which makes me happy, because we're very near the New Madrid Fault.
I remember a section being called the Lead District. Interesting story about your area.
I grew up in a small town at the base of the Los Angels National Forest and the ground was literally a sheet of mica. The town is famous for its rocks & gems shows and lapidary class at their school. I have so many fond memories of making art projects with the mica where you could pull up a sheet as big as like.
As a historically inclined guy who also grew up in New England and moved a little ways away, I loved finding Tom Wessels content. It helped me put my childhood experiences into a wider context, and I really enjoyed the bit at the end concerning the value of looking where you live, or even where you came from, with fresh eyes. It's great advice for all of us, and I plan on taking this to heart myself.
I love all your stuff so far, even if it's off the beaten path.
Tom has content on the New England Forests YT channel. I love his book, Reading the Forested Landscape
Next time you are in Rockford I will take you to a few of my favorite places out in the woods. so much of my child hood was spent wondering the woods looking for lost treasures.
You've made many good videos, and have varied interests, Rex. But this is by far your best video, IMO. The mica content is interesting, but your description and recounting of the NE woodland was outstanding. FWIW I'm from and live in NH, and there are also many mica and Feldspar mines, but being in the ancient woods and having an appreciation for vanishing terrain features and mostly gone foundations is enlightening. Nice job.
This guy gets my vote any time, no questions asked. What a cool human. I think I just stumbled upon the best amateur content on CZcams. Thanks, Rex.
Really cool place, Rex. I've been to the Ruggles Mine, which is an old Mica mine in New Hampshire. We went mining there with my son, back when he was about 5 years old. Still have the pieces of Mica sitting in our yard.
I've always loved Ruggles Mine, it's a town over from my hometown. I have mica from there, and uranium too. I hope it's open to the public again someday.
I went to Ruggles mine for school class trips as a kid. I still have a chunk of beryl we got to keep. I thought of this when I saw the title.
I actually skipped the video for a few weeks because it was ,well, mica lol.
I'm glad I finally watched it.
I am a lifelong Connecticutter. We have so much here. My mineral display has a nice piece of mica from a local mine. i really enjoyed this video, thanks
I have friends who have 30 acres in central VA. First time I visited them they said we should go check out some buildings in the woods - another friend was convinced it was a sawmill and kept talking about how huge it was.
We walked along a road that doesn't look very different from the ones you're on, then turned off on to the old road (which has trees growing through the asphalt) and 50 yards into the woods and find that the "buildings" were going straight across the small valley where the stream was running through, and was basically a stone dam that was originaly about 20 feet deep and 60 yards wide.
I knew their house was built in 1880 and had similar stones in the foundation - so by the 1880s people were already treating it like a quarry for other construction projects. I told them "This isn't a sawmill - this was a pretty major antebellum industrial park."
And you'd never know unless you basically were the guy who owned the property or one of his guests.
Would love to see more videos like this! Great to spread the appreciation for cool pieces of near forgotten history and give them the spotlight they deserve, I love exploring places like this around my area, where I see an abandoned wall in the forest and talk about how exciting it is for days as everything thinks I'm mad lol.
Just moving. Poetic. Intimate. Thank you, mr. Krueger.
Beautiful woods and incredible scenery. Thank you for this little diversion. It is truly appreciated.
Reminds me of the old railroad right-of-way back home in Michigan. It allowed you to walk back into a swamp that hid all sorts of wonders. Thanks for taking us back to a bit of your past.
Glad to see a video on mica - I also grew up in CT in a town where mica and brownstone were quarried, as well as beryl and garnet. CT has a much richer material/industrial history than most know. When I was a kid my grandfather, a mining engineer, would go for walk with us around the old quarries and he often would remind us "they are MINERALS not ROCKS!." Your video brings back a lot of great memories of those minerals we found like the mica, feldspar, and quartz. Thanks again.
This was great fun Rex. As long as you keep showing me tool stuff, you can throw this kind of content in anytime. Thanx. As always, I appreciate all you do.
-- Greg
My home town in CT was known for silk but also dormouse for glass. The houses close to the old glass works are still finding treasures and I still see archaeological digs going on inside the historic glass works.
Rex needs to keep hiking until he reaches the Nutmeg Tavern. It would be an amazing crossover series!
That would be WONDERFUL! The time periods don't typically overlap, but some things definitely align
Rex, you blew my mind about Connecticut! I live my entire life in Southern California and most of it in Ventura. About 40 miles from anything is here. Just like you I wondered up and down this State I hike, fished from the Channel Islands to the Redwoods to camping I did that! Good thing to, I became disabled by premature degenerative disk disease along with arthritis. Every day I struggle just to get up! 20 years ago I knew to stop driving take pain pills at night to get sleep. I have a pain pump inside of me so hence giving up driving and I'm 66 years old and I'm trapped here. So knowing all this was going to happen I decided to buy hardwoods to build electric guitars. My dad put me into electronics to me taking over his TV repair shop. He ran his store in 1957 to 1989. I built Heathkits, Paco's, installed antennas, repaired TVs tried to create a stereo room that never got finished. Now I'm making electric guitars and cabinets for amps and speakers. I'm making 14 and 2 will be done this year. 3 will be 5-string basses. 4 will be Les Paul's 2 will have Koa tops. 2 Tellies (in a partridge in a pair tree) 3 shaped from dreams. I'll be so busy that will keep me going. This suck big time but that was the cards dealt. It suck!
We have a place in Estonia called Rummu karjäär which used to be a quarry (with prison laborers and all). Now it has been flooded and turned into kind of a theme-park. The water is clear and people go diving into the submerged buildings. It's a beautiful place.
Thanks Rex, I really enjoyed this diversion from your normal content, I love industrial archaeology and have spent many happy hours walking through it and then researching records about it - pad maps are gold-dust !
this was not at all what I expected. it was better. fantastic job!
I loved that. What I loved is your insight; your perspective and your vision. Thank you. I won't forget the lessons you taught me in this video.
An absolutely beautiful episode.👍👍 It's not woodworking but it is enjoyable, entertaining and educational. It's wonderful. I grew up in a city. There was no chance for an adventure like this. Thank you for sharing. And thank you for leaving the site undisturbed so that others may experience it's beauty. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂
This is cool, nice to see some different content that somehow still has the same relaxed woodworking vibe
Nice, Rex! I miss your regular content, but really appreciated this!
Most excellent side trip. Left me smiling.
Keep the aspidistra flying!
God bless,
Paul
Thanks for sharing this Rex! Reminds me when i was kid and exploring the ruins/junk at old underground coal mines (no, I didn't go into them, most had already collapsed or nearly collapsed). But the coal tiples where still standing, old mine carts, and mysterious equipment was strewn around to explore (and watch out for copperheads and rattlesnakes!). All of that's gone now, cleaned up and hauled away as part of land restoration effort.
Dang near poetic, Mr. Krueger. This reminds me of a story in one of Roy Underhill's books about trying to find an old whetstone quarry around Raleigh, NC. Nice video, Rex.
I love that chapter!
Thanks Rex. I grew up in CT near the Housatonic river. Some of my fondest memories are playing and exploring in the woods. It really is a special place. Nice job on this video, it brought back some great memories.
I went to Highschool in CT. I know that place and so so many more amazing spots around there. The history in CT is so rich and amazing. Thanks Rex, fun episode for sure.
Thank you Rex for the fun story. I hadn't known you were originally from CT, a nearby New England state to me. As much as I have lived in several other parts of the country as well, I always felt and promoted New England as a special place to live. I've enjoyed watching your approach to woodworking too though most of what I do is home repair & renovation. As means allow, I love to support our "nation's" craftsmen, those not necessarily renowned "experts" (e.g. Rob Cosman in Canada for jandcut dovetailing...) & all the amazing trades people in NC and so many other places throughout the country where traditional metalwork, plastering, stonemasonry... are done. It is those like you though I think make some of the biggest difference by putting yourself out there promoting craft and the ties it has enduringly to our past and inevitable necessity for our future.
Good stuff, Rex, thanks for sharing!
If you're ever in Minnesota, you should visit the Iron Range and Duluth. Something like 75% of the iron ore used by the US in WW2 was coming out of Minnesota in the form of taconite. The steel refined and shaped in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania mostly shipped out of Duluth in 1000-ft whale-backed lake ships. You can still see them go through canal park up close a few times a day.
Plus there's a craft school with a few kinds of boat-building classes a few hours up the coast!
Love your attitude that we are surrounded by all manner of interesting history. We just need to pay attention. Thanks
I loved doing the same! Going exploring! We had a fairly large patch of land with forests, hills, valleys, streams, bogs, and everything bordering on a huge lake. Crossing our land was the traces of a medieval road, mostly completely gone but leaving traces in the landscape. Damn, I miss that place, but it's not owned by our family any more.
The sense of mystery, of the strange corners of the otherwise well-known land, obsessed me at times. It was like going to Narnia!
Great video, Rex. I really enjoyed it :^)
Thanks so much for sharing, Rex. Places like this are so cool, and you are right. Every town has them, you just have to do a little digging and have a little curiosity!
Never knew….. glad I watched this. You have quite a way of telling stories Rex!
Love your story, I too have a woods fascination living here in RI it’s something about peacefulness and all it has to offer. Also love your woodworking videos, I dream of building with simply vintage tools.
Great reminder to appreciate my own town. We don’t need an excuse to start exploring
This is fascinating history, thank you for sharing Rex.
This video is definitely not my thing, or why I come to this channel. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. Rex, you did a great job on this one.
OMG I LOVED this episode, it's simply outstanding!!! Need more like this one pleeeeeeeease
Wow! What a lovely reflection. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent, Rex. Thank you.
This was really well narrated. I feel the same way walking around California. I grew up in the foothills east of Sacramento and never realized I did not know what a natural, un-prospected stream channel looked like until I was in my 50s. Once that dawned, the raw scale of the Gold Rush looms. And as you say most of the country has similar stories. Geologically, that area with the large crystals would probably be a pegmatite.
That is definitely different for you Rex but still very interesting. Thank you
Thank you Rex, very cool. Maybe not for everyone, but for me for a few reasons. I also grew up in Connecticut, left a long time ago and have lived all over the states (9 states to be exact). I also am a hiker and am going back to Conn. next month to hike with my brother for our regular fall hike. Looking froward to it and at my age you never know when it might be the last one I get to do. No problem many good memories. So, like I 'said' for what you do for us.
I really enjoyed this. I know your channel for hand tools and woodworking, but this take on history and technology is very cool too! Thank you.
Another great video. Thanks, Rex
Really cool. Thanks for sharing.
This was lovely. I would love to see more like this.
I love this video. It has me harkening back to my own youth in a little SF Bay Area town, and discovering a rumored-but-unvisited secret tunnel, climbing in the rafters of an old stone fort, exploring the remnants of 19th century piers long-gone, and blackberry-choked creek beds. Thank you for this video! It's literally made my day.
Well done. Thanks for this.
Lovely woodland. Interesting that it's in New England, because I'm from the UK and honestly I'd feel right at home in those woods, they look really familiar.
Very nice. I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire so I know about those special places you talked about. Thank you!
I enjoy your usual content but this was great and i really enjoyed it. Thanks Rex!
I acquired an old metal candle lantern, I think maybe a ship's lantern. It had come from the Northeast US. It had plastic panels where there should have been mica. I wrote a tinsmith or coppersmith who made reproductions for Colonial era re-enactors. I had purchased items from him before. All I asked was how to cut mica to fit my lantern, and if he could supply me with some. Some of his items included mica in the designs, so I knew he knew something about working with it. He never bothered to answer my letter, so I never bothered to give him another order. I had never seen mica before and didn't know if it was brittle or what. I eventually found I could cut it just fine with scissors. I found a source of some sheets of mica, cut them to size, and they now happily reside in the old lantern.
Thanks for sharing something different. If you are ever in Pittsburgh, check out the Carrie Furnace - used to be you could only visit by trespassing but now they do tours. It’s nice to see a place like that appreciated
Bravo! Great stuff.
Oh, I really enjoyed that! Very interesting and you are a wonderful and interesting writer. Lots of ideas to think on, and explore. Thank you!
I grew up in Ct too. Live there now too. Lots of cool old stuff here, garnet, silver, quarts and even gold mines. My home town had a knife making shop started in the early 1800s. The ruins are still there including knife blade and handle parts. Really cool.
The waterfall is nice too.
Wow, this video brought me back. My family is originally from Simsbury and Bloomfield. Lots of amazing history, and I definitely remember those brooding, history-filled woods, the calls of the crows, and the amazement at stumbling into the refuse/history of yesterday. Thanks for a great video.
Nothing to do with woodworking…but an absolutely fascinating trek through you childhood woods. Your background comes through in your description. Good job!
I've never heard about mica before this. This was interesting. Thank you!
Geesh that was a cool video. I live in Tombstone, Az. I've spent years finding and picking stuff off the ground from old miners. I've found all kinds of cool stuff, shovels, rock picks, canteens, copper and silver ore, glass bottles and old tools. I even found 1884 Morgan silver dollars and a gold wedding ring. I live in a 1971 trailer and when I moved into this trailer 22 years ago I had to crawl under the trailer to clear out a skunk. Under the trailer was an old tool box with an 1880's drawknife, a Stanley cabinet scraper, a folding tape measure, an old hammer and screw drivers. I've restored them all. I went shooting guns with my dad and dog when I was a teenager to an old mine. When we started shooting my dog spooked and ran into the mine. We went deep into that mine calling my dog and before we found him we ran into a section of the mine that had an old office space in the mine. There was an old map from 1876 on the desk, a oil lantern, some old miner's hats and a pair of boots. My dog Mozart came bolting at us from out of nowhere in the dark. Anyway, thanks for the cool video.
I used to go to an old copper mine in NH or VT. The ground was orange everywhere. I remember finding mica in the ground as large as your palm too. I used to ride dirt bikes on trails throughout N.E. One of the coolest was a forest of rhododendron and the trail was like a maze.
One my favorite guys digging into another favorite topic of mine! Should be interesting!
Rex, that’s a great video. I never knew about the Mica mine. I can picture you and your Dad hiking it.
Wonderful Rex, thank you for sharing this. Makes me want to get out and do a bit of hiking and exploration.
Thanks Rex!
Thanks for sharing.
Very cool, video, I appreciate the perspective
Awesome video rex🎉
Near where I grew up in South Wales, there is a small ancient disused quarry deep in the woods and I used to walk there, over the hills with my dog and just sit in the middle of it for a while, taking it all in; tranquilised by it. I'm not a very religious person but to me, I suppose it was like sitting in a cathedral; so humbling. How many generations of farmhouses and barns were built with stone from that site over the past 500 years or more? The only sounds now are the birds, the rustling of leaves and the bubbling little brook nearby. I haven't been there for over forty years but I can still see and feel it in my mind.
Love this!!!
Really cool video Rex
I lived in New Hampshire in the 70s, as a teen. And yes, the woods were full of old farmsteads.
And almost no record of what had been what.
loved this video!
Thank you, very interesting to get some background. Living in Pontpridd I too often overlook American industrial history. Nice.
Rex representing CT!!
Very joyful video Sir, really. Even that I'm living at opposite side of a globe, I feel very familiar and touched with your story. This exploration, curiosity and history in one - my type of "soul".
Thank you for sharing this with us and me - I really appreciated it.
See ya next time, have a nice day/night and cheers from Poland 🍻
I was just in Connecticut a week ago. We went to the Goshen CT Action Wildlife Foundation and ate at "When Pigs Fly" bbq place in Sharon. It's always fun going to CT.
Fantastic video! Even if it's wishful thinking, id still love to see more geology videos from you!
Great direction and production of this episode. Your opening sentiments are spot on. I am older and have always been drawn to the off-center, often much more interesting places and things. The seeds of dreams I would argue. I started in an urban environment and suggest the allure is because of the differences - the less common (Frost-like). At 62 I recycled and renovated a 100+ YO Arts&Crafts house outside Boston. Lots of hidden stories. thanks
I live in Southampton UK which is pretty densely populated, so the chances of finding forgotten history are pretty slim. Except a few weeks back I was cleaning up a wooden spokeshave that I picked up in a flea market, and as I washed away the thick crust of dirt I uncovered a Southampton makers mark. I live near the industrial neighbourhood so I'm guessing this echo of the past was made pretty close by. Has it returned to it's home or did it never travel far from it? I can't know, however the knowledge that it was very locally made greatly increases it's worth in my eyes, and I think gives me a small taste of that feeling of connection with local history that Rex so clearly enjoys.
When I think of Connecticut I think of Lime Rock. Great little track.
Now I live in Western NC just down the road for a town named “Mica”. Mica mineral is all around here.
Great video. I enjoyed the survivorman-style cinematography.
Dude! I grew up in Middletown CT, and this is pretty much my experience as well. Lots of wild woods full of abandoned things long since reclaimed by the land and mica, quartz and clamshells were everywhere in the dirt. There was an old rusted out car body, looked like it was from the 40s or 50s, in the woods around a tributary of the Connecticut river. No road of any kind to be seen, but there it was. Always wondered how it got there and why it was left there. I imagined that if we looked we’d find a skeleton in the trunk.
Great new thread!
You are a very good story teller.
Great stuff
Loved it. When we were kids my little brother and I would tell Mom that we're going exploring, and we'd head out into the woods. Found lots of neat, ignored places like those you mention. Never found that fantastic cavern we were looking for, though.
An old colleague of mine used to go literally digging for glass in the Pyrenees - ancient Roman glass that, like modern glassware, got thrown away when it broke. It was all pale green, thick, and cloudy.
Yep, as a Connecticut native, Connecticut is pretty cool. The town I grew up in used to make sailcloth, and all of the towns are usually nicknamed after what they built (lock city, clock city, brass city, etc.). Makes me wish it would all come back, but those eras are gone now. Around where I live, you can go into the woods and find large circular patches where there are no trees growing where people made charcoal for the forges that made all the metal equipment. The pH level doesn't allow anything large to grow there even still.
yes, alas, all gone now.
Big houses? Golf courses...maybe. But when I think Connecticut. I think Mystic Seaport, the woodworking that goes on there, the tools...THE HISTORY!