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The entrance to the large open cut workings just south of the main
adit. |
The mine was worked extensively and the ore was smelted at the Andover Furnace
built in 1763. Shortly after the start of the Revolutionary War, the mine
was taken into possession by the Continental Congress and worked to provide
the army with iron and steel for the war. After the war ended around 1783,
the mine was abandoned.
Not until July 1847, did the Andover Mine reemerge from abandonment when
it when was reopened by the Trenton Iron Company, spearheaded by industrialist
proprietors Peter Cooper and Abram Hewitt. Cooper and Hewitt's influence
facilitated the transportation of the hematite rich ore in the form of the
Sussex Mine Railroad (later replaced by the Sussex Railroad), the smelting
of the ore via their anthracite furnaces in Phillipsburg, and milling at
facilities in Trenton, home of the Trenton Iron Company.
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