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Miners hand drilling in a stope circa 1912. |
The furnace itself ran almost continuously for 50 years. In 1831, the Mount
Hope Mining Company was incorporated and was granted rights to construct
a gravity railroad to the Morris Canal to transport the ore.
After 1855, an adit known as the Big Tunnel was driven to intersect five
ore bodies, the Brennan, Side Hill, Teabo, Small and Jugular veins respectively.
At each of the veins, the ore was hoisted up to the adit level and transported
out the tunnel. The Teabo vein was later referred to as the Finley vein.
The adit was 504 feet long upon reaching the Teabo vein. Prior to 1868,
the Teabo and Brennan veins were also opened further northeast by shafts.
Particularly at the Brennan vein, these shafts showed the ore to be quite
variable in thickness. In some places it was 17 feet wide, while in others,
the ore pinched to about 1 to 2 feet.
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