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 Post subject: The Brewster Drainage Tunnel
PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:37 pm 
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Location: National Mine Woodinville, NY
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After careful review today and actually visiting the site, I have come to the following conclusion: I compared my field observations to two maps of the Village of Brewster one dated in 1877 and a F.W. Beers map (1868) that is copyright material and cannot be posted. The Beers map clearly shows a creek that flows alongside the railroad tracks, flows into a railroad tank (a steam engine water tank next to the train station), then the stream crosses Railroad Ave. and flows into a Grist Mill (at the site of present-day / your posted drainage tunnel pic), continues south and flows into the East Branch of the Croton River. This Map predated the building of the Town Hall (National Bank) and the bank is located (1868) at street level of the Brewster Hotel . The second mine opening is represented on the map as a small circle on the W. Brush property near the intersection of Merrick Street & North Street (Southeast House Parking Lot). My field observations also aligned the second opening (parking lot) with the trench and mine opening (cemented partially closed) about 600' away up Marvin Mountain. The snow was helpful and offered a sharp contrast to the mine trench (a direct line to up the hill from my observation point) which, if the tunnels connect underground, means that the tunnel actually crosses the main street in front of the The National Bank (Town Hall) and would not be close to the drainage tunnel. The David Rumsey Collection, Brewster Station is the 1868 map I used to support my statements. Next time your near Brewster, give me a call, I will print out the map and we can discuss the mine over a taco & beer.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:01 am 
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[quote="Michael Maruzzella"]Miner Mike & CT Mike,

He said he came out in the basement of a store behind a cold vault, but couldn't tell me where on Main St.


I know of a place on Main street called Harvest investors, or Harvest reality, I can't fully recall the name, but it was the old bank and has the vault in it (its across the street from the Museum next to the Library). When my dad was going to buy the building for his business, I remember the owner showing us around and we saw the vault. I was to young to remember much about it but it might be what your thinking of.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:59 pm 
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Location: CHARLOTTE NC
i know of an entrance to the iron mine in Brewster been down it many times.Directly behind the Brewster rr station up on the hill to the left is a crevass at the bottom is a partially dynamited shaft entrance still accessable to two different mining levels.It floods in the spring thaw.you can go for miles under there.when we were young some boyscouts were stranded when there rop broke.fire dept rescued them.late 60s


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:16 pm 
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Location: Winnemucca, NV
Hi Jimmy,

Yes, we have thoroughly explored this entrance, pictures of which are posted up at http://www.ironminers.com/mineforum/viewtopic.php?t=20086. We rapelled down to the second level but below that was flooded. As you must already know, it is a very difficult rapell and not one I'd recommend to anyone without a significant amount of experience. There is a ledge which makes climbing back up tricky as the rope is pressed flat against it preventing you from raising your ascenders.

There are several massive stopes and drifts. One of the drifts at the second level continues for a ways but is flooded. Eventually the water level reaches the ceiling. We wondered if this was perhaps an adit or haulage tunnel. Since you were able to go miles, I imagine the water table was much lower in the sixties?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 12:25 am 
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There are at least 2 cuts in Marvin Mountain above the RR station. One you wouldn't climb down. Guess its the one pictured. However there is another that you can clim into. Used to go down it many times in the mid-late 60s as a kid exploring those hills. I remember that the walls of the cut were so rich in iron ore that our magnatized flashlights would stick to them. I used to hear stories of others who would go really deep and come up under Main Street and look through the drainage grates onto Main Street. I always thought that they were pulling my leg. But by the posts here it seems as though it might have been possible,


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:14 am 
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Hey GHustis,

Where were the two openings in proximity to each other? There is another opening that connects opposite where we entered but it has been backfilled. Certainly your comment that people would come up under Main Street looking up through drainage gates would suggest that the drainage tunnel pictured did possibly connect to the mine. The tunnel has recently been concrete lined so it would a connection with the mine.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:40 pm 
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Do the 2 mine entrances on the hill behind the RR station connect to the huge mine a couple miles south on Lower Mine Rd (or as kids used to call it satan caves). The entrance was blasted and filled in, but last time i was there you could squeek right in. there is also a top shaft you can rapel down.

Among all that woods between the mine behind the RR station, and the mine on lower mine road, there are numerous vent shafts. there is a huge network of mountain bike trails back there. many of the shafts are visible right next to the trails.

also there is another entrance to the southern mine over by daisy lane and the litte pond back there. it is usually filled with water though.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:02 am 
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Hey Dave, this mine does not connect with the mine on Lower Mind Road, the Croton Magnetic Mine. This main entrance was filled in completely about two years ago as was the shaft. In addition, most of the structures were completely destroyed and there is practically nothing historical preserved. If that wasn't enough, it was also a huge hibernaculum that was unnecessarily killed prior to the WNS outbreak. It would estimate that 1000's of bats were killed.

I'm curious about this mine by Daisy Lane, is it a tunnel entrance that is flooded needing waders or would this require a boating mission? Thanks.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:20 am 
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the mine by daisy lane is the back entrance to the croton magnetic mine. the entrance is on the north side of the that little lake back there.

im pretty sure it requires a boating mission. when I was in high school 10 yrs ago we tried to wade in from the front entrance. no go. we dragged a boat up there and went in, and only go so far. then we repelled down the shaft up top. from there that mine was HUGE, and we continued down it for god knows how long...too much water and we had to turn back.

i noticed they tore the silo's down up top a whlie ago. that was a shame.

how did they close off the vent shaft up top? that would seam near impossible to do. maybe we are talking about difference shafts?


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:52 am 
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Aha, now I am more clear what you are describing. We have in fact been to this flooded entrance. It is known as the Hatfield Tunnel. They closed the shaft by simply filling it in with earth. I'm not sure if you are aware but you needn't have repelled the shaft at all as it accessed a stope which was accessible from the main entrance. Of course this required a boat (when we were there). We were able to explore several thousands of feet of passageway in this mine including an upper level. I have been going through our documentary pictures and will add this as a new slideshow.

Dave, by chance had you taken any photos of any of these mines when you visited?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:42 am 
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if you took a boat in from the main entrance, and went left you could get up to the same level as where the shaft dropped you in if i remember correctly.

but where is the fun in that??? :D

unfortunetly this was before digital camera's, about 10-11 years ago when I was still in high school.

We did find a box turtle in the leaf pile directly under the shaft, and rescued him.

i remember exploring this mine for hours, seemed to go on and on and on. Lots of bats in there too...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:42 am 
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In fact, the first time any of us entered, we repelled down the shaft only to later find out it connects with the main entrance. The floor beneath shafts does unfortunately tend to collect interesting beings that got just a bit too close to the edge. We've sometimes discovered the carcasses of deer. On the other hand, sometimes this introduces new organisms into the mine's ecosystem. I recall seeing turtles in the flooded section of one mine that appeared to have a shell diameter of about 1 foot!

Yes, this mine with its various side tunnels and cavernous stopes could certainly be examined for hours. At the time we visited, you could only go so far in the main tunnel before you came across what appeared to be a shaft filled in from above, effectively blocking the entire tunnel. Do you recall if this was there when you last visited?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 7:25 am 
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yes the main tunnel was filled in from above when I was there. What was weird though was that we couldn't find the shaft from on top of the mine once we were outside. there was no evidence of it.

on another note, if you go north up the street and left across the little bridge and up the hill right there by the DEP canal, there are a couple vent shafts all over that hill. yet i have never found a mine or entrance of any kind on that hill...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:02 pm 
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Close-up of 1867 Beer's Atlas map for Brewsters' NY


Entire map can be viewed here under Southeast and Brewsters':

http://www.hyzercreek.com/1866Maps.htm

Image

IIllustration of Brewsters' from Beers Atlas 1867

Enlargement of illustration courtesy of the Westchester County Archives

http://www.westchesterarchives.com/CW/i ... resize.jpg


Image

panoramic photo of Brewster ca 1870 ~by Louis Alman

(Available at the Southeast Museum)


I apologize for the resolution, but I pilfered this from the web. Maybe you can download and enlarge? In the photo you can see what appears to be a large roadway (going from L to R) into a dark area. This is roughly where the mine is located in the above-posted Beers map. I don't know if this is an entrance to the mine? This would be more in the location of the Southeast House around Progress Street.

Image

Photo from Illustrated American -1893

I'm not sure if this is an adit. The Bank is above - I think I had read somewhere that before it was the bank, it was also the offices of Cheever & Durant - It might very well be drainage... I'm going to go back and read the article which was written on the Croton watershed.*

I hope this info helps - I'll keep looking for more.

* I went back and read the article -Mostly photographs with no mention of Brewster at all.


Last edited by lorik on Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:07 am 
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Lori, welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing these photos and maps.

It appears the drainage tunnel in the photo captioned, "Lustration of the Croton" is the same one pictured at Image. Rock walls do shift in time which might explain the inward slouching in the recent photo. I would like to believe that it once connected to the Brewster Mine before it was almost entirely concrete lined. Its position relative to the mine seems ideal if a side tunnel was driven off of it to the west at some point north of the mouth. Perhaps the article will shed some light.

In the first map there is an indication of a mine at the east end of Merrick Street. Could this be the main adit or a shaft? We have not examined this area on foot (if it is still possible).

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