for map or
http://www.facebook.com/editphoto.php?a ... 756&ref=mf
What's up folks, first time I'm posting here. Don't know how much you guys know about this mine, but this is what I put together. Let me backtrack on my travels and how I got to this site in the first place.
Moved to White Meadow Lake in 2005. There was a little slump in the driveway but did not think much of it. In summer of 2008 the slump opened up to a coffee can shaped hole. Again did not think much of it, Just pored some rocks in it. A few times it rained, and the hole got bigger. I again did not think much of it and filled it in and went on my way.
In the fall we got a real bad rain storm. I went outside and noticed the hole came back. I read up online that it could be a sinkhole caused by a crack in the bedrock where water erodes the loose soil away. The fix was to make a plug. So off to Home Depot I went. I bought some concrete and some stone. I packed the hole with about eight 60lb bags of stone mixed with concrete. I topped it off with cold patch so water would not have a chance. After a few hours I thought....that is it... game over... let me move on to my next project.
The next day I looked at my work and again the hole came back. I did another Home depot run and gave another healthy dose of concrete & rock and topped it off with cold patch.
I went through the semantics. The oil tank is in the back yard and is above ground. I replaced the original tank so I know there is not an oil tank in the driveway. I located the waste water line; it was not near the driveway. I opened it up and looked inside and there was no dirt so I ruled this out. I then located the water line. It was again not near the hole. My last thought was the old septic tank, my old septic tank I guestimate is in the back yard, because the old septic tank pipe comes in through the basement on the back side of the house pointing towards the back yard and don’t think it would make a letter J all the way around my house to my front yard.
On another unrelated topic, I went up to town hall. I seen an old rusty mine car and looked it over. I'm a fan of old junk and one of my passions is NJ ship wreck diving. I thought... cool, there was like 1 mine in New Jersey Right?!?!? So I did not think much of it and kept walking.
Since then, I have read a bunch of articles about mines and thought you guys put a good amount of time into research so I will share my research.
It clicked in my head that there might be a slight chance of a mine on my property. I called the town, had a local engineer come out and go through the same semantics I went through.... Water... waste...oil tank...etc.. He said that most likely there is construction garbage just buried under my driveway and it is rotting or a tree stump. I asked about a mine, he had this puzzled look on his face and said, "I checked the map, and you are not close". I shook his hand, and I said my thanks.
With my background in shipwreck researching, I did the first thing I knew... go to the library. The librarian was very nice, I asked about the history of white meadow lake and she said there was the Rockaway historical society. The society had a good amount of documents. Great I thought! I want to meet these guys. "well" said the nice woman, "the members are not........*here*......anymore, but we still have all the old documents". Stupid me was like, ok.. well let me know their number. Then I realized... oh... they are no longer with us. The librarian was really nice and said I was welcome to rummage through their drawers and papers.
Ok, I have been here before, a pile of old musty documents... a mystery, what more can a man want. I spent a good amount of time reading about various mines. Mount Hope Mine..wow cool, but not even close. Richard Mine workings... Some really neat photographs...after reading about mine after mine.. Nothing really clicked and thought I was on a goose chase.
Just about ready to get some chow, I see on an old document White Meadow Lake Mine. My eyes jumped out. NO WAY!! This cool, I knew that there was some hubbub about a resident in White Meadow lake (on the other side of the lake) that had issues with a mine, but had no idea the mine I was looking for was simply just named White Meadow lake Mine. I found that ironic (no pun intended).
The meat of my small find:
Book called Geology of the Dover Magnetite district by Sims P.K. 1953 P245-305. The study was 982-G (200) E
http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/b/b982G Found out a few months later, the USGS has these books here.
I did not copy it word for word, but various notes of Mine remediation of the White Meadow lake mine (Included dates & address #'s) 4 of them were at the beginning of Erie Ave, Including a playground that collapsed in the 50's that required a concrete plug to be installed.
A map was included; I have taken a copy and attached it to this post. On the map, it noted North East Openings & South West Openings. One article I found stated that Rockaway put up a fence around the North East Openings and can be seen today.
I took a walk in the woods and found the North East Openings. I'm a virgin mine researcher. The mine openings looked caved in and looked nothing special. If I did not know what I was looking for, they might have just looked like dimples in the earth ~ 7 feet deep and ~9 feet wide. I don't know what I was expecting, but there was no fence as the article stated, and I kept a good distance away.
From this point forward, I just wanted to sleep at night. Do I dig up the driveway? Do I just keep putting rocks on it? Who knows. So I want more.. More knowledgeable people.
I love dogs, and I think the best dog are the ones you get for free. I have a husky/shep mix and when they say they like to run, they LIKE TO RUN. So I run often around the lake with my pal. Armed with my new map (or old) I run around the few areas that are noted to have mine activity. I notice on the top of Erie Ave there is a good amount of work has taken place. Fresh blacktop, spray paint all along the road with interesting markings.. but have no idea what they are. I see behind the fence an old dried up pool. I thought.. this must have been where they capped the shaft during the 50’s the book talked about.
I asked my wife about the pool, drum pool is the name she said. She has no idea, just that one day it closed down. So I’m nosy, I ran into a few neighbors around the pool and I chit chat. “Mine…there wasâ€