Mine Hills Preserve facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Roxbury Iron Mine and Furnace Complex
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 Location in Connecticut
Location in the United States
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| Location | Mine Hill Rd., Roxbury, Connecticut |
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| Area | 365 acres (148 ha) |
| Built | 1750 |
| Built by | Bartram, Newton |
| NRHP reference No. | 79002621 |
| Added to NRHP | June 24, 1979 |
The Mine Hills Preserve is a cool place in northwestern Roxbury, Connecticut. It's a natural area and also a historic site. The Roxbury Land Trust owns and protects it. This preserve keeps safe the remains of an old iron mine and furnace from the 1800s.
You can explore several miles of trails here. These trails lead you to old quarry areas and the preserved parts of the iron works. Information signs help explain what everything was used for. The preserve is open from when the sun comes up until it sets. This amazing 360-acre preserve was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Contents
Welcome to Mine Hills Preserve!
The Mine Hills Preserve covers about 360 acres. It's located north of Mine Hills Road in Roxbury. The preserve is on the eastern side of Mine Hill. The top and western parts of the hill are in New Milford.
You can park your car on Mine Hills Road. From there, you can start exploring the trails. There's a short 0.2-mile loop trail. This path takes you to where the old blast furnaces are located. A longer 3.5-mile trail also loops through the preserve. This trail shows you where mining happened in the 1700s and 1800s. There's also a short 0.3-mile trail. This path leads to the site of an old reservoir.
A Journey Through Time: The Iron Mine
When Roxbury was first settled, Mine Hill was called Spruce Hill. It was common land for everyone. People soon noticed the rocks had minerals. In the mid-1700s, some tried to find gold, silver, and lead. These attempts didn't last long, but you can still see the old shafts they dug.
The Big Iron Boom
In the early 1800s, scientists studied the hill. They found a special type of iron ore there. This ore was rare and very useful. It was probably unknown to the first miners. For a while, arguments over who owned the land stopped mining.
Finally, in 1865, a company bought the hill. It was called the Shepaug Spathic Iron and Steel Company. They started a big mining operation. A railroad was built to carry the ore. It took the ore to furnaces at the bottom of the hill.
Life at the Mine
The company also built a small town for the workers. They needed a lot of water for the mining. So, Mineral Spring Brook was dammed. This created a reservoir to provide a steady water supply.
Later in the 1800s, a granite quarry also opened. It was near the bottom of the hill. The granite was also sent by rail to New York City. The iron furnace and mining stopped in 1905. The stone quarry closed a bit later, in 1935.
