During the height of its operation, the Mount Hope, Hibernia, and Richard mines of Rockaway produced 50% of all New Jersey's iron. Lenni Lenape settlers mined the region's large iron outcroppings for centuries in order to form arrowheads and utensils (the Taylor Vein was up to 100 feet high), and they later informed European arrivals of these mineral deposits. Europeans began extracting iron from Mt. Hope around 1710 and mining continued through 1959 when competition from iron mines in the American Midwest made the business unprofitable; although operations briefly resumed in 1977, the business then shifted to quarrying stone for road and construction materials.
New Jerseyans mined iron outcroppings until the mid-18th century when they began following the veins underground. Initially they shipped the ore away for processing until local forges were constructed along the Rockaway River in the 1730s. Mount Hope's first fully integrated iron processing facility was constructed in 1768 with the arrival of German-Swiss immigrant John Jacob Faesch and Peter Hasenclever, both master iron workers who were trained in the German tradition. Faesch operated the facility from the Revolutionary War era through the late 1700s; General George Washington so valued the mine's strategic importance in supplying the Continental Army with shot and cannon that he granted 50 iron workers exemption from military service. Operations continued regularly but sporadically through the 1830s, when the invention of anthracite blast furnaces greatly increased the efficiency of iron production, boosting mine profitability and expanding operations; the concurrent construction of the Morris Canal created new markets for Rockaway iron in New York and Pennsylvania, and railroads in mid-century further increased demand through the late 19th century.
Iron mining remained the sole industry in Rockaway through most of the 1800s, and an increase in population from mine workers led to the creation of Rockaway Township from parts of Pequannock and Hanover in 1844. Although the Magnetite deposits that form the vast majority of Rockaway's iron ore are highly prized due to their purity, competition from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and other deposits in Michigan and the Midwest, which offered larger and easier to access sources of iron, started the slow decline of New Jersey's mining industry in the 1880s. By 1900 only 20 mines existed in the county, of which Mt. Hope, Richard, and Hibernia were the three largest in the state. The demand for steel throughout World War II led a brief reprieve during the 1940s and 1950s; however, post-war residential construction in suburban Morris County and rock quarrying soon proved more profitable than iron production.
After shutting down in 1959, mining briefly resumed in 1977 when the oil crisis drastically raised the cost of shipping steel from the Soviet Union and South America to the United States at the same time U.S. Steel workers were on strike in the Midwest. The Halecrest Company of Edison, New Jersey, secured a $6.5 million loan backed by a 90% guarantee from the U.S Department of Agriculture Farmers Home Administration, as well as a $1 million bond from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to resume operations at Mount Hope. For six months, 150 miners worked in two shifts to extract up to 1,000 tons of Magnetite per day from the 2,750 deep network of tunnels. State and local officials were counting on the return of highly sought union wages to revive the economy of nearby Dover; however, production ceased in March of 1978 when the owners were unable to secure additional capital, leaving the state liable for $500,000 on its grant, and the Farmer's Home Administration liable for $5.8 million on its loan guarantees.
Despite its four decades of dormancy, it is worth noting that an estimated 25 million tons of Magnetite still reside underneath the mountains of Rockaway waiting to be harvested. For comparison, an estimate 20 million tons of ore were extracted from this site between the mid-1600s and 1959.
This collection is a combination of mining company records, photographs and postcards depicting operations and the families of miners living in Rockaway, a couple artifacts from Mount Hope, as well as the research notes kept by local historian, Stuart Lefkowitz. Of particular interest are a series of oral histories taken by Mr. Lefkotitz of mining veterans and their family.
Mining records consist of a detailed 1926 report on the property's buildings and facilities that was written by an appraisal company following an explosion at the Lake Denmark Powder Depot (later Picatinny Arsenal). Also included are several Union Articles of Agreement booklets that outline wages, benefits, safety conditions, and other rights and responsibilities agreed to between union representation and management, as well as a set of safety standards manuals. A small selection of photographs and postcards depict the mine and surrounding town from 1900 through 1984 (with gaps), and the artifacts include a carbide flask and broadside containing a series of ore hoist signals.
Materials are organized into four series: I. Mine Records, II. Postcards and Photographs, III. Artifacts, and IV. Research Notes. Each series is organized chronologically by year into one manuscript box, an oversize portfolio, and one audiocassette box.
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
Donated by Stuart Lefkowitz, January 29, 2019.
Mount Hope Mining Company Records, ca.1900 - 2015, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Processed, described and encoded by Jeffrey V. Moy, Archivist, May 2019.