Searching for Abandoned Copper Mines in the Delaware Water Gap

[@richh6320]

This was fun to see. The host was walking initially through the remains of Camp Pahaquarra, a Boy Scout camp that existed on that site from about 1921 to 1971. It initially utilized buildings left over from the last, spectacularly unsuccessful attempt at copper mining in that area - a company that tried quarrying the mountainside up above to the northwest in around 1910, and went under after producing exactly one ingot of copper (which I believe is in the New Jersey State Museum). The parking area is the old parade grounds of the camp, where daily flag ceremonies were held throughout the summer. The "swimming hole" some reference is a small dam built by the BSA across the creek, well uphill from the camp, to provide water to the camp, through the pipe system seen in the video. The water was spectacularly good. Campers lived either in platform tents or in open sided cabins built in small campsites scatters on the mountainside on either side of the creek there. I attended the camp during its final years, so it was interesting to see how Nature has swallowed it up so totally over the past fifty years. The camp was closed because of the Federal takeover of the area in creating the park, The plan for the recreation area originally included an Army Corps of Engineers project to build a dam at Tocks Island, a couple of miles south and closer to the Water Gap itself. That dam would have flooded the parking area/parade ground and up past River Road, to the larger concrete foundations seen in the video (which was the old dining hall of the camp). The Tocks Island dam, however, was a hopeless boondoggle, and even the small environmental movement of the late 1960s was able to stop its construction. It turned out that the dam would at low water in summer expose thousands of acres of mud flats - hardly ideal for a pristine nature area. So that idea was abandoned, but the camp - one of the oldest (and to my mind most beautiful) ones in the BSA universe - closed. The quarry face is still there, I'm sure. We of course climbed all over it, and at one spot found in the granite face a small jet black stripe - malachite, an ore of copper. We of course wanted some, but soon found that even a couple of hours pounding at the malachite and its surrounding granite with a geological hammer yielded nothing but a little dust and a lot of blisters. The rock of the Kittatinnies is nothing to mess with - no wonder the mining company failed a century ago! Hope this provides a little background for the area.

[@davepritchard4101]

I'll add some addition detail to the your comment. I've visited the mines with a fellow that literally lived at Camp Pahaquarra to the closing of the camp. The walls at the bottom were part of the mine works. The dug out are crossed several times in the video are what remains of the small gage ore car system that transported the ore to the tipple where the ore would be worked. The pitched exposed rock with contrasting color was the strip mine. The ore traveled from the strip to the tipple system. There is another interesting trail noted on the DWGNRA trail map on the NJ side named the Rock Core Trail. When TI was being engineered large vertical borings into the bedrock were pulled to study. The cores, each about 3' across, lay alongside the trail placed end to end. When I last saw them one could still read the log numbers. One can even see where the cores where pulled as it's backfilled with a white cement. It's all a very interesting sight to see. Along with the study borings, there was a 700' tunnel dug back into the Mt Tammany. It is safely secured like the old mines were. It lies on the NJ side at the south tip of TI below the Rock Core Trail. The tunnel was wired with instruments that assessed any seismic movement.

[@AbandonedMines11]

Yes, you are correct - at some of these abandoned mine sites, they only gate the main tunnel or the one that has the easiest access from the beaten path. If you check other more obscure or hidden adits, you might find them to be ungated. Also, when you see a gate, be sure to check every single bar because somebody may have already been there before you and cut one of the bars to gain access and then simply positioned the bar back in place. I’ve had this happen to me a few times where I thought the tunnel was gated but discovered one of the bars was simply resting in place. Really enjoying your videos here! Glad to see somebody is documenting the abandoned mines on the East Coast.

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

Thanks

[@twilolight]

Great video sir! I was searching to see if anyone did videos on the Sussex County Iron mines but found your channel instead. You have nice content and your not an obnoxious kid but rather a mature adult my age. I’m used to seeing exploration videos done by bratty children so this is a nice change. Your other videos about cemetery’s in the woods and centrallia were well done too. I’ll be binge watching your content for a while. Thanks!

[@AbandonedMines11]

LOL! Thanks for the shout-out at 5:37!

[@nm-qt2hb]

When I was much younger we used to go into that cave. Once inside you would go back about 109 ft then it went hard left for 20 ft. To a stop. Or hard right 15 ft then a 30 ft shaft to the left. Outside of the cave entrance on the foot path. Follow it up the hillside a little and you will find another small cave.. Great video, brings back lots of memories.

[@cbowjr1]

I spent most of my youth camping at the old copper mine in. I have been in both of those mines. The one on the creek and the one almost directly above. The one on the creek is much deeper than the one above it. It makes at least 3 90' turns in it. The upper mine has had a minor cave in just before the park service boarded it up

[@mastmind2994]

Have you ever been back to here? I have been here several times in the past and if you had kept going straight up where you found the second mine tunnel you would have come across a bridge and a waterfall. If you kept going from there up the mountain you would come to a beautiful place to sit and relax and look at another waterfall. If you continue up the path once you get to the top you can make a right and follow the path back down the hill. You will end up where you back tracked to make the right after you had saw the second entrance way. So basically doing one big loop and getting to see everything. Also when you park there is a little structure in the ground to the right. If you look to the right when you are crossing the street you will see it.

[@kateclark7250]

The ruins of the old buildings and the mine entrances were interesting to see. Thank you for taking us along.

[@catcook3324]

This was part of a Dutch mining industry from the mid 1600's. The Old Mine road went up through NJ and ended up in the Catskill Mountains where they controlled the access to the Hudson. It is modern day Rt 209 in NY and is lined with stone houses of Dutch origin. The town of Hurley, NY is specially nice; stone houses on both sides of a narrow road.

[@bonnyshadler3804]

I was to the copper mines in the past and the waterfall/swimming hole. Really a beautiful place! Back in the 80's early 90's the one mine was closed off with a huge wooden door to keep the bears out, not the people. They were replaced with the iron gates because the bears were ripping through the wood.

[@e5m956]

Around 1994 these where all open, no gates. Me and and couple friends where in all of them. On top of the mountain there looked liked there was another mine that had its opening covered with rocks. The one mine actually splits into two or three separate paths.

[@577buttfan]

So how expansive was the one lower mine that is gated,does it open up into a larger stoped room with a few drifts?

[@e5m956]

@@577buttfan I remember it branching off 2 or three ways to just dead ends with no rooms.

[@577buttfan]

@@e5m956 still very cool..must have not been quality ore they chased.

[@cbowjr1]

I had some older friends climb down that last shaft that you found ( it has filled in a lot, you couldn't get down there without a rope back in the 80's) they said it only went back about 8 feet or so to the left, nothing to the right. The 3 you came across are the only subterranean mines we ever knew of, although it's always been rumored that there are more. Thanks for bringing back many memories for me!

[@AbandonedMines11]

Yeah, it’s pretty discouraging when you hike out to some sites and find they all are gated. That last inclined shaft you found was open, but it looked like there was water down in there. I would not have gone in that one, either. You know, another explorer told me several years ago that a lot of these bat gates are made out of “soft steel” rather than “hardened steel.” Soft steel is cheaper, I guess - and it can also be easily cut with a simple carbide hacksaw or, if you’re really daring, something called a saws-all. Personally, I don’t recommend doing that for obvious legal reasons. Some explorers do resort to such measures, though. Just putting the information out there…. Fortunately, out here in the west there are just too many mines all over the place, so it’s taking forever to get them all gated. I think Paul and I only came across one gated mine last year during all of our travels and, as I mentioned in another comment, we hiked a little higher up the mountain and found another entryway that was not gated. A couple of other times, we have come across a gate and, as I mentioned before, found that one of the bars had already been cut, All we had to do was simply lift it out and then put it back in place when we were done. Of course, it helps to hike and bushwhack to really obscure, remote sites because those are the ones that usually are not gated because of their remote location. Make no mistake, though - they are sealing up these abandoned, historic mines as fast as they can, and the mines are disappearing fast! Your and my videos will be a lasting legacy memorializing and preserving this style of hard-rock mining which really isn’t done anymore these days.

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

Thanks, I have tried to see if any 'pieces' of the gate were lose on several gated mines. I watched a video once where someone did what you said, and just lifted the cut piece of metal off and put it back when they left.

[@yorkvillehose7883]

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places you rock

[@AbandonedMines11]

Yorkville Hose Thanks, man!

[@Eddy1969]

Love your videos. Look forward to see the beauty of the country out there. I'm from Chicago so you have to do a little traveling to see stuff like that.

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

thanks for watching

[@michaelgoyette2815]

Camp Paqurra(spl). A bsa camp moved to the other side of the mountain for the rocks island dam project never happened. Huge cores from test bores for the dam just south of there.

[@evandorco5193]

Dropped a like a while ago would like to see if the water quality and soil is effected from the mining many mines pollute the nearby land with radioactive elements and heavy metals

[@michaelgoyette2815]

I was in the gated mine right on the trail b4 it was gated. That is an old Boy Scout camp that was closed to a dam never built.

[@danmathers141]

Are there any active mine or mines giving tours so you could watch one operate?

[@nickmad887]

Thanks

[@petterpam457]

By the way I enjoy this videos you put out man thank you so much maybe one day we'll meet up on a trail they listen brother there's been a mountain lion report recently so check it out that's on the Jersey side

[@tonyfresolone7348]

You should try to visit the Edison mine in Sparta NJ

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

I'll look into it

[@justint7156]

I think the buildings are from the Pahaquarra Scout Reservation which was used by the Boy Scouts from 1925-1971?

[@evandorco5193]

2 hidden waterfalls on the trail about 25 feet tall also another 2 nice 7 or 8 foot one Swith a swimming hole. Someone recently sawed off the bars in the mine but its closed to protect the bat population.

[@jayonez137]

There was no bars on the mines when we were kids.

[@vikkinicholson2300]

Bet somebody slept pretty good that night.

I wonder if they ever shipped copper from here, to DC for making pennies? Delaware Water gap has some good history, but also is a very beautiful area. Have you ever seen a bear in your walks?

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

I haven't seen a bear in years, but hope to someday again. Not sure if copper from here was sent to DC.

[@kathycasey9153]

@@thewanderingwoodsman7227 What do you do if you come across a bear? Im hiking the nj side in a few weeks but I'm scared of bears!

[@kimw9340]

Never new they where there . and yes you will see black bear in that area

[@michaelgoyette2815]

* tocks island

[@billiefloyd7106]

you did alot of hiking this week end, hope you put heat on your knee. Some day you will have to get a drone and learn to fly it. With a drone maybe you will see bears. birds of prey and find trails foundations, just cool stuff. Hope to see you soon. Could you show some tailings with copper or what the mineral is at a mine we're at, looks like in it's raw state?

[@thewanderingwoodsman7227]

The knee is feeling better. Been thinking about getting a drone, not sure yet.

[@ericmayernick1284]

Bet you got plastered with ticks

[@577buttfan]

Just soak your pants with some spray bro!

[@petterpam457]

What pissed me off about them is they close the mall because they said the bats had some kind of disease some kind of fungus that was closing their mouth and I looked at them and I laughed they said you're full of shit I would have known about it you know I'm basically I think they use in the mines to get ready to protect themselves or whatever is coming in