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SOME INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING THE “RICHARD”The Thomas Iron Company Has Operated the Bifferent Shafts for Thousands of TOns of Ore Since1854—The OldOne of the show places of Morris county just now is thie Richard Mine at Mt. Hope, two and one-half miles from If over, where a few weeks ago some four hundred thousand tons of earth and rock took a sudden plunge during the night and dropped out of sight into an old abandoned working of the mine leaving a bowl-shaped hole 100 feet in diameter at the top and about 75 feet deep: 'All this great mass of earth which disappeared in the twinkling of an eye dropped through a fissure in the rock seventy-five feet below the surface of the ground and thence fell straight away'three hundred feet to the bottom of the old mine,Mo one saw it go and no one heard it. I« fact, the first knowledge of the cave-in was had in the morning when the miners going to work saw the great hole in the ground. . .lt; The cave-in was caused by the rotting away of the timbers in the old working, known aa No, 7 shaft. This shaft went down to a depth of seventy-five feet to the vein of ore in the rock and thence followed the vein more than three hundred feet deeper. When the shaft was abandoned about sixteen years ago timbers were thrown across the bottom of the shaft where it entered the rock ar^l started off at another angle tb'follow the vein and the shaft was filled up with earth and rock. These timbers finally gave way and the mass of earth and rock held up by the cross timbers laid through the fissure in the rock to the mine below and carried with it the old shaft timbering and the earth for a large radius about.The hole through which this mass,Shaft Caye-In. ‘ ’Vestimated at four hundred thousand tons, passed is about thirty feet long and seven feet wide. ‘ With the aid of a glass, and some- , times with the naked eye if the light 1 is right, it can be seen that the mass’ of earth filled up the old mine working nearly to the opening of the rock. It is expected that further falls of earth I from the sides of the hole, which are nearly perpendicular for a distance of ’; fortv feet down, will fill up-the mine to the opening in the rock. The hole will then be filled up with waste mine rock. . • ■ *:/The cave-in is located about one hundred feet north and east of No. 1 shaft of the Richard Mine and many, wild stories were told about the dangerous condition of all the workings.‘ Some of the stories would make one believe that all of Mt. Hope, was about -to drop out of sight.“Captain” James Arthur, superintendent; of the Richard Mine, explains that in former* years mine .operators followed tire vein too near the surface and points out that No, 7 working came within seventy-five feet of the ; top whereas to-day there is no working in the Richard within five hundred feet of ; the top. The cave-in undermined part ,of the railroad track makingdt necessary to shift it over to the north, . One . of the stories told was to the effect' that No. 4 shaft south west of the cave-in was in danger. “Captain” Arthur laughed at thfa and said that: the workings were so far below, the. surface and such an amount of rock was left between the surface soil and ';(Continued on page 4)
Newspaper Details
Dover Iron Era
Dover, New Jersey, US
Fri, Oct 20, 1905
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Sam M.
USA 24 Mar 2025
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