Maps and illustrations

The very long period of mining here, coupled with the exceedingly complex history of property ownership, separate multiple deedings of mineral rights and other rights, a tax system which favored the prompt destruction of nonfunctional or historical mining structures, the need to exploit the entirety of the orebodies, and the need for successive companies to rebuild on previously occupied mining sites, have left a very messy situation for the mining historian who wishes to show where operations and structures were located at specific sites. Some of the few old maps which were preserved are in some cases narrow in geographic scope; others are incomplete, accidentally or intentionally incorrect or biased, or relate to but a tiny or limited portion of the long mining chronology. Some maps are assuredly fraudulent, likely resulting from the long period of litigation.

Many newly drafted maps, presented here to illustrate historical, geological, and mining features, are composite maps drafted over a period of 18 years from many others of differing eras so as to show the sites of specific features as completely as possible. Time is compressed vertically onto the maps; present-day features therefore are shown side-by-side with other features obliterated long ago. Where structures overlapped, the older one is represented by dashed lines under the younger one.

Many of these maps, especially those newly prepared, were drafted with "Franklin North" or "Mine-North," of the Franklin Mine coordinate system, defined below, as two opposing margins. The relative positions of true north and magnetic north are also noted on each map where known. Scaled numbers near the margins are those of the Franklin Mine coordinate system or the Sterling Mine coordinate system, using N, S, E, and W for north, south, east and west. All noted features have been sited on these coordinate systems, using as a primary basis the base-maps carefully drafted under the supervision of Allen Pinger, former resident geologist of the New Jersey Zinc Company. Features which could not be sited specifically by coordinates were intentionally omitted. These composite maps are accompanied by extended captions to provide specific and detailed information. Final inkings for most of these new maps were made by a professional illustrator, Ms. Mary Parrish, under the supervision of the writer.

Copyright © 1995 by Pete J. Dunn			Website by Herb Yeates
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This page created: January 16, 2001